I would be interested to see what percent of the ratings of Texas’ schools went down/up/stayed the same. In my opinion, the TPM was a very unfortunate mask of the true scores.

RISD should look closely at class sizes at the Acceptable campuses. I know support via “human resources” is expensive, but RISD likes to add more Instructional Specialists and that removes experienced teachers from our classrooms.

More experienced classroom teachers, smaller class sizes!

Let me get this straight – this Texas Projection Measure “COUNTED STUDENTS PASSING EVEN IN THEY FAILED” (provided they blah, blah, blah). Hmm. Bet that WAS controversial. Is there anything more representative of the ridiculous state of our educational system than this? And now, “harsher” ratings will be felt. Ooooh. Get ready, Texas students. When the “testing” numbers begin to drop from these harsher ratings, another arbitrary, idiotic system will be put in place. The ratings system for Texas schools means absolutely nothing, and parents who must put their children in this circus should not worry about whether their neighborhood school is “Exemplary” or “Acceptable.” Your child’s education is based upon on his/her ability and initiative to glean whatever information is put before them. Period. And this is irrespective of how much we pay the state geniuses for the latest study or measure. May the Force be with you, may the information gleaned be somewhat informative, and may your student have some inkling of a personal desire to be informed. Good luck.

Too many poor ghetto apartment kids!!!my kid just got into lakehill prep, I’m leaving this ghetto wanna be highland park!

We are excited about our elementary school but past that I feel unless there is dramatic change, we will also go private or move. The upper schools are just not what we are looking for – unfortunately the excess of lower income kids does bring the schools down around here as well as retail, etc, etc. Without the removal of more apartments, I just don’t see things improving.

Seen HP up close, prefers LH aka cant afford HP

This is a call to action for the RISD. There’s got to be more to this than merely the numbers of low-income students, although significant, at Lake Highlands HS and its feeder schools. There’s also a significant number of great kids and families in LH schools, not to mention tremendous community support, that isn’t reflected in these scores. The LH I know is not seen in these ratings.

I am curious to know if the RISD has focused any resources specifically on Lake Highlands HS, its two junior highs and freshman center. Is there an LH schools task force? It sure looks like we need one. Are RISD politics preventing Lake Highlands from getting the special attention it clearly needs?

What does the LHHS principal say? Strong principals can make a big difference for a school and community, yet we’ve had some turnover there the last few years.

Obviously, LH schools face challenges, but the LH area also has the kind of community support and involvement other neighborhoods and suburbs envy. It would be a shame to see that go away because of a lack of confidence in the school district. Yes, test scores can be misleading and often tend to conceal the positives of a particular school. But if the challenges facing LH schools are as imposing as these test scores indicate, we need to see an appropriately proactive response from the RISD.

I think LHHS is a good school; top graduates are getting into top school. Our raw material/student body is not the same as the that of HP or some mainly upper middle class white suburbs has to educate. I think there is value for all students to be in social, racial and economically diverse setting. Clearly some commentors do not see the value in the diversity and they should pursue homogenous neighborhoods or private schools.

I do hope (and believe) that RISD should focus on LHHS; we should be able to do as well as RHS. My experience is that the junior highs are weak and do not challenge the kids.

Wannabe Highland Park,

It really isn’t about not being able to afford to live there. That is one of the big misconceptions from people outside of HP. There are affordable apartments and rental homes/cottages that many a family of my means could live in. Just like in Lake Highlands, there are different classes of people. And, similar to Lake Highlands, homeowners are seen as more stable and “more true HP”. Then, you have the generations of families that have lived in HP, they are the elite.

When I say I have seen HP up close, I mean that I have a close relationship with many families and children in HP on a daily basis. And, I love them. I just don’t want to live there. I don’t want to deal with the issues that they have to deal with. I like LH issues better, and we certainly have our share!

I also used to think that HP was our local utopia. I have found out differently. It is great for some, of course. And, if you REALLY wannabe Highland Park, you CAN. I would encourage you to do that.

It is probably just a preference, but I prefer to raise my children among the types of children and families that live in Lake Highlands. There are other very financially blessed families in Lake Highlands that have also chosen to live here when Highland Park was clearly an option for them.

I must say, I do love HP shops and restaurants. Of course, those are easily accessible by LH people as well. Not much of a commute.

I am reminded of something my father always told me. “Be careful what you wish for, for you shall surely get it.”

The citizens of the Park Cities should be so thankful of Lake Highlands that they would put up a monument to LH.

Without our section 8 and low rent apartments, the Park Cities domestic and lawn maintenance workers would have no place to live.

And Park Cities matrons might have to start paying their workers something closer to minimum wage instead of substandard, untaxed, under-the-table rates.

I think HP sucks too, I’m moving to lakewood

I must say that I am appalled at the way you speak of other people. Too many poor ghetto apartment kids? Are you kidding? You are supposed to be grown adults and this is how you speak of people. If you want your children to live in a false world then please go there. Money does not make you or your children better than anyway else. It does provide you with more opportunity, but that does not make you a better person. Have you ever thought that maybe the tax cuts are the issue? And now that there have been more tax cuts, more teacher cuts which means more students to each class. That is truly the problem. We are all greedy and therefore our children are suffering. Please don’t blame innocent children on a much bigger problem.

Lake Highlands ISD?

For Students who have been accepted and are preparing to attend a Texas Public College this Fall they must meet certain criteria before being allowed to enroll in college course work.
The Texas Success Initiative (TSI)mandates a TAKS commended performance score allows course enrollment without further placement testing.
Your LHHS scores indicate: Out of 1,037 testers – Grades 9-11 – 226 students are college ready.
That means 22% of students may enroll in college course work without having to take the THEA or Accuplacer and potentially spend 2 semesters taking developmental courses just to GET to enroll in College level course work.
For the LHHS Econ Disadvantaged: Out of 499 test takers – 38 students are college ready = 8%.
This family began watching those numbers in 2006-2007 and realized there is a crisis happening and not a soul wanted to discuss this pink elephant standing in the middle of the LHHS student graduation readiness.
Shocking and sad.

We have some challenging students in LH, but they are all teachable. The problem is the class sizes. Teachers cannot help students when you have sometimes over 40 students in a class, like some LH US History classes last year.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-herman-class-size-20110731,0,3910343.story

The kid in the back wants me to define “logic.” The girl next to him looks bewildered. The boy in front of me dutifully takes notes even though he has severe auditory processing issues and doesn’t understand a word I’m saying. Eight kids forgot their essays, but one has a good excuse because she had another epileptic seizure last night. The shy, quiet girl next to me hasn’t done homework for weeks, ever since she was jumped by a knife-wielding gangbanger as she walked to school. The boy next to her is asleep with his head on the desk because he works nights at a factory to support his family. Across the room, a girl weeps quietly for reasons I’ll never know. I’m trying to explain to a student what I meant when I wrote “clarify your thinking” on his essay, but he’s still confused.

It’s 8:15 a.m. and already I’m behind my scheduled lesson. A kid with dyslexia, ADD and anger-management problems walks in late, throws his books on the desk and swears at me when I tell him to take off his hood.

The class, one of five I teach each day, has 31 students, including two with learning disabilities, one who just moved here from Mexico, one with serious behavior problems, 10 who flunked this class last year and are repeating, seven who test below grade level, three who show up halfway through class every day, one who almost never comes. I need to reach all 31 of them, including the brainiac who’s so bored she’s reading “Lolita” under her desk.

OMG, after the last 2 posts, why would anyone want to send their kids to LHHS. What are your experiences on the elementary level? Concerned now. Not ready to give up on LH but this is very discouraging.

We had an excellent experience at LHE and my child transferred in from a private school. The principal and staff are great and the REACH program is excellent. Be sure that you talk to people whose children actually attended the schools that you are considering; be careful about the ‘advice’ that you hear that is not first hand knowledge. Visit the elementary schools, the staff will be happy to welcome you and show you around.

I use to work at LHE and it an amazing school,Kim Sullivan is so nice and welcoming to all.The elementary levels aren’t the problems(for the most part:LHE,MPE,MHE,WRE)it the jr high and high school level.Sorry to say but I blame it on so many apt kids.

This is not even close to being about socio-economic backgrounds. Most all children are teachable. This is about preparing students for life beyond LH upon graduation. Whether kids are college bound or not. If it was about “the Apt Kids” then your commended performance scores should be twice what they are now so that a student could simply enroll in a freshman College English class without having to TEST to see if they are college course work ready. This is about your schools structure and instructors. This is about the dirty little secret that even the top portion of LHHS grads are having to “Test in” to enroll in course work as we speak. Go back and inventory the percentage of College success for LHHS students since 2006. There are some great successes and there are a huge percentage of do overs.

Thank you for some encouraging words – My neighbors do seem to be very happy with the school. I definitely will make a visit and see for myself. It is a shame the apartments have affected so many areas of life in LH – retail, schools, crime, etc.

I’m just saying at least get rid of the bad apartments along Skillman and down Whitehurst .And replace them with a mix of new affordable apartments/town homes and upscale houses,apartments,and town homes.That way everyone gets a little of what they want.I don’t want Lake Highlands becoming like Preston Hollow were parent’s have to send their kids to private schools because the public ones are field with too many apartment and low income students.And also instead of focusing on the town center so much,we focus on the Schools that feed into LHHS and the Royal Highlands shopping center(that center is pretty ghetto now).If you tear down and replace “they will come”.People are sick of the burbs and private school tuition.If we have all exemplary schools(Lake Haghlands ISD anyone…not really but that what it would fill like)…c’mon LH im crossing finger and give us another 10 years or im either going the private school/burbs route!

doubt that would ever happen,its funny how some people act snobby here,when they live in the middle of the ghetto themselves.glad im moving.

I’m a senior at this school. In a nutshell, AP classes are actually quite hard and regular classes are a joke. If I’d known that freshmen year I would have been set. Top 10% gaurantee and next stop UT. Too bad I took AP classes. They really do a number on your GPA if you don’t work at it that hard. One has to be a complete dimwit to fail or even marginally pass regular classes.

This school is also extremely segragated. Not by rules or force but by the students own initiative. AP classes are filled mostly with whites and Asians and regular classes are filled with blacks, latinos, and a few others. Blacks and latinos eat in the cafeteria while whites eat in the student center. Blacks do stepping and the white people do cheerleading and highlandettes. I don’t think Higgins ever even had a black guy on his team that actually played. The only area that the two different races intermingle is the football team.

The sad state of our education system is just one of a number of great reasons to home school your kids. With home schooling, phenomenal educational opportunities abound throughout the metroplex.

I don’t claim to be an expert about the implications of TAKS scores falling a few points campus vs. campus or year vs. year, but I know a great deal about the graduates of LHHS. They receive millions of dollars a year in college scholarships, they are accepted (and enroll directly into top-level classes in) some of the most elite universities in the country, they play every college sport offered (some on scholarship, some not), they participate in band, choir, dance and other school-sponsored activities (often traveling to perform on the university’s nickel), they join multitudes of social, faith-based and issue-related organizations (including sororities, fraternities, Young Life, student government, and others too numerous to mention) and they hold a variety of leadership positions (including Student Body President).
The best measure of their preparedness for college is their performance AT college, and former Wildcats are excelling. But, as former Wildcat Keith Whitmire often corrects me, there’s no such thing as a “former” Wildcat.

Carol what you fail to realize is that LH is full of lying, cheating bunch of wannabe parkies. So called young life kids, who really have sex and get high all the time.the sad part is they have all of you guys fulled.

Our children attended a highly respected private school for elementary, after which we moved them to LH schools for secondary. We have been bowled over by the quality of teachers in the LH schools and very much regret the tens of thousands of dollars spent at private school. Our two children combined have excelled in academics both at LHHS and in college and combined placed out of over 50 college hours (through AP testing) and received upwards of $75,000 in academic scholarships. Both children were accepted into every college they applied to including the University of Texas-both were accepted into highly competitive programs at UT (Communication and Business) but decided these offers which came with academic scholarships to attend other schools better suited for them. Our private school friends are now attending sort of ho hum schools all over the country because they were not able to get into top state schools.

We have loved the teachers at Lake HIghlands, including junior high and freshman center and also loved the opportunities for involvement both at school and in the community as well as the great group of friends (not partiers-just nice regular kids) our children were able to grow into their adulthood with. The economics alone would make LHHS the obvious choice, but there is so much more to LH than that. There is the diversity, of course, but also the sense of community you do not get with private school or home school. So I say to you up and coming families with younger children, don’t give up on LHHS- it is a wonderful school.

LH parent. Did your kids go to hockaday,St marks or greenhill? If not then it’s not highly respected.

Don’t forget lamplighter

The LH area as a whole is deteriorating rapidly. We moved here 20 years ago and have seen its negative effects. Drive around outside of your insulated neighborhood at night and take a look of what comprises LH.

Drive down Forest Lane after 9 pm, visit the Exxon or Walgreen’s on Royal and Abrams. Do you want your kids driving or walking any where near this area or stepping outside of your respective neighborhood? Watch your home values fall before your very eyes. The pollyana attitudes often expressed on this site does us no good. A realistic view with activism for change will.

Get your collective heads out of the sand and realize what is going on both in and outside of the school. Make the principals, teachers and school board accountable for performance and their actions. I used to be proud to say I live in LH… but no longer.

Lake Highlands Jr High might want to do some research on the cheerleading squad. Why do i only see white girls with blonde hair and blue eyes on the team, I don’t see any hispanic girls or african american girls. I think there should be a variety of every culture. This picture does not look right in the public eye. Let hispanics and african american’s have the chance to make the team. You all take a look for yourself. Look at the pictures. Proof is in the pudding.

All kids have the chance to make the team, regardless of race and hair color. My daughter is on the FMJH squad and it is a diverse one. There is an application and tryout process, which is scored by an objective panel. The top 20 candidates make the “cut.”

“Academically Acceptable” is accurate and reflects our experience with RISD.  My kids were in private school for part of high school and in public school for part of high school.  At LHHS, my child had 2 superior teachers for AP English and AP Calculus but THE worst teacher EVER for a previous AP English class.  Multiple complaints by multiple parents over multiple years produced no results. As a former teacher myself, my opinion is that she was not qualified to teach English AT ANY LEVEL.  She was not certified to teach English and had no academic training to teach English (i.e. she does not have a major or minor in English or any other related topic).  As long as LHHS continues to hire and place teachers in positions that they are not qualified for then the school will be fortunate to maintain the academically acceptable rating.  My experience with the public schools in RISD is that they often had both the worst and the best teachers.  The private schools had neither.  

I have to say that you’re wrong about the correlation between home school and the sense of community you say is not there. Where is the basis for such a statement? I live in LH and my kids are home schooled. You might be surprised to learn about the vibrant community of home schoolers in the area. We don’t just stay sequestered in our houses behind closed doors. We are out and about and involved in the community – and our kids are getting an incredible education. True, home schooling is not for everyone; however, our family loves it. Our kids are happy, busy and academically ahead of their peers.

do you mean the private teachers are mediocre?  Just OK, not great but not bad?  We are considering private living in LH but not sure what to do – maybe moving to better schools up North but that would make for a very long commute.  I’m just curious if you felt private overall was better or not? 

Can’t speak for LHMom2011, but we have experience with both private and public and without a doubt my children have been more academically challenged in public school in LH….fortunately we have not experienced the extremes as mentioned above, but in private school experienced across the board mediocrity.  Many private schools in the LH area are limited by financial resources to pay “the best teachers”, as well as “flexible” academic standards for admissions since ultimately they need to “fill seats” in order to pay their teachers and keep the doors open.   The result being what’s taught in many private schools is at the level of the “lower to mid-level” student academically….not a challenge to academically gifted students, which public school can adjust and accommodate since they offer a wider range of classes at all levels.  If you are looking for an academically challenging private school they are out there…St. Mark’s, Hockaday, Greenhill, etc., but you won’t find them in the immediate LH area…go with public school any day in LH.

No, I did not mean to imply the private school teachers are mediocre.  I only meant that we personally did not experience the extremes.  My kids had excellent, good, very good, average and slightly below average teachers in private schools.  We did not have worst or the best.  To my point about the AP English teacher at LHHS, I believe it is completely unacceptable to have a teacher that unqualified teach ANY English class at ANY level at ANY school.  This teacher had almost no knowledge of basic literature and limited written and verbal grammar proficiency.  She routinely misspelled words and had both run-on and incomplete sentences.  She was inadequate in her ability to teach complex thesis sentences.  For those of you who are not English majors, this is a critical element to writing thesis papers and is required in both high school and college level work.  Luckily for my daughter,  she had highly qualified AP English teachers both before and after that teacher.  Hopefully, her peers in that class had the same. 

That is very helpful – thanks. 

 It is my understanding that you don’t need teacher certification to teach at a private school, so that might affect the quality of teachers. When I last looked RISD wouldn’t even hire substitutes who didn’t have teacher certification. Not that certification automatically makes you a great teacher, but it is a standard.

On the other hand, coaches at private schools don’t necessarily have to teach. Once in a while in public school you get people who were hired to be coaches first and teachers second. They don’t usually teach higher-level courses, though.

No system is perfect. Some of those suburban cities with “better schools” really aren’t so great, they’re just new. As previously stated, look at where their graduates are going to college. School systems can make a difference, but I’ve always found that great parents make for great schools, and we have an abundance of great parents in Lake Highlands.

Your comment about every once in a while “you get a coach first, teacher second” may happen more than you think it does.  But that in and of itself, doesn’t guarantee failure.  When you have a coach teaching a critical subject for multiple years that they are completely unqualified to teach and an administration (actually multiple administrations) that looks the other way, it is a problem.  And FYI,  LHHS, therefore RISD, uses substitutes without certifications A LOT.  I personally know one.  She is completely reliable, very smart, and wonderful substitute.  

Seen HP up close, prefers LH
You, along with the “other” wonderful LH’s families of wealth who choose LH’s over HP are not “acceptable material” for the Park Cities. My family consists HP’ers + LH’ers, and we prefer HP!  Lake Highlands is full of back-stabbing, uber-rude, cliquish parents and kids alike.  There is no room for normal, decent families, unless they “suck-up” to the “elite families of LH’s”.  There is no room for kids with interests other than sports, cheerleading + Highlandettes.  The demographics of the student population is unreal.  There is no melding of cultures. That has been a lie from day one! Avoidance and denial are the themes and creed to live by from both sides of the street.  Sadly, there are 2 choices in LH’s – the fake homeowner group of parents & kids, and the off-the-charts crime infested apartment families primarily HUD, with parents in and out of jail.  There is, and never will be a “middle ground”, or “coming together” of these distinct cultures.  And, forcing these disparate groups to intermingle fails every time.  The LH’s schools are not a representation of “the real world”.  LH’s was engulfed with HUD housing and cheap apartments, and the school districts were redrawn to include even more of the HUD, low-income families when the boarder stretched from LBJ up to Forest Lane. 
Face it – LH’s is a failure in every sense of the word!

So, you dredged up a 7 month old comment to post more negative stuff about Lake Highlands?  Stay classy, HP.

I know a teacher at one of the LH junior highs that tells me that the quality of education at the junior high level in LH is really poor.  Junior high has become a disciplinary nightmare  in LH, and then these 1/2 educated kids pour into the high school where they are ignored in the non-AP classes,  and then often drop out.  The truly satisfied parents at LH are always the white, upper class kids, who would basically do well anywhere, and who easily do well at LHHS, which is only academically challenging to those who have nothing to compare.  Many of the teachers at LHHS have been there too long, and are phoning it in.

Guest:  I agree with your friend’s assessment of LHJH and a lot of the teachers at LHHS just “phoning it in.” but I just want to reiterate that we had two superior teachers at LHHS in one year both of which provided a challenging academic class.  One of the teachers that I consider superior at LHHS is an AP English teacher.  As with any group of students, they walk in the class with gaps in knowledge and performance.  This teacher works to fill those gaps in order to prepare them for college.  He is an advanced writer and can clearly demonstrate and teach the construction of complex thesis sentences and all of the subsequent elements of an effective term paper.  He clearly understands the significance of different classic literature and communicates that effectively.  He covers the AP curriculum but clearly goes beyond what is expected into curriculum that I had in my senior level COLLEGE classes. He covers Shakespeare as well or better than some of my friends who teach college level English classes.  I have no problem saying that not only does he provide an academically challenging class but he is probably one of only three teachers my kids have ever had that I would consider “superior.”  Kudos to LHHS for keeping this guy.  He is a winner.       

Two teachers out of how many?  Scary and sad. 

if you ave $695,000 move to HP http://www.texashomesforsale.com/fort-worth/far-north/home/4805-Abbott-Avenue,-Highland-Park,-TX-75205/11720212

Wake up, Wilson!  Thought you were paying attention to the LATEST declines in the LH’s schools and neighborhoods.  My reply to Seen HP is not negative, just factual, and from our REAL experiences.  It is heartbreaking to us living here and unable to confidently send our children to these schools.  We wish more than anything that we could take pride in LH’s, the people, education, and neighborhood.  But, we can’t.  Things are (still) not looking up and we don’t see any positive changes anywhere:(  It is an utter mess!

I have noticed the same thing in other extracurriculars, and, to be fair to LH area schools , there seems to be a lot of self-selecting going on.  Teachers, group sponsors, and some parents try to be inclusive, but it’s up to the student to be prepared and try out or audition.  There are many reasons some kids are better prepared for an audition (years of classes in gymnastics, dance, music, sports), but ultimately, it’s the group dynamic among students (which they’ve probably picked up from their families) that determines how confident they are when they consider joining a group. I think that’s the most problematic aspect of LH.   Minority students don’t try out as much for cheerleading or other select groups.  By the way, I’ve seen a lot of blond hair/blue eyed girls in tears over not making some group that her friends made. The band, however, is a great example of a diverse, integrated group because the directors actively recruit and try to retain students of all backgrounds and abilities from 6th-12th grades, plus there is a strong emphasis on musical merit, teamwork, and personal achievement. 

We have lived in LH for 13 years, I have yet to come across the “elite families of LH’s” and we have not had to “suck-up” to anyone in any case to have room here. I am not even sure what that means. I sure don’t see where all this drama is coming in to play for us or our kids. There are problems everywhere, live your life without making it that much harder.

My experience with LHJH is that the principals and teachers lack discipline. They were slow to grade and post grades on line and had little communication with parents. The head of the math department didn’t even grade homework–students just got completion grades. She didn’t even give the students correct answers so that they could check their own work. Science instruction was terrible and did nothing to make science interesting to the students. (note the poor performance of LH schools in science compated to the rest of RISD).
The high school is much better and the teachers seem to be more disciplined. The high school still doesn’t have very good science instruction–especially in pre-AP.