Plano Independent School District - Academics and Honors

Academics and Honors

All three of PISD's senior high schools were recently listed in the top 250 of Newsweek's list of 1000 top high schools in America. In the 2012 list, Plano West Senior High School was ranked as 63rd in the country, Plano Senior High School was ranked 108th, and Plano East Senior High School was ranked 243rd. In 2011, Plano West Senior High had been ranked 98 on Newsweek's "America's Best High Schools," and Plano East Senior High had been ranked 461. Plano ISD schools reportedly administer more Advanced Placement tests than any other school district west of the Mississippi River.

Plano ISD will open two magnet high schools in the 2013-2014 school year. The first "Academy High School" will focus on STEM education, with an added emphasis on arts. The school will house grades 9-12 on its own campus. The second magnet will focus on Health science, and will be housed at Williams High School for grades 9-10, and Plano East Senior High School for grades 11-12. Additionally, the district is modifying its existing International Baccalaureate program so that all four grades will be housed at Plano East Senior High as a "school within a school".

The mean SAT score (math plus reading) for the district is 1152 out of 1600, and the mean ACT (test) composite score is 25.7, with 83.5% of district students taking the SAT or ACT. 43.4% of district students take AP or IB courses, and 84.3% of those students pass their AP or IB exam(s). Plano ISD offers all AP courses except AP Italian Language and Culture and AP Japanese Language and Culture to students.

In the 2012-2013 school year, Plano ISD had 128 students named National Merit Semifinalists, more than any other Texas school district. Also in the 2012-2013 school year, ten PISD students were named semifinalists in the Siemens Competition, and two were named as finalists. In the state of Texas, a total of thirty eight and eleven students, respectively, captured those honors in the Siemens competition. In the 2011-2012 school year, 76 students were selected as All-state musicians.