Greatschools ratings - Plano West and Allen?

[roseball123]

Originally Posted by synchronicity

I think the issue that comes up is that at least some people believe or portray Frisco schools as being the equal or about the equal of Plano. They're not. That said, Plano schools are probably "pound-for-pound" the best in all of DFW and are top 5 (well, Plano East is top 10) even without accounting for demographics. Frisco schools are quite good, but are more top 15 to top 25 (depending on the high school) rather than in the top 5.

Given that there are ~140 "open enrollment" publics in DFW, that puts Frisco at a high tier, just not quite in Plano's league.

Last comment, since the subject comes up a zillion times - a LOT of school metrics is (are?) tied to demographics. There's a huge correlation at the campus level between the socioeconomic status ("SES") of the student body and the school test score results. What this means is that there's a lot of "self-selection" going on: children with parents who have more education and/or place a higher priority on education and/or have more financial assets to direct to education, will tend to cluster in certain districts. This means that a good deal of the difference in district performance is tied to factors other than quality of teaching and all that. Short version - YOUR kid (the generic "you" in this sentence), with YOUR family emphasis on education and resources to direct towards it, probably won't do that much better or worse from one district to another, in most situations. So a kid whose parents value education and make it a priority will likely get a darn good education at almost any school, even if it's not one of those top 10 or 25 or whatever in DFW. This forum skews well above average in SES, so we focus a lot on schools and districts that the vast majority of DFW residents can't realistically consider (or can only with great sacrifices in various areas). There are a whole lot of kids going to school in Mesquite or Lancaster or Irving or Grand Prairie or wherever who will get solid educations, go on to college (with at least some going to highly rated colleges) and experience a whole lot of success in their lives, even if the average SAT score of their high school isn't spectacular. It's easy sometimes to get so caught up in these rankings that we forget that.

[wallawallahoohoo]

I have never found greatschools to be a reliable source of school information. I have used Public Schools Explorer | The Texas Tribune when looking at info, although not the most up to date, it does seem unbaised and easier to navigate.