Which Austin Area Schools Are the Best?
Sam Chapman
November 02, 2007
That is a question anyone buying a home in the Austin area should be asking. It doesn’t matter whether or not you have kids because when you resell your house, most buyers will be concerned about schools.
So how do you define which schools are the best? You start by looking at the entire district. You might also start by looking at private schools if you are inclined to do that. This article will focus on the public sector. In Texas, schools and districts are rated by the Texas Education Agency or TEA. The TEA has a very general rating system based on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests, or TAKS. TAKS rating run from top to bottom as Exemplary, Recognized, Academically Acceptable Academically and Unacceptable. Although most people start with these and some stop with these ratings, there is much more to a school or district than this most basic rating.
Take the Lake Travis Independent School District (LTISD) for example. LTISD has a rating of Acceptable. The high school is and one elementary are Acceptable, one middle school is recognized and the other is exemplary and four elementary schools are Exemplary. So why is the district Acceptable? LTISD has around 12% of its population listed as economically disadvantaged. Many of these kids have not lived in the area long enough to have good English skills. Without good English skills, not enough of them can pass the TAKS test, dropping the high school and district to Acceptable.
If you look more closely, you will see that the high school has excellent programs in their various Institutes of Study. LTHS also has outstanding programs in sports, theater, music, debate as well as many very active clubs involving community service and other things. These are the kind of things you want to look at when trying to decide which schools you want your kids in. So how do you get beyond this most basic rating?
The main point here is that when looking at schools, you need to dig deeper than the TAKS test results. You can go to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) website to look at more ratings. Visit two of their pages at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/pocked/ and http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/account/2006/index.html. You can also visit http://www.just4kids.org/jftk/index.cfm?st=US&loc=home for additional information. You can also contact school districts and ask about educational, sports and extra-curricular activities.
As far as area districts, the best all around district is Eanes. Lake Travis is probably second with Dripping Springs very close to Lake Travis. From there you will want to look at Leander and then Round Rock. As for the Austin ISD, it fares as many large city districts do. You really have to study area by area and school by school. The best Austin ISD schools seem to be in the southwest part of town Austin.
So do your homework. Do some internet research and contact the district offices and individual schools. With a little effort, you will know right where you want to be.
Learn about Austin, Texas Real Estate and Lake Travis, Texas Real Estate
So how do you define which schools are the best? You start by looking at the entire district. You might also start by looking at private schools if you are inclined to do that. This article will focus on the public sector. In Texas, schools and districts are rated by the Texas Education Agency or TEA. The TEA has a very general rating system based on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests, or TAKS. TAKS rating run from top to bottom as Exemplary, Recognized, Academically Acceptable Academically and Unacceptable. Although most people start with these and some stop with these ratings, there is much more to a school or district than this most basic rating.
Take the Lake Travis Independent School District (LTISD) for example. LTISD has a rating of Acceptable. The high school is and one elementary are Acceptable, one middle school is recognized and the other is exemplary and four elementary schools are Exemplary. So why is the district Acceptable? LTISD has around 12% of its population listed as economically disadvantaged. Many of these kids have not lived in the area long enough to have good English skills. Without good English skills, not enough of them can pass the TAKS test, dropping the high school and district to Acceptable.
If you look more closely, you will see that the high school has excellent programs in their various Institutes of Study. LTHS also has outstanding programs in sports, theater, music, debate as well as many very active clubs involving community service and other things. These are the kind of things you want to look at when trying to decide which schools you want your kids in. So how do you get beyond this most basic rating?
The main point here is that when looking at schools, you need to dig deeper than the TAKS test results. You can go to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) website to look at more ratings. Visit two of their pages at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/pocked/ and http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/account/2006/index.html. You can also visit http://www.just4kids.org/jftk/index.cfm?st=US&loc=home for additional information. You can also contact school districts and ask about educational, sports and extra-curricular activities.
As far as area districts, the best all around district is Eanes. Lake Travis is probably second with Dripping Springs very close to Lake Travis. From there you will want to look at Leander and then Round Rock. As for the Austin ISD, it fares as many large city districts do. You really have to study area by area and school by school. The best Austin ISD schools seem to be in the southwest part of town Austin.
So do your homework. Do some internet research and contact the district offices and individual schools. With a little effort, you will know right where you want to be.
Learn about Austin, Texas Real Estate and Lake Travis, Texas Real Estate