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I am relocating to Dallas in a few months. I read in previous posts that there is a bus that goes from Garland to downtown Dallas, which is a great option but unfortunately I may have to travel to other sites in Dallas during the day so I would need my car to get around. What would the commute time be driving from Garland to Downtown if I have to be at work at 7:15-7:30 am?
maybe 30 mins on a good day- 45 mins on a normal day. Unless you car pool then it's like 20 mins max in the car pool lane. Being that you have to be at work earlier then the normal 8am commuters you commute might be nicer.
Garland has DART line as well- seems like that would be something more your direction for multiple areas in Dallas.
Hey, it's easy for Frisco ISD to inflate the AP pass rates when 1) taking the AP exam isn't mandatory for every student in the class to take the exam and 2) the administration purposely steers struggling students away from taking the AP exam. But congrats on that 80% "pass rate"!!
a bit much don't you think. It's rather ,that not all the students do take AP classes .
But anyway , some other numbers
85.2 - Marcus (Lewisville) - 33.2
85.2 - Senior (Plano) - 44.3
83.3 - West (Plano) - 51.5
83.1 - Carroll (Carroll) - 40.1
80.4 - Liberty (Frisco) - 29.9
79.0 - Hebron (Lewisville) - 31.6
76.6 - Wakeland (Frisco) - 28.0
75.9 - Colleyville (Grapevine-Colleyville) - 53.0
74.4 - Flower Mound (Lewisville) - 34.0
70.5 - Centennial (Frisco) - 34.6
70.4 - Frisco (Frisco) - 29.7
When it comes to national merit semi finalists for 2012, Liberty alone has 5 compare to all of Allen with 8, not so bad.
I think that Frisco ISD is changing anyway , the population is changing especially in the south , many asian parents and a lot of new transplants either not interested or tired of the Tiger mom attitude in Plano ISD have moved in, raising the bar.
I think that actually Allen is changing too for the best as well, I'm still not a fan at all of one big school , but the population is changing.
I still cannot figure it out what is your beef with FISD, what is you need to slam it at any occasion offered , you will find a lot of highly educated parents involved that are extremely happy with the schools . I used to have the same speech than you years ago . When my oldest started , nothing else except HP could compare to PISD.I did all the research , studied the results .I thought I had done the best choice . I wasn't convinced even when we moved , but I said it before and I will repeat it again , as a parent , now I know that numbers alone do not tell the entire story ,this district in 2,5 years has offered more to both of my children than years passed in PISD.
I still cannot figure it out what is your beef with FISD, what is you need to slam it at any occasion offered , you will find a lot of highly educated parents involved that are extremely happy with the schools.
The basis of my "beef" with Frisco ISD is this-->
1. It significantly underperforms academically considering the extreme affluence of the families living there (median HH income @ $101k.
2. It lacks a "culture of success" found at the top-tier districts- HPISD, Carroll ISD, and Plano ISD.
Back-up documentation to my beliefs: Collin County Demographics: Median HH Income:
Frisco $101,972
Allen $100,843
Plano $77,140
McKinney $74,784
% of Residents over 25 with a Bachelor's Degree:
Plano 53.3%
Frisco 49.8%
Allen 47.5%
McKinney 39.1%
% of Residents over 25 with a Masters/ PhD:
Plano 17.6%
Frisco 12.3%
Allen 11.4%
McKinney 10.3%
% of Residents living in Poverty:
McKinney 10.4%
Plano 8.1%
Frisco 4.1%
Allen 3.9%
Frisco has median hh income that is nearly 30% higher than Plano's population. However, Plano's population is significantly more educated.
McKinney's school quality makes sense to me as they have the lowest hh income, nearly 10% living in povertly, and the least educated population.
Plano's school quality makes sense to me as the parents are the most educated, even though they earn less.
Allen's school quality makes sense to me as it is the second highest hh income, least amount of poverty, and a fairly good showing of educated parents.
Frisco's school quality makes NO SENSE to me as it is the highest income, lowest poverty and a good showing of educated parents. They should be cranking out SAT scores and NMF qualifiers at a similar or better pace than Plano ISD. Even if the parents are less educated, they are wealthier and have presumably more resources to devote to private SAT tutoring (Karen Dillard, Princeton Review, etc) and other college prep "extra-curriculars." The fact that there aren't as many despite the wealth shows that the parents & administration are not pushing for more challenging schools, IMO.
Academic Results
2012 NMSF
15 of this year's 2,163 Frisco seniors were named NMSF in September. That is a measley .6%. NMSF recognizes the .5% top US high school students, which basically makes Frisco a tick above the average US high school. FYI, Frisco was at .8% of class last year and is moving in the wrong direction.....
Compare that with 2.5% of Plano ISD senior making the NMSF cut-off--> basically, Plano performs at 5X the US average. Highland Park came in at 2.3% Coppell at 2.1% - 4X the US average. So, yes, I have a big issue when people tout Frisco schools as being "so awesome" yet the stats show they are only average, or a bit above average.....not something you would expect in an area with a $101k HH income.
3.5% 47/1357 - Plano Senior
2.8% 28/1002 - Plano West
1.5% 21/1423 - Plano East
2010-2011 class' SAT scores (math + verbal), rank in metroplex:
Frisco ISD:
# 27 Centennial - 1071 (down 1 rank from prior year)
# 30 Liberty - 1062 (up 4 ranks from prior year)
# 34 Frisco HS - 1042 (down 10 ranks !!! from prior year)
# 40 Wakeland - 1038 (down 11 ranks !!!! from prior year)
No scores reported yet for Lonestar or Heritage. Prob this year will be 1st year
Plano ISD:
# 2 West- 1179 (up 1 rank from prior year)
# 5 Senior - 1159 (down 1 rank from prior year)
# 9 East- 1120 (up 1 rank from prior year)
1 Frisco school made some headway, but to have 2 schools slip 10+ ranks is HORRIBLE. Again, wrong direction.....while Plano keeps going up.
College Selection of Top 2 graduates (last 3 years)--> of course, this isn't a "trackable" metric, but it is interesting to see the trends of where the top students are matriculating. Frisco ISD:
20% to Ivy (Columbia - 2, UPenn - 1, Cornell - 1, Princeton - 1)
37% to Top 20 ranked schools (includes above Ivy, plus Stanford - 2, Duke - 1, Johns Hopkins - 1)
37% to schools ranked 21-50 (UC Berkely - 1, USC - 1, and 6 to #45 ranked UT)
26% to schools ranked over 50 (Texas A&M- 3, SMU -1, Baylor -1, #179th ranked Alabama @ Huntsville - 1, and #143rd ranked UT Dallas)
Plano ISD:
59% to Ivy - (Harvard - 5, UPenn - 4, Princeton - 1) 5 to Harvard. F-I-V-E!! That's 29% of vals & sals going to the #1 school in the country. That is impressive.
65% to Top 20 ranked schools (includes above Ivy, plus 1 to MIT)
29% to schools ranked 21-50 (NYU -1, UT Austin - 2, UNC -1)
6% to schools ranked over 50 (UT Dallas - 1, SMU - 1)
94% of top 2 graduates to T50 schools vs 74% in Frisco.
29% of top 2 graduates to Harvard vs 0% in Frisco.
My "beef" with Frisco is that they aren't putting up respectable numbers for such an affulent and educated population. Plano kicks their ass every single year & I see no reason why a family who values education and wants to live in CoCo would bypass stellar Plano for mediocre Frisco. That's my beef.
My "beef" with Frisco is that they aren't putting up respectable numbers for such an affulent and educated population. Plano kicks their ass every single year & I see no reason why a family who values education and wants to live in CoCo would bypass stellar Plano for mediocre Frisco. That's my beef.
My beef with education is that the college-educated people in my family are poor, while those who went straight into the workforce out of high school are at least in the middle class. It's fun to know things and be able to work out problems, but it is fun to have money, too. Frisco shows that money and education and not related.
Taken from another perspective, Frisco shows that money does not necessarily improve school quality. What does improve school quality is educated, committed teachers and parents.
The basis of my "beef" with Frisco ISD is this-->
1. It significantly underperforms academically considering the extreme affluence of the families living there (median HH income @ $101k.
2. It lacks a "culture of success" found at the top-tier districts- HPISD, Carroll ISD, and Plano ISD.
Back-up documentation to my beliefs: Collin County Demographics: Median HH Income:
Frisco $101,972
Allen $100,843
Plano $77,140
McKinney $74,784
% of Residents over 25 with a Bachelor's Degree:
Plano 53.3%
Frisco 49.8%
Allen 47.5%
McKinney 39.1%
% of Residents over 25 with a Masters/ PhD:
Plano 17.6%
Frisco 12.3%
Allen 11.4%
McKinney 10.3%
% of Residents living in Poverty:
McKinney 10.4%
Plano 8.1%
Frisco 4.1%
Allen 3.9%
Frisco has median hh income that is nearly 30% higher than Plano's population. However, Plano's population is significantly more educated.
McKinney's school quality makes sense to me as they have the lowest hh income, nearly 10% living in povertly, and the least educated population.
Plano's school quality makes sense to me as the parents are the most educated, even though they earn less.
Allen's school quality makes sense to me as it is the second highest hh income, least amount of poverty, and a fairly good showing of educated parents.
Frisco's school quality makes NO SENSE to me as it is the highest income, lowest poverty and a good showing of educated parents. They should be cranking out SAT scores and NMF qualifiers at a similar or better pace than Plano ISD. Even if the parents are less educated, they are wealthier and have presumably more resources to devote to private SAT tutoring (Karen Dillard, Princeton Review, etc) and other college prep "extra-curriculars." The fact that there aren't as many despite the wealth shows that the parents & administration are not pushing for more challenging schools, IMO.
Academic Results
2012 NMSF
15 of this year's 2,163 Frisco seniors were named NMSF in September. That is a measley .6%. NMSF recognizes the .5% top US high school students, which basically makes Frisco a tick above the average US high school. FYI, Frisco was at .8% of class last year and is moving in the wrong direction.....
Compare that with 2.5% of Plano ISD senior making the NMSF cut-off--> basically, Plano performs at 5X the US average. Highland Park came in at 2.3% Coppell at 2.1% - 4X the US average. So, yes, I have a big issue when people tout Frisco schools as being "so awesome" yet the stats show they are only average, or a bit above average.....not something you would expect in an area with a $101k HH income.
3.5% 47/1357 - Plano Senior
2.8% 28/1002 - Plano West
1.5% 21/1423 - Plano East
2010-2011 class' SAT scores (math + verbal), rank in metroplex:
Frisco ISD:
# 27 Centennial - 1071 (down 1 rank from prior year)
# 30 Liberty - 1062 (up 4 ranks from prior year)
# 34 Frisco HS - 1042 (down 10 ranks !!! from prior year)
# 40 Wakeland - 1038 (down 11 ranks !!!! from prior year)
No scores reported yet for Lonestar or Heritage. Prob this year will be 1st year
Plano ISD:
# 2 West- 1179 (up 1 rank from prior year)
# 5 Senior - 1159 (down 1 rank from prior year)
# 9 East- 1120 (up 1 rank from prior year)
1 Frisco school made some headway, but to have 2 schools slip 10+ ranks is HORRIBLE. Again, wrong direction.....while Plano keeps going up.
College Selection of Top 2 graduates (last 3 years)--> of course, this isn't a "trackable" metric, but it is interesting to see the trends of where the top students are matriculating. Frisco ISD:
20% to Ivy (Columbia - 2, UPenn - 1, Cornell - 1, Princeton - 1)
37% to Top 20 ranked schools (includes above Ivy, plus Stanford - 2, Duke - 1, Johns Hopkins - 1)
37% to schools ranked 21-50 (UC Berkely - 1, USC - 1, and 6 to #45 ranked UT)
26% to schools ranked over 50 (Texas A&M- 3, SMU -1, Baylor -1, #179th ranked Alabama @ Huntsville - 1, and #143rd ranked UT Dallas)
Plano ISD:
59% to Ivy - (Harvard - 5, UPenn - 4, Princeton - 1) 5 to Harvard. F-I-V-E!! That's 29% of vals & sals going to the #1 school in the country. That is impressive.
65% to Top 20 ranked schools (includes above Ivy, plus 1 to MIT)
29% to schools ranked 21-50 (NYU -1, UT Austin - 2, UNC -1)
6% to schools ranked over 50 (UT Dallas - 1, SMU - 1)
94% of top 2 graduates to T50 schools vs 74% in Frisco.
29% of top 2 graduates to Harvard vs 0% in Frisco.
My "beef" with Frisco is that they aren't putting up respectable numbers for such an affulent and educated population. Plano kicks their ass every single year & I see no reason why a family who values education and wants to live in CoCo would bypass stellar Plano for mediocre Frisco. That's my beef.
A masterpiece...there is nothing I can add to this. Nothing at all, and I think you are 100% right. Frisco's schools are very overrated.
First don't forget that a good portion of FISD belongs to Plano , so your statistics are a little bit off . But you keep telling about Ivy schools , highest scores etc........some kids in Frisco will go the Karen Dillard way , and plenty will crank up those SAT's ..........but frankly a lot of parents are not that much obsessed with scores and with how many AP classes their kids are taking , they want their children to work hard but to have a normal childhood, spend some but not every single second of their life in enrichment programs or organized after school programs .
Life As a child is also about travel , culture , playing in the sand , going to a museum or a trip back home , this is money better spend than send your 5 years old to advance kindergarten so they can read before they turn 5 . How many kids are truly gifted one of my best friend a lead teacher in Lovejoy got fed up and quit all together teaching ......she was fed up with parents thinking that every single child should be in advance class and thought their precious snow flakes were unique and Ivy material and therefor should have plenty of homework and " special classes" ......after Plano , she moved to Frisco
This is not a secret , but we also know that too many children in Plano are on medication because this is the only way that many kids are going to
perform on that high level or simply be able to focus better , many do not have ADD or ADHD , many of us are opposed to that.
I know it is difficult to understand for you , but this is not what we consider mediocrity , or bad parenting . We just see things differently , a child life should not be dictated by the 10th grade , and except if your child aspire to really high studies , the reel work start at the university and frankly the big name school should be for graduate school , before that nobody cares what were your SAT's scores in high school. The test would be to actually see the success rate in 10 years after high school , and where are those kids now , then you can really compare before that , this is often just parents obsession and pride , nothing else.
one of my best friend a lead teacher in Lovejoy got fed up and quit all together teaching ......she was fed up with parents thinking that every single child should be in advance class and thought their precious snow flakes were unique and Ivy material and therefor should have plenty of homework and " special classes" ......after Plano , she moved to Frisco.
Your friend took a job in a district that employs an "all-Honors/AP" curriculum and then got upset because all the parents thought their kids were advanced. Something in that story seems off-kilter.
Yes, there is a lot more to a childhood and education than studying and SAT's. Who ever said it was an either/or? Let me assure you, the majority of top performing students at Plano, HP, Coppell, etc aren't the one-dimensional "study monsters" you make them out to be. The typical top HP grad is well traveled domestically & internationally, plays a varsity sport or two (of has a musical talent or other artistic interests), has completed a significant amount of volunteer work, and has a healthy social life. I'd rather my kid be street and book smart, not one or the other.
Frisco is a better ISD than many on an overall basis ,right now for your average student. Do I think Frisco isd is going to be better than it is now in 20 years,probably not. Would I spend over $400,000 on a house in Frisco, hell no.Like I have stated before ,I think that Prosper and west Mc Kinney are easily the nicest parts of Collin county. Frisco will have alot working against it in years to come,Poor zoning decisions,an abundance of rental homes and a mass amount of retail that in my opinion was done in poor taste. There is no common theme in all of the retail areas. It seems like stuff is just being thrown up. But for now, I think Frisco isd is doing pretty well....for the average child, it is a better option than many others right now.
TurtleCreek,have you interacted with many people living in Frisco? I certainly have. Not all , but many out of state transplants I have come into contact with have been quite "interesting ". It is pretty clear why there is not a high level of parental involvement. There are many stay at home mom families where dad earns $60,000 plus a year. I am not going to use the 40 year old SAHM in clothing from the juniors department example agin to describe what I am getting at. Frisco has small pockets of high end areas. It is mostly a middle to upper middle class suburb. I strongly believe suburbs like Colleyville, Flower Mound, Fairview, Keller, Southlake, west Mc Kinney, Westlake, Prosper, Coppell, Highland Village and Allen will hold value more than Frisco in the future.
It takes a certain kind of person to justify buying a 4000 square foot house on a 6,000 lot behind a nail salon and an apartment complex for example.I have been to many major cities and suburbs in this country. I have yet to see a suburb that has more offensive architecture than Frisco when it comes to neighborhood layouts,lot sizes and lack of trees. To each their own.
If Dallas was a safer area with better schools,lower property taxes and newer housing options ,I think more people would consider moving there over suburbs. I certainly think some of the people I have come into contact with living in Dallas neighborhoods are more down to earth and well rounded while being more educated than alot of people I have encountered in Frisco.
But...the school district is still doing well for now
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a bit much don't you think. It's rather ,that not all the students do take AP classes . 
