How to Pick a School District?

My husband and I faced the same situation when building our house 6 years ago. We didn't have kids at the time, but we expected to be there for a while. Of course, they have all kinds of discussions about redistricting, have already rezoned to different schools, and our kids are the same age as yours.

What we decided, at the end of the day, is that we wanted a fundamentally sound school system with good SAT scores, reputable schools and teachers. But, it was our responsibility to fill in any gaps we recognized. We kind of realized that too many people blame the school instead of being practive and working with their kids outside of school hours.

We haven't faced that yet, and I'm sure we'll get pretty active in things once our son starts Kindergarten next year. I went through one of the best school systems in the country, but it was my parent's constant harassment that likely made me excel to the extent I did.

Good luck.

google texas school report cards-it will take you to how the school did on their testing. Texas School Agency. I didn't look at Texas closely-Our state report cards shows things like- number of students per class-% of english learner, high school graduation %, SAT's, if they meet federal no-child left behind guidelines. They are ranked something like Excellent, Good, Fair, or Poor. Sometimes the house prices our higher because the school systems are better-you get what you pay for!!! You can always update, remodel, add on a house. You can't pick it up and move it. Good thinking to look at the schools before searching.

Frisco has excellent schools. We have been here for 7 years and love it. We are in the Rogers, Staley and Wakeland school zones. Our youngest is in the last year at Rogers and you could not ask for a better principal than Ms. Nesmith. She is truly awesome as have been the teachers. We have a number of houses for sale in our subdivision. Do you have a realtor? If not, I would love to recommend someone in my neighborhood.

Not sure where your hubby works, but Allen is a great school district as well. That's one reason we live in Allen. ;)

You can look-up each district's performance on the state dept of education website. I'm not sure how Texas rates it's schools, but you can flip through the various districts. You want to look for consistently high scores on state testing as well as graduation rate and post-secondary information (if reported). You can also access this information through the federal website. Make sure to check out what is known in most states as a VADIR report (or something along the same lines). This report requires school districts to report violent episodes by category, frequency and consequence.

We are currently moving from McKinney to Prosper, mostly becuase of the schools. If you are considering moving to McKinney long term also look at their busing and zoning policy. Starting in middle school you can live close to a school and be bused accross town to another school. They do it to mix social-economic levels. We had no idea about this until we moved into the area (and honestly, until after we had kids). Most of the elementary schools are fine and are neighborhood schools.

As far as getting info, you are taking the next step. Talk to anyone you can about the district they are in. Most mom's are pretty honest about the pros and cons of the district they are in.

Good luck!

www.greatschools.org

Greatschools.com It will give you what the parents think about the schools too.

I believe it has a lot to do with the actual size of the schools AS WELL AS their ratings. I graduated from Plano East in the early 90's. I DO NOT want my children to graduate from a school of 1000+ kids. That is where they could get lost in the shuffle. If you are looking for an amazing school district with fewer children, I highly recommend Melissa. It is just north of Mckinney and the entire district is rated Exemplary. In fact there are even billboards as far south as Plano, recognizing their accomplishments. Good luck in your search! In the end, you will know what is best for you and your family.