good schools zones (appointed, middle schools, living in)

[mkwensky]

Originally Posted by WRM20

That's what they think, but they are wrong. There's a bad crowd at every school. And bad crowd does not mean kids of a different ethnicity. It means kids who lead themselves, and other kids, astray.

I do agree somewhat. It's not like there are no drugs at those 9/10 suburban high schools. You would still need to keep an eye on your kids.

[usc619]

Originally Posted by WRM20

Who cares what great schools says? My kid went to a school rated 3/10, graduated 4th in his class, goes to A&M, and had a perfectly good education, including a number of AP classes and got credit for 4 college level classes. School is pretty much what you make of it. Stay involved, meet the teachers and administration, and your kids will be fine.

I agree for the most part. My only issue are the areas poorly rated schools tend to reside in.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by usc619

I agree for the most part. My only issue are the areas poorly rated schools tend to reside in.

It's Houston, where the $10 million + mansions of River Oaks were once blocks away from the 4th Ward and Allen Parkway Village. Where the Heights is near Independence Heights, etc. Most schools have a mix of socioeconomic levels. Except, maybe, Memorial, which SBISD tries very hard to keep the riff raff out of.

[hbcu]

Originally Posted by WRM20

It's Houston, where the $10 million + mansions of River Oaks were once blocks away from the 4th Ward and Allen Parkway Village. Where the Heights is near Independence Heights, etc. Most schools have a mix of socioeconomic levels. Except, maybe, Memorial, which SBISD tries very hard to keep the riff raff out of.

Across the freeway from The Woodlands folks barely have running water but they send them to Oak Ridge

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by hbcu

Across the freeway from The Woodlands folks barely have running water but they send them to Oak Ridge

Yeah, Montgomery County is far more segregated than Harris County. The good folks in The Woodlands would have hysterics if their kids had to go to school with those kids from Tamina.

[Questions4houston]

Op here. Thank you for all of the replies. I hope I didn't offend anyone. We also moved from highly rated schools from el-mid-high on greatschools.

Where we lived, it matched up directly - meaning if the schools were 9/10 they were located in a nice area with shopping/family friendly activities. I see that's not necessarily the case here and that it would be fine to go to a lower rated school.

Alot of homes on har.com have such low ratings for homes even if the home is spectacular and the neighborhood seems nice. I understand greatschools.com is not the end all be all and will utilize schooldigger to add to the research. Thanks to all who added your research or your direct local knowledge.

[iamwayne]

My family and I moved from the top rated Eanes ISD in a Austin to Fort Bend ISD in Sugar Land. I looked into Houston, Memorial, Woodlands, Katy, etc. In the end, Fort Bend ISD in Sugar Land was the best option. I found a home zone to the trifecta, Commonwealth Elementary School, Fort Settlement Middle School, and Clements High School. My realtor friend said the most important was Clements High School zoning. All the schools ranked high on har.com and is very competitive, especially Clements. It was the one area where I found all top rated schools, and chose to move here. Not many houses go on sale in the area zoned to all three schools. When they get on market, they do not last long and are usually $500k to over $1 million. The district is changing the zoning and in 2023, the attendance of Commonwealth Elementary gets cut by over 600 because they are moving people from Avalon at Riverstone to another elementary, making people that want these three schools having to bid for a smaller pool of available houses.

Good luck in finding what you’re looking for, there are probably other homes zoned to top rated schools for elementary through high school in HISD and other districts, but I wasn’t able to find one with the ratings for these three schools.

[accborn]

Originally Posted by iamwayne

My family and I moved from the top rated Eanes ISD in a Austin to Fort Bend ISD in Sugar Land. I looked into Houston, Memorial, Woodlands, Katy, etc. In the end, Fort Bend ISD in Sugar Land was the best option. I found a home zone to the trifecta, Commonwealth Elementary School, Fort Settlement Middle School, and Clements High School. My realtor friend said the most important was Clements High School zoning. All the schools ranked high on har.com and is very competitive, especially Clements. It was the one area where I found all top rated schools, and chose to move here. Not many houses go on sale in the area zoned to all three schools. When they get on market, they do not last long and are usually $500k to over $1 million. The district is changing the zoning and in 2023, the attendance of Commonwealth Elementary gets cut by over 600 because they are moving people from Avalon at Riverstone to another elementary, making people that want these three schools having to bid for a smaller pool of available houses.

Good luck in finding what you’re looking for, there are probably other homes zoned to top rated schools for elementary through high school in HISD and other districts, but I wasn’t able to find one with the ratings for these three schools.

iamwayne, what are your thoughts on the gifted & talented middle school academy in FBISD? Do academy students register for the same courses as other district middle schools? If so, what is the benefit of commuting to attend? Do all GT academy students take AP and Pre-AP in all core courses and if not what are the levels offered at GTA? Please share any recent knowledge or experience you may have or heard. TIA!

[alibaba1579]

Greatschools is an incredibly flawed rating system. School digger is much better. We just moved to Klein, which has some excellent schools. And some pretty terrible ones. The overall district rating can be drug down by a few schools, that could by 20 miles away from where your kids will go.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by mkwensky

I do agree somewhat. It's not like there are no drugs at those 9/10 suburban high schools. You would still need to keep an eye on your kids.

I have a coworker that went to Kingwood high school in the 2000s and the stories he tells are shocking.