Houston's Top High Schools - Ranked by SAT's (2012 scores) (Dallas: 2014, houses)

[Houston parent]

"Why bring race in education?"

For one thing, it helps you compare schools with materially different racial makeups. You can compare the scores for kids of the same race from one school to the next. Its still imperfect, but helps quite a bit.

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by Houston parent

"Why bring race in education?"

For one thing, it helps you compare schools with materially different racial makeups. You can compare the scores for kids of the same race from one school to the next. Its still imperfect, but helps quite a bit.

It's also because, if this book is to be believed, White parents are okay with a certain amount of minorities but not too many or too many in lower social classes: Fighting to Save Our Urban Schools-- and Winning!: Lessons from Houston - Donald R. McAdams - Google Books

The book was written by a former HISD board member. He on to argue how and why, and he believes it's not strictly racism.

From the page numbered 60:

He makes it clear "Furthermore, white middle-class parents who wrote off some schools as unacceptable were not necessarily racists. They wanted their children to be safe. They wanted effective instruction and high academic standards. It was a fact, after all, that the instructional materials and teaching methodologies chosen to meet the needs of poor children frequently did not meet the needs of middle-class children.

[marcopolo2000]

Originally Posted by Houston parent

Until the 10% rule changes, the best option for Memorial, Woodlands or Kingwood kids outside the top 10% is to go "team Blinn" for one year (or go to a branch campus like A&M Galveston), then fill a spot vacated by one of the poorly prepared 10 percent auto admits after he/she fails out.

or just pull themselves up by the boot straps early on, study harder and make it to the Top 10 while in high school

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by marcopolo2000

or just pull themselves up by the boot straps early on, study harder and make it to the Top 10 while in high school

In some schools many students are so high achieving that such a task will be very toxic on one's psyche.

So... what some students in HISD do is go to a good high school for three years and transfer to a horrible school for their senior year.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by LizzySWW

Given your specific situation, people felt demographics were something to take into consideration. It was regarding a white kid, with highly educated parents (chemical engineers, right?) who own a nice home and you were contemplating an inner city school with 100% poor + 100% minority students where 1374 is the average SAT score. People (trolls not included) had good intentions when pointing out it could end up being hard for your son to fit in. It's wonderful it turned out so well for you - hopefully your posts have educated parents who didn't know about Eastwood.


Not doubting for a second that your son qualified - but HISD's website has no mention of Eastwood students in the NMS program - they list students from Bellaire, Carnegie, Lamar, Westside, HSPVA & Debakey Medical.

Hopefully someone can post a link with a list of all Houston area schools that have kids in the National Merit Scholar program. This would be a great addition to the thread.

Here's what I was able to find:

"[National Merit Scholar finalists] hail from Bellaire, Carnegie Vanguard, Lamar and Westside high schools, as well as DeBakey High School for Health Professions and the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts." - Houston Independent School District
Sixty HISD Students Named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists | News Blog



No, Memorial HS really isn't considered a suburban school. I'll explain in detail for the sake of parents reading this thread wondering why they can't find MHS while out school shopping in the suburbs.

Memorial (77024) used to be a suburban area about 50 years ago, but massive sprawl changed that. River Oaks was once a suburb of Houston too. The Eastern portion of Memorial HS's attendance boundary is loop 610 (next to Memorial Park & the Galleria). Homes with 610 loop in their backyard typically aren't schools that are "technically suburban".

Here's some info:

"Memorial High School is located in the urban fringe of a large city."
Memorial High School in houston, texas TX

"The Spring Branch Independent School District is an urban school district that is located west of downtown Houston." - SBISD
Facilities and Operations template

"[SBISD] is a largely minority urban district." - Houston Chronicle
Leaving the helm at Spring Branch ISD, Guthrie praised for 'cutting-edge' reform - Houston Chronicle

Here's a house for sale in Memorial HS's attendance zone, you can see on har's map it's located on loop 610 with Memorial Park just a football's throw across the road. It's pretty safe to say this isn't what most parents looking for schools in the suburbs have in mind or in budget.
8607 Pasture View Ln, Houston, TX 77024 - HAR.com





Here are the miles to downtown's city hall from both:

Clear Lake HS - 23.83 miles
Alief Hastings HS -16.3 miles

8 miles in Houston can easily mean an additional 30 minutes on the road, especially on I45. Thought it would be helpful to make note of that for parents unfamiliar with Houston traffic looking for an easy commute into DT. Clear Lake HS is a super school, but as shown in the OP, Alief has one of the best HS's in Houston.

That Merit scholar list is pretty sad. Bellaire-25, DeBakey-16, Vangaurd-10, HSPVA-4, Lamar-3, Westside-2, rest of HISD-0.
Madison had 6 back in the 70s and Bellaire, Lamar, Lee, Sharpstown and Westbury undoubtedly had more. Other than the magnets and Bellaire there are 5 total for 20+ high schools.

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by bu2

That Merit scholar list is pretty sad. Bellaire-25, DeBakey-16, Vangaurd-10, HSPVA-4, Lamar-3, Westside-2, rest of HISD-0.
Madison had 6 back in the 70s and Bellaire, Lamar, Lee, Sharpstown and Westbury undoubtedly had more. Other than the magnets and Bellaire there are 5 total for 20+ high schools.

I'd love to see a list from the 1970s.

I wonder how that compares to other school districts, both "urban" ones (Spring Branch, Alief, Aldine, Galena Park, Pasadena, Spring ISD) as well as "suburban" ones (Fort Bend, Stafford, Lamar CISD, Katy, Cy-Fair, Klein, Conroe, Tomball). Another post stated that Clements had 32, Clear Lake had 26, and College Park had 20.

HISD just absorbed North Forest but I bet those guys had a big fat zero.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by Vicman

It's also because, if this book is to be believed, White parents are okay with a certain amount of minorities but not too many or too many in lower social classes: Fighting to Save Our Urban Schools-- and Winning!: Lessons from Houston - Donald R. McAdams - Google Books

The book was written by a former HISD board member. He on to argue how and why, and he believes it's not strictly racism.

From the page numbered 60:

Interesting read, especially for someone who used to live in Southwest Houston.

[swopoe]

Originally Posted by Houston parent

Until the 10% rule changes, the best option for Memorial, Woodlands or Kingwood kids outside the top 10% is to go "team Blinn" for one year (or go to a branch campus like A&M Galveston), then fill a spot vacated by one of the poorly prepared 10 percent auto admits after he/she fails out.

No, the best option is to avoid A&M or UT all together. Because of the top 10% rule, and even if my kids end up in the top 10%, I want them to avoid these schools on principle. Then again, we have plenty of time before high school, my husband and I are not Texans, and did not go to Texas schools. The top 10% angers me so much, and there are so many other schools out there anyway. Why bother?

[EasilyAmused]

Originally Posted by swopoe

No, the best option is to avoid A&M or UT all together. Because of the top 10% rule, and even if my kids end up in the top 10%, I want them to avoid these schools on principle. Then again, we have plenty of time before high school, my husband and I are not Texans, and did not go to Texas schools. The top 10% angers me so much, and there are so many other schools out there anyway. Why bother?

Agreed. While we are Texans, we encouraged all the college bound spaw to leave Texas and experience the world. There are far better schools out there than UT and A&M. Too bad you have to be outside the top 10% mentality to get the opportunity to experience them.

[KatieKennedy]

The Chronicle has a good article today rating the Houston area's best high schools. Clements comes out on top and a number of others get A plus, A and A minus.