North Hills School

I am an alumni who graduated with acceptance into every university I applied to (just the in-state schools, UT, Tech, A&M, Baylor, UD, UTD, UNT). To parents with students in the school or looking at the school, please keep in mind that your child is probably the least accurate source of information you can get about the school. I know, because all of my teachers were "the worst ever" as well as "unhelpful and stupid" when I needed a scapegoat. In truth, North Hills is an amazing school. Drugs, alcohol, violence, and even "style" are nearly a nonissue. "Cliques" are very difficult to form because class sizes are so small. I knew everyone in my grade and got along well with all of them. AP and IB credit will overprepare your children for college. Stepping in to college from North Hills meant less work for me, and I didn't even do IB. Even with the very lax (compared to IB, I mean. I took 4 classes my senior year and had 4 off periods.) AP program, I graduated with 32 hours of college credit, or two full semesters of college. Parents--that's somewhere between five and fifty thousand dollars saved. The teachers are very knowledgeable and care about your children. Proud Alumni.

Thanks for the May 7th post. You being a teacher put your child in NorthHills and with this feedback has to have something to it. Its easy to point out parenting mistakes and child mistakes. If parents look beyond their child fault, they might find something that is beyond their child inability to be in top 25%. I believe every child can perform best if the resources and team to excel is in place. In regards to teacher qualification, teaching history you all can go on school website and see if they are qualified and the lenght of their employment with the school. I did some browsing for primary school as only primary classes have identified their teachers. Based on information available, most of the primary teachers have employment history of 3 yrs on an average. So parents call school and find out the teachers that would be teaching your child and go on their profile and judge for yourself if that experience is enough. I am sure people who enroll their child in NorthHills are intelligent and if they are moving their child involves same intelligent skills. So thank you all for your feedbacks. My child is in NorthHills and agree that it is excelling because of hard working Asians.
—Submitted by a parent

My son is not in the top 25% ranking in upper school, the reason he can't get a good grade is because he is not working hard enough, You can find thousand excuses for your kid's poor performance, but there is only one truth , that is his attitude problem. Both the parents and kids needs to identify the real problem and work it out together, to blame on the teachersor the environment is not really a good idea. No matter your kids are in Coppell ISD, CFB ISD or UPLIFT ISD, please direct your kids to a right direction. It is o.k to get detentions from the school, because it is a learning procedure, but please make sure your kids won't make the same mistakes twice.
—Submitted by a parent

Don't pay attention to those last 2 posts. That person's kid got in trouble and the parent is blaming the school. That stuff starts at home, not at school. North Hills is a great school - some kids just can't cut it. As far as the teacher training goes - the teachers are trained better than public school system teachers are trained. Sour grapes is all those posts are about. "I'm mad, so I'm going to post about it" instead of trying to help that troubled kid. A teacher themselves? Poor grammar for a teacher.
—Submitted by a parent

My kid has been going to NHP for last 2 years in middle school. I would say it is not worth the trouble if you are trying for middle school. Teachers are not trained, anyone who can teach for a minimum wage is a teacher. They don't know how to deal with kids and the Dean is a person there only to give away detentions. It is not worth that money and effort. I am a teacher in CFB ISD and know how much training we receive to be in public schools. This school has the name due to tha hard working Asian population. thats it... I would say .. don't bother..
—Submitted by a parent

Not worth the hassle. Too much rotation of teachers and admin. Unstable environment for excelling kids. It does not work for kids who need more challenge. I am moving mine to Coppell.
—Submitted by a parent

The school bill's itself as a great school and uses it's Newsweek ratings to secure state funding that it then distributes unfairly to the other uplift schools in the system. If you have a child there, enjoy the public school prices, but beware the human toll on your child as they spend every waking moment doing ridiculous college level homework from teachers with a poor command of the english language. The confuse RIGOR with RIGIDITY, and your student will find it unfair that the largest part of the student body is from India, and that the performance-driven parents will spring for outside tutoring or are engineers themselves, and their kids will test wonderfully even without any North Hills instruction. This gives the school great ratings even with sub-par teachers.
—Submitted by a parent

IT IS RIDICULOUS THAT SPANISH TEACHER DOES NOT TALK IN ENGLISH TO MAKE THE STUDENTS UNDERSTAND SPANISH, BECAUSE SPANISH IS NOT THE MOTHER LANGUAGE OF THE STUDENTS. STUDENTS SHOULD UNDERSTAND SPANISH BY ENGLISH AND EASIER LESSON PLANS.A HONOR ROLL STUDENTS DON'T GET A HONOR ROLL BECAUSE OF THIS. ONE 7TH GRADE SPANISH TEACHER TALK ENGLISH TO MAKE STUDENTS UNDERSTAND, WHILE THE OTHER TEACHER DOES NOT. THIS IS NOT FAIR TO THE STUDENTS. THE SCHOOL SPENDS A LOT OF MONEY FOR OTHER UNNECESSARY THINGS BUT THEY DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO BUY EACH STUDENT A SPANISH TEXTBOOK. NORTH HILLS IS NOT ORGANIZED, ESPECIALLY THE TEACHERS. THE STAFF RUSHES EVERYONE AT THE END, AND MAKES MANY MISTAKES. THE TEACHERS OF NORTH HILLS SHOULD NOT MAKE MISTAKES, BECAUSE THIS IS A GOOD SCHOOL. WE WISH AND HOPE EVERYTHING IN NHP SHOULD BE PERFECT THAN ANY OTHER SCHOOL.
—Submitted by a parent

How on EARTH this school gets a positive rating is quite questionable. Some of the worst teachers -- well, the worst are gone now -- but this place was not what the information here indicates. Hopefully they have changed when they rid themselves of several terrible faculty members over the past three years or so.
—Submitted by a parent

We have been at North Hills for 5 years and this year we have a child in elementary, middle school and High School. We transferred from another school and I am always looking around and learning about other schools. I have to say that to date I have not found another school that compares. Academics and cultural diversity are celebrated. This new leadership tries to be flexible and attempts to show gratitude to parents. The kids themselves are lovely and accepting and curious of other races, cultures and of new kids. And, by the way, we have an incredible new building that houses science and the arts. My kids are happy to go to school and are even sad when summer vacation begins (they get over this pretty quickly) and happy when it resumes. They tell me that they wouldn't dream of going anywhere else. Nothing is perfect, but if ones children are demonstrably happy with their learning environment and doing exciting project work, I guess I should be happy too.
—Submitted by a parent

This school is very disorganized in the way they plan their lessons. In the beginning of the quarter, they relax, but at the end, they just pile work at you, and with all tension, it can fail you and cut you short from an honor roll.

Our family has been a part of North Hills Prep for 10+ years and we continue to be extremely satisfied with the social and academic environment it provides. North Hills Prep is a small school that attracts students from very diverse backgrounds and cultures - an amazing opportunity for our students. Our oldest graduated this year and was accepted into several elite colleges as were his classmates.
—Submitted by a parent

North Hills Middle and High School offer so many great programs thinking outside the box. The offer the International Bachelorette program (IB) which includes the Middle Years program (MYP). These programs offer so much to the kids in reference to accomplishing goals in more than one way. Thinking beyond what normal schools teach. The Theatre program incorporates all the other classes the kids take. They use algebra when measuring and taping off stages and building props, they use whatever the English teacher is teaching on what plays to do, etc. This school is amazing.

As parents we are disappointed with the direction in which this school is moving. Their primary program is very good, but the middle and upper school programs are becoming worse. Many talented students leave the school before they enter high school. The student population is more than 50% Asians (mostly Indian). The excellent ratings/rankings that this school receives are the result of hyper-involvement of Asian parents in their kids education, not because of anything the school does. Now, they are trying to dumb down the curriculum (discontinuing Accelerated Math program, encouraging teachers to give less homework, etc.). They treat excellent teachers shabbily but recognize mediocre teachers. They are overcrowded, understaffed, and their facilities are horrendous (science labs are just regular class rooms that lack basic safety features like wash sinks and shower facility; many teachers don t have dedicated classrooms; many upper school teachers teach AP and IB curriculum in the same class, etc.). They keep saying they are short of funds, but then they lavish money on unnecessary events like the upcoming college signing day where they have reserved the Moody Coliseum at SMU.
—Submitted by a parent

We've been at the school 10 years now - have a senior and a middle schooler. What a difference strong and effective leadership makes!!! NHP had become a school we were ready to pull our kids out of last year due to very poor leadership, an atmosphere of distrust and broken lines of communication. It never was like this, but a change in senior and MS directors over 3 years ago was disastrous! We're glad we decided to stick it out for another year (didn't have much choice with 1 child graduating!) and have been happy with the change in leadership at the school. the kids are happy, teacher morale is high, the administration listens to parents and takes the time to communicate.... Wonderful involved parents are a blessing at NHP! We particularly like the diversity, the strong history and english programs, creative art program (with limited facilities they do an incredible job!) and some dedicated teachers.
—Submitted by a parent

I am a student at NHP and it is the worst school I have ever attended! It is very rididulous and racist.

I love NHP, my son is a 6th grader and this is his firt year at NHP. He attended private school from K-5th grade. He is a A student in all of his classes, he is challenged academically. I find his teachers to be very nice and friendly. So glad I made the decision to apply to NHP.
—Submitted by a parent

I am also pulling my daughter out of North Hills after one. It was a disappointment to say the least. All they care about is preparing for the TAKS test and disipline. The teachers are rude, they don't return students e-mails when they have questions about school. They get mad if a student does not understand an assignment and asks questions. My daughter received her English text book in January, 6 months into the school year, your supposed to get them in the beginning of the school year, not when school is almost out for the year! Bad academics, poorly organized school. Oh well, back to private schools.
—Submitted by a parent

After 7 years at NHP I am pulling all my children out. It has definitely changed since Uplift took over. Poor facilities are one thing, but now the administration is actually harassing students. NHP has seen its best days.
—Submitted by a parent

I'm from North Hills myself and have gone there since 6th grade. It's a good school for people with good morals and high academic grades but thats it. For parents who have rebellious or below average kids you will be overwhelmed. Literally. I've seen a straight A student from a regular public school become a barely C one. If you enjoy challenges and close teacher student relationships then this school is for you. However if you're looking to put your trouble making child here in order to get them to college I suggest going elsewhere. Peer pressure here is not about drugs and being cool, it's about grades. But other than that our school has a 100% ratio of student going to college. Oh and let's not forget the art program. Next to Booker T's Art school from the VASE scores this past year we were second.
—Submitted by a student