Lots of Highland Park Grads Leave Texas, News Says

According to a story published in Saturday’s Dallas Morning News, Highland Park High School sends a larger percentage of its graduates to out-of-state colleges than any other school in the Dallas area. In 2009, 49 percent of graduating Scots left Texas for college. At 40 percent, Southlake Carroll was the only other North Texas school with a percentage higher than 30.

We’ll just have to take the News‘ word for it; although the story says the data are from a Texas Education Agency report, I found no such report on the agency’s website.

The story’s anecdotal lead is about a 2008 Highland Park grad who found herself at the University of Texas with 69 of her high school classmates. I wanted to get a look at the TEA report to see if it broke down which schools sent the largest percentages of their graduates to Austin. Highland Park has to top that list too, right?

By Dan Koller Aug. 29, 2011 | 8:47 am | 11 Comments | Comments RSS
11 comments to "Lots of Highland Park Grads Leave Texas, News Says"
  1. E22 @ August 29, 2011 at 10:27 am
    This article made me mad. It sounded like we were bad people because we were able to send our kids out of state for school! Half those kids would love to go to Texas but didn’t get in … and don’t get me started on that. The way this article sounded, it almost made me scared that Obama’s big government was going to start telling us where we could and could not send our kids to college …. at the rate he’s going … you never know!

  2. DemBones @ August 29, 2011 at 4:52 pm
    @E22. What part of the article had anything to do with Obama? Are you suggesting the DMN is in his pocket? The 10% rule came from our state gov’t, the Texas Legislature.

  3. Jason @ August 29, 2011 at 6:02 pm
    We are fortunate to have so strong an educational system that our children would like to broaden their horizons by going out of state for college. And it sounds like they are being able to get in to the schools out of state as well. It always saddens me to hear that so many try to to just stick with what they know and go where they know many, many peers from their high schools will be attending. Hopefully, parents can pitch in and help to make suggestions for interesting out of state options that would be great fits for their individual child who might otherwise default to the herd mentality.

  4. Steve @ August 29, 2011 at 9:00 pm
    It is shocking that wealthy families send more of their kids to expensive out of state schools. :) Which Texas governor started the Top 10% rule? When HPHS students do not get into UT, where do they typically go instead? Georgia? Alabama? A&M and other in-state schools?

  5. moola @ August 30, 2011 at 12:32 am
    e22 – u make it sound like going out of state is bad.

    I believe quite the opposite. Although UT is a good school, wudnt it be better for kids to broaden their horizons by living somewhere else for a bit?

  6. Jk @ August 30, 2011 at 6:32 am
    I so agree, Jason!!

  7. E @ August 31, 2011 at 9:54 am
    Was just trying to say it sounded like another class warfare attack and this time on our neighborhood! My kids are planning on going out of state for college :)

  8. MGBHstar @ August 31, 2011 at 3:41 pm
    Although it wouldn’t call it a class warfare attack, it is more of an attack on the state of Higher Education in Texas. With only 3 top-tier universities (based on US News & World Report); Texas, A&M and Rice, in the state and the absurd Top 10% or 8% rule (passed in 1997 by legislature during Gov. George W. Bush’s tenure), you have the situation where kids are incented to go out of state. Others go because they want to experience something different. I would also add neighboring states heavily recruit HP kids with offers of in-state tuition, scholarships, grants etc. because they have a strong background and help elevate the overall caliber of those schools. The article should have referenced the recent D Magazine article showing the number of kids from HP and other schools who enrolled in Top Tier Universities countrywide.

  9. dormand @ September 5, 2011 at 5:21 pm
    Perhaps those who achieve the optimal results are those who read Edwin Rubinfield’s elegant “The College Payoff illusion” published when he was Director of Research at The Hudson Institute.

    Also, those who consult the only effective reference guide to undergraduae colleges is “The Fiscke Guide to the Best 300 Colleges”.

    Those who heed these valuable guides will be more prone to have the best four years of their lives and to graduate while their peers at Texas are looking at two more years until they can apply to grad school or enter the real job market.

  10. Chung @ October 5, 2011 at 11:14 am
    I went to an out-of-state school where many people from TX attended – many from so-called good schools. I now live in TX. My sense was that most of the kids from HP or Southlake were still underprepared for college. Yes, they got in, but I think they had inflated grades and GPAs because the school system made sure of it. HP is no oasis. Read up on what’s going in the middle school – a boy wrote and published a book using his classmates, teachers, and other parents names where the main character is raped and the teachers are pedophiles. And they let him back in the school! Can we all say “future sex offender or serial killer”. His parents are both faculty at UTSW.

  11. HP Parent @ October 5, 2011 at 2:40 pm
    Oh Chung again.

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