james, i think it’s spelled “Useless”. otherwise, great list!
@ 3:32 pm on November 18, 2010
Which Belmont are you referring to – the one by the (renovated) Belmont Hotel, or the one off Greenville Avenue?
@ 3:50 pm on November 18, 2010
Some of you people obviously don’t grasp the concept of “in Dallas.” Thus, following your lead, I will eschew Grand Prairie and Bawch Sprangs and announce that my favorite neighborhood in Dallas is Canyon Road. (Yes, some of you will see the enchantment in that line.)
@ 5:01 pm on November 18, 2010
Here is mine in alphabetical order:
1. Hurst
B. Euless
3. Bedford
4. Keller
5. Roanoke
@ 5:33 pm on November 18, 2010
This is for Tim.
Forest Hills
University Park
Casa Linda
Korea Town
Old Lake Highlands
Forest Hills
Forest Highlands
Royal Lane Village
Oak Lawn
Greenland Hills
Eastwood
Ridgewood Park
Swiss Avenue
@ 9:16 pm on November 18, 2010
In chronological order:
1. Far North Dallas
2. North Dallas
3. Highland Park
4. Lakewood
5. University Park
@ 10:11 pm on November 18, 2010
1. Lakewood – always closest to my heart.
2. Junius Heights – fun people – Austin in Dallas
3. Cochran Heights – fun in staggering distance
4. Ridgewood Park – my birth home
5. Caruth Terrace – solid as a rock.
Also lived in University Park – does not make the list.
@ 12:15 pm on November 19, 2010
1. Lakewood
2. Old East Dallas
3. Junius Heights
4. Lochwood
5. Lake Highlands
@ 4:13 pm on November 19, 2010
Can there be a more perfect neighborhood than Lakewood? Small- town atmosphere with homes, schools and a theatre, library and lake that are all deeply loved
@ 11:46 am on November 20, 2010
Dallas neighborhoods basically break down into three categories:
1) charming and lovely, but unaffordable without two professional incomes or a rich family (that is: Lakewood proper, Kessler Park proper, Park Cities)
2) “good schools” (that is, mostly white and Asian, not too many blacks and Hispanics) and soul-deadeningly devoid of non-corporate culture, full of cookie-cutter McMansions and Olive Gardens (that is: the northern suburbs)
3) charming and funky, but need a top-notch alarm system; plenty of pit bulls, constant stream of burglary reports, tagging and litter everywhere, abysmal public schools (that is: the “transitional” parts of East Dallas, Oak Cliff, etc.)
@ 12:05 pm on November 22, 2010
A majority of Dallas schools are ranked exemplary or recognized. East Dallas is known for its schools. They are also recognized statewide by TBEC and Texas Monthly and nationally by Blue-Ribbon status (4), Newsweek Top Schools, ACT, NCUSTA and even cited as successful schools by National Trust for Historic Preservation. Internationally, Woodrow Wilson High is very close to earning the IB World School designation.
@ 4:32 pm on November 22, 2010
Stillwaggin’, the bar is absurdly low for those rankings. They are “successful” in that they teach difficult students to read and write.
Let’s say you are a parent who wants your children to be exposed to the kind of tough competition they will face in the wider world, or the level of achievement of their future Ivy League classmates from the east coast or west coast.
A simple way to gauge this is to look at the numbers of National Merit semifinalists. That will tell you the level of the top section of the class.
Of course, if teachers are doing their very best with mediocre students (i.e. DISD) that won’t show up.
Here are numbers of semifinalists from a couple of years ago:
Plano 60, Plano West 46, Plano East 21
TAG 6; Science & Engineering 3; Booker T 1; Hillcrest 1 – and that’s it for DISD.
So, if you want your offspring to be surrounded by top performers, there are twice as many of them in the lowest-ranked Plano school as in the entire DISD.
Maybe “abysmal” was too harsh. I revise the assertion to “mediocre.”
It’s true that Plano high schools have a lot of students recognized by NMSF. But the graduating classes are among the largest in the nation – over 1,200 in each class. That’s fine if you want to be part of a factory. Woodrow Wilson in Lakewood is more like a small-town high school, where there is a great mix of students and it only graduates around 250. Not everyone is the same – upper middle class or middle class like Plano. You have some super-smart kids and some who will be better owning lawn companies or training to be a plumber. WW has graduates at the Ivies and two years ago both the valedictorian and salutatorian were the only in the metroplex to both go to such. I know a kid (Eagle Scout) who got a full ride to Yale and started this fall. There have not been any NMSFs the last two years but many commended students and the school has had as many as six NMSFs in one year a while back. In my opinion however, it is overall a much better school now. This year’s class earned $8 million in scholarships and was 88% college bound. Quite an a achievement for a school with many ESL and economically disadvantaged students – also about 20% are in special education and deaf education. The school also has a core group of 50 or so very wealthy mostly old money students in each class. They could well afford the best privates in the nation. Why do they choose Woodrow? The education they get (which is available and encouraged to others) is on par with a small private school plus they have the advantage of being friends with students from every background imaginable. This year, the school has been redesigned into four college preparatory academies and Pre-IB is being taught to ninth graders in addition to the Pre-AP, AP and Dual Credit courses. There are ten foreign exchange students in the current senior class.
If you are going to dish harsh criticism on Dallas schools then what do you have to say about the bomb threats closing PESH today? There were Columbine-like threats discovered at Clark High School a few years ago and it was revealed that there was a teacher hit list. Then there are the suicide and heroin deaths of Plano. I see you don’t mention those.
@ 6:01 pm on November 23, 2010
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16 comments
You’ve obviously never lived in Casa Linda.
Great list Zac, here’s mine…
1. Uptown Dallas
2. Las Colinas
3. Cedar Hill
4. DeSoto
5. Euless
Here’s mine:
1. Highland Village
2. Frisco
3. Lewisville
4. Addison
5. Denton
james, i think it’s spelled “Useless”. otherwise, great list!
Which Belmont are you referring to – the one by the (renovated) Belmont Hotel, or the one off Greenville Avenue?
Some of you people obviously don’t grasp the concept of “in Dallas.” Thus, following your lead, I will eschew Grand Prairie and Bawch Sprangs and announce that my favorite neighborhood in Dallas is Canyon Road. (Yes, some of you will see the enchantment in that line.)
Here is mine in alphabetical order:
1. Hurst
B. Euless
3. Bedford
4. Keller
5. Roanoke
This is for Tim.
Forest Hills
University Park
Casa Linda
Korea Town
Old Lake Highlands
Forest Hills
Forest Highlands
Royal Lane Village
Oak Lawn
Greenland Hills
Eastwood
Ridgewood Park
Swiss Avenue
In chronological order:
1. Far North Dallas
2. North Dallas
3. Highland Park
4. Lakewood
5. University Park
1. Lakewood – always closest to my heart.
2. Junius Heights – fun people – Austin in Dallas
3. Cochran Heights – fun in staggering distance
4. Ridgewood Park – my birth home
5. Caruth Terrace – solid as a rock.
Also lived in University Park – does not make the list.
1. Lakewood
2. Old East Dallas
3. Junius Heights
4. Lochwood
5. Lake Highlands
Can there be a more perfect neighborhood than Lakewood? Small- town atmosphere with homes, schools and a theatre, library and lake that are all deeply loved
Dallas neighborhoods basically break down into three categories:
1) charming and lovely, but unaffordable without two professional incomes or a rich family (that is: Lakewood proper, Kessler Park proper, Park Cities)
2) “good schools” (that is, mostly white and Asian, not too many blacks and Hispanics) and soul-deadeningly devoid of non-corporate culture, full of cookie-cutter McMansions and Olive Gardens (that is: the northern suburbs)
3) charming and funky, but need a top-notch alarm system; plenty of pit bulls, constant stream of burglary reports, tagging and litter everywhere, abysmal public schools (that is: the “transitional” parts of East Dallas, Oak Cliff, etc.)
A majority of Dallas schools are ranked exemplary or recognized. East Dallas is known for its schools. They are also recognized statewide by TBEC and Texas Monthly and nationally by Blue-Ribbon status (4), Newsweek Top Schools, ACT, NCUSTA and even cited as successful schools by National Trust for Historic Preservation. Internationally, Woodrow Wilson High is very close to earning the IB World School designation.
Stillwaggin’, the bar is absurdly low for those rankings. They are “successful” in that they teach difficult students to read and write.
Let’s say you are a parent who wants your children to be exposed to the kind of tough competition they will face in the wider world, or the level of achievement of their future Ivy League classmates from the east coast or west coast.
A simple way to gauge this is to look at the numbers of National Merit semifinalists. That will tell you the level of the top section of the class.
Of course, if teachers are doing their very best with mediocre students (i.e. DISD) that won’t show up.
Here are numbers of semifinalists from a couple of years ago:
Plano 60, Plano West 46, Plano East 21
TAG 6; Science & Engineering 3; Booker T 1; Hillcrest 1 – and that’s it for DISD.
So, if you want your offspring to be surrounded by top performers, there are twice as many of them in the lowest-ranked Plano school as in the entire DISD.
Maybe “abysmal” was too harsh. I revise the assertion to “mediocre.”
link:
http://www.city-data.com/forum/dallas/446357-2008-dallas-area-national-merit-semifinalists.html
It’s true that Plano high schools have a lot of students recognized by NMSF. But the graduating classes are among the largest in the nation – over 1,200 in each class. That’s fine if you want to be part of a factory. Woodrow Wilson in Lakewood is more like a small-town high school, where there is a great mix of students and it only graduates around 250. Not everyone is the same – upper middle class or middle class like Plano. You have some super-smart kids and some who will be better owning lawn companies or training to be a plumber. WW has graduates at the Ivies and two years ago both the valedictorian and salutatorian were the only in the metroplex to both go to such. I know a kid (Eagle Scout) who got a full ride to Yale and started this fall. There have not been any NMSFs the last two years but many commended students and the school has had as many as six NMSFs in one year a while back. In my opinion however, it is overall a much better school now. This year’s class earned $8 million in scholarships and was 88% college bound. Quite an a achievement for a school with many ESL and economically disadvantaged students – also about 20% are in special education and deaf education. The school also has a core group of 50 or so very wealthy mostly old money students in each class. They could well afford the best privates in the nation. Why do they choose Woodrow? The education they get (which is available and encouraged to others) is on par with a small private school plus they have the advantage of being friends with students from every background imaginable. This year, the school has been redesigned into four college preparatory academies and Pre-IB is being taught to ninth graders in addition to the Pre-AP, AP and Dual Credit courses. There are ten foreign exchange students in the current senior class.
If you are going to dish harsh criticism on Dallas schools then what do you have to say about the bomb threats closing PESH today? There were Columbine-like threats discovered at Clark High School a few years ago and it was revealed that there was a teacher hit list. Then there are the suicide and heroin deaths of Plano. I see you don’t mention those.