Confused about where to live...

[Lakewooder]

North Oak Cliff has the best school in the United States, according to Newsweek Magazine. It's called Townview. However, it is easy to transfer to any of the better DISD schools if you live anywhere in the district. Most of the best schools are in North and East Dallas - you will find them ranked higher by Texas Monthly, DMagazine and Newsweek than many if not most of the suburban schools. And most of the AP students in those schools fare better than 95% of the private schools. The majority of the private schools in the area are 'white-flight' academies.

[Lakewooder]

I forgot to mention Rosemont Elementary and Greiner Middle School in Oak Cliff.

You might find some information in this article:

http://www.cliffdwellermagazine.com/articles/archive/september-2006-articles/cover-story/can-disd-deliver/ (broken link)

[GoPadge]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

North Oak Cliff has the best school in the United States, according to Newsweek Magazine. It's called Townview. However, it is easy to transfer to any of the better DISD schools if you live anywhere in the district. Most of the best schools are in North and East Dallas - you will find them ranked higher by Texas Monthly, DMagazine and Newsweek than many if not most of the suburban schools. And most of the AP students in those schools fare better than 95% of the private schools. Most of the private schools in the area are 'white-flight' academies.

The school Lakewooder is referring to is the School for Talented and Gifted, (a subset of the Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Magnet Center) with a graduation class of 39 and as of 2005, 198 attendees.

While I believe it is a good school, I have serious reservations that "Joe Average" student would be accepted. Also I'm not really suprised by the schools performance in the Newsweek article (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12532668/site/newsweek/) (broken link). I'm fairly confident that if I could take the top 0.5% of most large school districts, I could come up with similar results.

I'm not trying to knock what the students have achieved. They did the work and got the results. And the school and it's staff may have created the environment that helped them achieve those results. But it's a cherry picked population.

[Lakewooder]

Also,the Science / Engineering School at Townview is ranked 8th in the nation. Booker T. Washington Arts Magnet in Downtown tops many of the rankings lists.

You will find these DISD high schools in the top 1,000 in the nation (top 5%): Hillcrest, W.T. White and Lakewood's own beloved Woodrow Wilson. Only a few North Texas suburban high schools made the list and the DISD schools are in the top to the middle of the list (top 3%):

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12532678?s=900&np=13&sort=sta (broken link)

Also, Texas Monthly rates several DISD elementary schools as "The Best in Texas". Four happen to be in Lakewood/East Dallas- Lakewood, Lipscomb, Mount Auburn and Stonewall Jackson. Eleven DISD elementaries are on the list.
No Frisco elementaries were named:

http://www.texasmonthly.com/2006-12-...ethodology.php

D Magazine also ranks Townview at the top plus Booker T. Washington Arts Magnet. My Woodrow Wilson High is the top ranked comprehensive high school in Dallas, ahead of Frisco High:

http://www.dmagazine.com/april2006/bestpublichighschoolsapril2006.pdf (broken link)

[GoPadge]

The methodology in the D Magazine article, at first glance, appears to closely parallel the Newsweek methodology. Which would make similar results an expected event.

And again, I'm not knocking the school or its students results.