Looking for parents who have moved kids from private to DISD public schools (Booker: credit, neighborhood)

[NorthDallasMom]

I have an eighth grader who has been in private school since pre-K. For a variety of reasons - continually rising tuition cost, insanely high workload, lack of balance, lack of diversity - we are considering moving her to our local public high school (WT White) next year. We are interested in hearing from any other families who have made similar moves. Advice? Thoughts? Regrets?

[TurtleCreek80]

No advice, but I can tell you my friends who graduated from TJ, White, and Woodrow got into far superior colleges with more scholarship than my classmates at HP or private school friends with similar test scores, GPA's, and extra-curriculars.

Let's face it, on paper it looks like your kid "rose above adversity" to thrive when admissions officers review the high school profile piece of the application and see a 25% dropout rate, 50+% free/ reduced lunch, lots of first generation college apps, and significant % of ESL in the graduating class.

Now the catch is that only you know your kid: will he push himself to succeed and break higher academic barriers if he is surrounded by a much smaller pool of high-achievers? Has he already developed strong study habits? It's worth it if he's willing to put in the effort to be competive in the top 10-30 students.

It's also a good eye-opening experience to understanding what the real world is.

As far as peer pressure, there's nothing (drugs, alcohol, sex) that he will be exposed to at publich school that he wouldn't be able to find at private school if he were lookig for it. If you've raised a good kid, you have no worries.

[pepper131]

I know kids from Greenhill who go to Booker T and SEM. Both are very happy with their decisions.

[Lakewooder]

W.T. White always places very high on the Newsweek list for its AP program. I am not that familiar with the school as we (WW) are a much smaller school and therefore not usually in competition together. I do know Louisa Meyer (she went to SMU with me) who is one of WTW's biggest fans. I can give you her email address if you would like to contact her.

WTW, Hillcrest and Woodrow all have a critical mass of top-achievers, but you will often only hear about the lower-achievers and dropouts from the media and those who don't want to take the time to investigate.

As far as being mixed in with all sorts of different folks - most people I know will credit that as the greatest asset of the school after they return from college and are into their careers.

[TXNGL]

"As far as being mixed in with all sorts of different folks - most people I know will credit that as the greatest asset of the school after they return from college and are into their careers."


Good to know. That is one of the reasons why we chose public over private. :-)

[theloneranger]

I know lots of people who have received fine educations at White, but most of those I've talked to say that they don't think they got as good an education as the would have received at a private school.

[padcrasher]

Originally Posted by TXNGL

"As far as being mixed in with all sorts of different folks - most people I know will credit that as the greatest asset of the school after they return from college and are into their careers."


Good to know. That is one of the reasons why we chose public over private. :-)

I'm a liberal and even I don't believe that crap. My entire extended family was raised in predominately white schools we are able to function in society just fine thanks...LOL

[Spree]

Will she know someone at White to connect with and to help meet other friends in the beginning? That will be a big help I think in the transition. I'm thinking her private school is smaller and that White will have bigger class sizes, might be easy to get lost in the shuffle in the beginning without knowing anyone.

[Spree]

>> My entire extended family was raised in predominately white schools we are able to function in society just fine thanks...LOL<<

I was raised in the midwest in small town farm country and had little experience w/people of different cultures and religion. I would say the same about me and my extended family.

[NorthDallasMom]

Originally Posted by Spree

Will she know someone at White to connect with and to help meet other friends in the beginning? That will be a big help I think in the transition. I'm thinking her private school is smaller and that White will have bigger class sizes, might be easy to get lost in the shuffle in the beginning without knowing anyone.

Good point; we'd look for some kids in the neighborhood for her to meet before she would start.