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I am sure Gleason is a great school, no doubt there, but I think you might have your stats incorrect.
According to the latest report (2014), Gleason's Economic Disadvantage rate is 43.8%, which is nowhere near the lowest. The report can be viewed at the link below.
In contrast, the lowest rating for other Elementary schools are in he single digit range, which is a huge difference between that and Gleason.
Ok, so I'm wrong. I don't claim to be perfect, but maybe the info I was looking at was not correct or complete or I read it wrong, but the lowest I saw on the chart was 43%. Maybe it did not include all Cy-Fair schools or something or was measuring some subset. I don't recall exactly except it was economically disadvantaged percentages. It was in the community newspaper we get in the mail. I'll just keep quiet about any statistics from now on.
Edit: Ok I found it. It was about title 1 funding and the percentages:
The lowest on the list is Gleason at 43.8%. So it did not include schools that were below 40%. It looked like most of the Cy-Fair elementary schools, but I was wrong. It is only 37 of the 54 schools. You are correct. I have updated my wrong data so no one will be misled by my ramblings.
I grew up in this area since '78 and have lived in Laurel Creek for past 15 years. We've considered moving a number of times over the years (from Kingwood to Cross Creek Ranch), but we've never been able to find anything attractive enough to draw us away from the area.
There are a ton of nice subdivisions in your price point. I like the houses better towards the West (Wyndham Lake, JV) but the elementary schools (Bang/Post) aren't as well regarded as the subdivisions to the East (Gleason). My kids went to Gleason/Cook and I felt they were well served. I work from home, so commute time isn't a consideration for me. I do travel somewhat often, and being less than a mile from BW8 means I can go from front door to gate in ~40 minutes.
East
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Willowbridge
Stonebridge
Laurel Creek
Woodwind Lakes
Oak Lake Pointe
West
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Wyndham Lake
Lakes of Jersey Village
Jersey Village
The ease of getting to and from IAH was a prime consideration for us as well as I worked in the PNW the first year we lived here. Even now we travel frequently with a second home there.
We lived in that area until last year when we moved away due to the schools going downhill. I would research the schools if that is important to you. Bang Elementary went from 20% economic disadvantage to 60% from 2013 to 2015. I know the economic disadvantage stat doesn't show the whole picture, but we have witness the change in the area from 2006 and decided we want our kids in a better area school. This is just our opinion and observation.
The nice thing about Bang is your kids see the whole world. They're not in Caucasian land. Cyfair has plenty of that but unfortunately for many Houston does not.
Bang is 26% black, 35% Hispanic and 25% white and then everyone else. Kids have friends and classmates from every ethnicity pretty much and don't live in a bubble.
Economic disadvantage in schools in the suburbs can be skewed. How many parents check off boxes and free lunch then drive nice cars and totally look not economically disadvantaged. They just choose to live in an apartment and value material things but then sight....oh look my home is poor so my kids are considered at a disadvantage.
Gleason and Bang are no where close to the hood. If you want to seriously be concerned about your kids being with poor kids then move from Bane and Reed.
The Jones Rd area is going down a bit but your kids aren't going to be at school with elementary gang kids.
Woodwind Lakes is nice but the only way I know how to get there is Fairbanks an Fairbanks is sketchy. I'd never live down there. That's totally run down. I think Woodwind is zoned to Reed.
All of Woodwind Lakes was zoned to the Gleason track a couple of years ago, previously half went to Reed and half went to Gleason. That plus the opening of the Harmony School of Excellence on Gessner unfortunately drew the high income families away from Reed. Families who were perfectly happy there still left because everyone else was, you know?
WWL spans from Fairbanks N Houston (my username) west across Windfern to Gessner north of Philippine. Fairbanks is mostly barren north of there toward the horse track and beltway, south toward 290 there are scattered small unattractive strip centers (and a beautiful cathedral, go figure). I agree it isn't lovely but it isn't anywhere near as ugly as Gessner south of 290, 1960 in multiple stretches, Westheimer for something like 50 miles (ha). It is semi-rural even though we are inside the beltway - you'll see horse stables and even cows grazing the fields along the road.
Hi DejaBlue, you have very valid points and as always, like most things in life, it comes down to personal preference and one's own views. A lot of times on these forums, people ask about a certain area and as always, there's ones who love the area and will recommend it. Especially when it comes to schools, most people feel that since it is Cy-Fair, the schools are good. And they are right, the schools are good (even the not so good schools in Cy-Fair do a rather good job). However, unfortunately, what is good or great to one may not be so good or great to another depending on personal preference. And since the OP is asking sincerely about the area, I wanted to chime in on why we did not like the area so that the OP may have a full spectrum of valid points to choose from. This also has a personal note as well, because we were in the same shoes as the OP back in 06 when we moved in with feed back and some research telling us that the schools were good. Well, after 7 years in the area we feel that the area was in a decline and the schools were not what we expected, so we decided to move, which is a huge ordeal whenever you have to uproot the kids and move. So this time, we did our due diligence and did an extreme amount of research on the schools to ensure we were moving into an area which we feel fit our needs and preferences in the long run. So hopefully the OP got information from both views and spectrums about the areas and schools to make a choice that is best suited for the OP's personal preference.
With that, allow me to address some of your valid points.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DejaBlue
The nice thing about Bang is your kids see the whole world. They're not in Caucasian land. Cyfair has plenty of that but unfortunately for many Houston does not.
Bang is 26% black, 35% Hispanic and 25% white and then everyone else. Kids have friends and classmates from every ethnicity pretty much and don't live in a bubble.
First, let me say that Bang is not a bad school, it is a good school. But it is not a great school.
For us we prefer a school with better performing students over a school with more diverse students.
I would pick a school that has the best student performance over diversity any day.
And I think if given a choice between having their kids attend a diverse school vs one with much better performance, I am willing to bet most if not all parents will choose the better performing school.
The diversity argument is usually made by parents who need to find a positive when compared to other schools.
As far as stats go, I'll list the stats for the 3 schools (Bang, Gleason and the kid's current school)
Bang:
2014 Performance Index : Student Achievement 84, Student Progress 49
Number of Economically Disadvantaged : 599 out of 1005 students
Number of Students at Risk : 346/1005 students Number of Students with Disciplinary Placement : 3
Number of Students in Gifted and Talented Program : 28/1005
School budget allocated to Gifted and Talented Program: Only $23,950 out of $4,272,493
Gleason:
2014 Performance Index : Student Achievement 85, Student Progress 56
Number of Economically Disadvantaged : 389 out of 888 students
Number of Students at Risk : 442/888 students Number of Students with Disciplinary Placement : 2
Number of Students in Gifted and Talented Program : 55/888
School budget allocated to Gifted and Talented Program: Only $70,628 out of $4,183,924
Current School:
2014 Performance Index : Student Achievement 97, Student Progress 60
Number of Economically Disadvantaged : 72 out of 976 students
Number of Students at Risk : 113/976 students Number of Students with Disciplinary Placement : 0
Number of Students in Gifted and Talented Program : 99/976
School budget allocated to Gifted and Talented Program: $105,950 out of $4,046,856.
Over 5x what Bang allocates to GT Program even with a smaller overall budget.
Again, Bang, Gleason, Cook and the other schools in the area are not bad, just not great. With that said, the DW graduated from JV High and I think she did great , but that was a long time ago.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DejaBlue
Economic disadvantage in schools in the suburbs can be skewed. How many parents check off boxes and free lunch then drive nice cars and totally look not economically disadvantaged. They just choose to live in an apartment and value material things but then sight....oh look my home is poor so my kids are considered at a disadvantage.
This is very true and this is also one of the reason why we moved away. I just can't comprehend the thinking of parents in this regard. They are showing their kids how to be dishonest and unethical. This is just my line of thinking but, but parents who are not willing to pay the extra $2.00 for their kid's lunch, then they are most likely not willing to be involved with PTA and fund raising for the PTA and School needs. The PTA involvement at the current school is night and day difference than when we were at Bang.
This line of thinking is not limited to lunches. I have seen first hand parents telling their English fluent kids not to speak English when they met the counselor during enrollment so that they can be put into the Pre-K program and since its reserved for priority to ESL and non English speaking students. This just boggles my mind.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DejaBlue
The Jones Rd area is going down a bit but your kids aren't going to be at school with elementary gang kids.
As you said, Jones area is going down hill, and I can only see it getting worse as time goes by and the schools will not do better for it.
Back to OP, I hope you have enough info and the right type of info you are looking for to make your decision.
In Summary, the neighborhoods West of Beltway along West Rd are nice. Schools are good (not great, but definitely not bad). As you go further West approaching Jones, the area around Steeple Chase and Steeple Park are in decline. If it were me, and limited to that area, I would definitely look in WillowBridge subdivision. We have family in WestBridge, but WillowBridge is much nicer and is my preference as I feel it is the best neighborhood in that area.
Actually I don't think the OP asked about schools at all, haha. Curious how every single thread turns into a schools discussion.
For what it's worth, DH and I have both have terminal degrees so we value education very highly. When we moved to WWL a decade ago we were zoned to Reed and Dean. Reed was a mix of kids then and I toured it myself and would have been fine sending my children there. Dean was still far off but we soon crossed it off our list based on numbers alone, I never actually toured it. Since then I have met other families with kids at Dean who did or are doing very well so I feel bad for discounting it summarily.
That said, most families are happier to be zoned to Gleason and Cook, not to mention the entire neighborhood is finally united in the same school track. The households in this area are almost evenly split among the local public schools (which enjoy a strong PTA), the Harmony School of Excellence, and the big name private schools in Houston. The location and prices make it easy to choose any of these routes.
Of course it turned into a school discussion when the OP mentioned that he is looking for a good neighborhood for his "family". You can't deny that schools probably play the biggest role when looking for a home for families, so naturally it migrated to schools to define a neighborhood. Now should that be the only criteria?, of course not, but it is a major criteria for families. And since the OP did not list any specifics when he asked for neighborhood information, what other data can you provide besides School and Crime statistics?
But regarding schools, I don't think there ever is a truly bad school. Even "bad" schools will produce excellent students. It actually just boils down to the perception that the parents feel about their kids attending the schools. Are those perceptions valid? Well, its a perception so there's really no validity other than from the Parent making the decision.
Well, personally I think that families are shortsighted about the schools. Better to find a home and neighborhood you enjoy that prioritizes price and commute. Those decisions will benefit your family every single day you live in your home in extra time and money that you have to spend. The school years are relatively brief and a motivated, supported child can do well in almost any school. Also, I've known families who bought into the priciest neighborhoods for the 'best' schools only to discover those schools are a poor fit and they end up going private after all. The extra property taxes and additional commute stress remain, however.
Neither viewpoint is right or wrong, just my opinion!
I agree, of course, like you said, one has to take into account what one can afford and the amount of commute one can handle, It would make no sense to buy a house one can't afford just to go to a better school. I think in this case, the OP has decided on an area and is looking to see which part of that area is best fitted for the OP.
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, but that was a long time ago.
