Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Thanks for the detective work Lizzy. I have been looking for that info fruitlessly for months! They really worked hard to bury that data.
It's all on the TEA site. You're right, it's simple but not easy. The easiest place is on the HAR.com site. Just click on schools. All the data is there, too. Their info may be older. They are stuck at the 2011 scores.
Everyone tried to discourage me from sending my kids to Eastwood Academy because, 99% of the kids were hispanic (gasp!) and 95% were economically disadvantaged (gasp!). People are so afraid of the dumbest things.
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vegankris
My kids are getting a world class education at Eastwood Academy AND they love it there. They feel accepted and safe. The teachers and administration truly care about the kids. My son got a score on the PSAT that qualified him as a national merit scholar.
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
Quote:
Originally Posted by 14Bricks
Memorial is a spring branch school not HISD. So technically it's a suburban school too.
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".
"The Spring Branch Independent School District is an urban school district that is located west of downtown Houston." - SBISD Facilities and Operations template
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
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bad Haggis
Clear Lake HS is in the Houston city limits, no farther from downtown
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.
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.
There probably haven't been any national merit scholars at Eastwood yet.
If her son took a PSAT he goes to the next round, and the next and the next... and if he eventually gets the award it'll be great. But likely be a rare enough occurence that if his name gets in a newsletter, she'll have basically leaked her family's personal info right here. Someone just has to look at HCAD, county clerk and google street view... not saying that I would though.
And I work all over town-- I-45 isn't as bad as driving on something like Bissonnet or West Bellfort. South that is. North to Spring though-- you can have that.
Lamar's 1474 score is the average of 12th graders only. 12th graders aren't required to take the SAT at Lamar. Isn't it safe to assume this is a population of college hopefuls? The average wasn't hindered by a bunch of kids who aren't college oriented - those who tested want to go to college.
The way I'm seeing it, Lamar's 1474 score is actually enhanced because they were required to take it their junior year (studies show that SAT scores typically increase with each attempt of the test).
The demographic breakdown for the Class of 2012's SAT scores:
Lamar's overall avg. 1474
African American avg. 1336 (AA's are 28% of the total population)
Hispanic avg. 1335 (hispanics are 37% of the total population)
White avg. 1678 (whites are 28% of the total population)
Asian avg. 1558 (Asians are 3% of the total population)
Economically Disadvantaged avg. 1290 (ED kids are 46% of the total population)
After taking a closer look, I'm disappointed in Lamar's scores considering this is HISD's second best (non-specialized) SAT scoring school.
Lizzy, I'm curious why you assume that the SAT scores are comprised of only 12th grade scores. Aren't scores reported for a class as a whole? Most college-bound students everywhere take the SAT during their junior year in time for fall application season. True, many repeat the test their senior year for a higher score, but by that logic you have to assume that the same holds for other (wealthier) schools where you are still testing only college-bound students, more of whom have the time and money to expend on taking multiple tests. The students at Lamar who are taking the test only as a requirement are not students likely to repeat the test, nor are they likely to benefit from expensive test prep courses - another assumption for wealthier schools and which pumps up scores.
When I say that Lamar looks attractive, I'm looking at the whole package - a diverse student population, impressive diploma achievement rate for the IB (for a public school), as well as scores. I would never base an opinion on a school on SAT scores alone. (I'm not zoned to Lamar either, not even in HISD, so there's no reason for me to be biased toward it.)
Lizzy, I'm curious why you assume that the SAT scores are comprised of only 12th grade scores. Aren't scores reported for a class as a whole? Most college-bound students everywhere take the SAT during their junior year in time for fall application season. True, many repeat the test their senior year for a higher score, but by that logic you have to assume that the same holds for other (wealthier) schools where you are still testing only college-bound students, more of whom have the time and money to expend on taking multiple tests. The students at Lamar who are taking the test only as a requirement are not students likely to repeat the test, nor are they likely to benefit from expensive test prep courses - another assumption for wealthier schools and which pumps up scores.
When I say that Lamar looks attractive, I'm looking at the whole package - a diverse student population, impressive diploma achievement rate for the IB (for a public school), as well as scores. I would never base an opinion on a school on SAT scores alone. (I'm not zoned to Lamar either, not even in HISD, so there's no reason for me to be biased toward it.)
All SAT scores in the OP are strictly from the Class of 2012 (seniors only).
I wanted to be 200% positive, so I called Lamar & spoke with the principal who conformed that 1474 is the avg of 12th graders & 12th graders only.
Lamar's scores weren't brought down in any way, no worries. On the other hand.........
I'm now realizing notations should have been made next to neighborhood schools that have magnet schools within the school. Lamar is one of those schools. Of course this unfairly inflates SAT scores!!!
Magnet & IB programs within neighborhood schools hand select applicants who live all over HISD. These are the brightest kids within one of nations most heavily populated districts. In addition to being bright, they have to have an outstanding behavior record. Magnet programs also inflate the # of kids recognized as GT. Lamar has an unusually high % of GT students, 28% - but we know why. I *think* Bellaire has this same situation. I'll spend some time researching this weekend & post an update.
I'm not biased about schools either fnh, the bulk of my monkeys are still in elementary. Yes. overall, Lamar looks to be a good school. My goal is to rate schools by SAT while being careful to identify schools that have a sub population of students who are hand picked & the best of the best. I guess I need to rewrite the OP showing neighborhood schools with "smart kid programs".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bad Haggis
There probably haven't been any national merit scholars at Eastwood yet.
If her son took a PSAT he goes to the next round, and the next and the next...
She said he qualified for the program (again I totally believe her) and that's what HISD is acknowledging, students who qualified for the program. I was surprised not to see Eastwood on the list.
Memorial High – 12 kids
Spring Woods High – 1
Stratford High – 5
It would be more helpful to see percentages instead of numbers since a large school has a better chance of having more kids qualify. Anyone raising their hand for the job? Bueller, Bueller, Bueller.
Here's how the program works:
The PSAT is the National Merit qualifying test. Less than 1% of those scores qualify as semifinalists. This is who HISD is currently acknowledging, the semifinalists. About 90% of semifinalists will become finalists (based on SAT/essay/recommendation letters). Approximately half of the finalists are awarded a scholarship and given the prestigious National Merit Scholar title. The winners are announced in July.
Hi Lizzy, I thank you for following up, but I still respectfully disagree. The test scores for this particular example (Lamar, the link you provided) are broken down only by class graduation year (and then only for the ACT) not by date of test. I just got off the phone with TEA Research and Analysis and learned the scores are obtained directly from the College Board (not from schools) and the most recent score per student of each graduating class is included in the reported average, independent of when the test is taken. She also confirmed that most students take the SAT test during their junior year. I suspect the person you talked to at Lamar was confused by Class of "**" vs. senior year. Yes, those reported averages only contain scores from those senior class members, but the scores themselves are obtained at different times.
We are in absolute agreement that there is a selection bias in the scores, academic as well as economic bias.
Lizzy, to add to national merit semifinalists I found Clements HS at 32, Clear Lake HS at 26 and Woodlands College Park at 20. Those 3 burbs in my mind are the best in the area, generally speaking. What others are notable?
Location: The land of sugar... previously Houston and Austin
5,429 posts, read 14,851,505 times
Reputation: 3672
Quote:
Originally Posted by LizzySWW
Carnegie Vanguard (Houston) 1883*a selective admission school*
Debakey HS for Health Professionals (Houston) 1844*a selective admission school*
Clements High School (Sugarland, TX) 1739
Memorial High School (Houston - Memorial) 1724
Cinco Ranch High School (Katy, TX) 1690
George Ranch High School (Richmond, TX) 1683
Clear Lake High School (Clear Lake, TX) 1677
Seven Lakes High School (Katy, TX) 1657
Woodlands High School (Woodlands, TX) 1652
HS for Performing & Visual Arts (Houston) 1664*a selective admission school*
Kingwood High School (Kingwood, TX) 1644
Taylor High School (Katy, TX) 1636
Friendswood High School (Friendswood, TX) 1625
Stephen F. Austin HS (Sugarland, TX) 1615
Stratford High School (Houston - West Memorial area) 1609
Kerr Magnet (Houston - Alief area) 1583*a selective admission school*
Dulles High School (Sugarland, TX) 1571
Bellaire High School (Houston - Bellaire area) 1563
Cypress Ranch High School (Cypress, TX) 1549
Katy High School (Katy, TX) 1532
Dawson High School (Pearland, TX) 1507
Cypress Creek HS (Cypress, TX) 1504
Kempner HS (Sugarland, TX) 1503
Foster High School (Richmond, TX) 1489
Travis High School (Sugarland, TX) 1484
Lamar High School (Houston - River Oaks area) 1474
Pearland High School (Pearland, TX) 1467
Lamar Consolidated HS (Rosenberg, TX) 1454
Westside High School (Houston - West Houston, south of the bayou) 1399
Eastwood Academy (Houston - Eastwood/Downtown area) 1374*a selective admission school*
Small correction to the list: Travis High School is in Richmond, not Sugar Land.
Carnegie Vanguard is a good school, where the students score good, teachers and administrators are friendly. However, it disappointed me in the 2014-2015 student selections because if your siblings are Carnegie students, you are automatically accepted. Don't let them fool you by all the sayings, they gave the Carnegie siblings advantages.
The whole automatic admission just because you are in the top 10% of your class is pure crap. Case in point- my son's first room mate at A&M went to a poor performing school in San Antonio. He was in the top 10%. Automatic admission. My kid was only in the top 25%(The Woodlands) and applied to many state colleges. He barely got accepted into A&M. My son's room mate failed out after the first year. He had NEVER written a paper in school. NEVER. He struggled and was constantly asking for help from my son. My son, on the other hand graduated with honors from the engineering program. My point is that due to the top 10% rule, many deserving students are not able to go to certain colleges because the slots are being filled by these so called top 10% kids in low performing schools where my dog could probably get a diploma.
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.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
