5 W Reduced
Austin, TX 78731

Highland Park has a mix of great and horrible teachers in each grade. We had some years that were amazing due to the teacher and other years that were hardly tolerable. Overall, it is fine and better than most AISD elementary schools. The building is in pretty bad shape. The biggest issue we have run into is 5th grade math. In 5th grade, the number of kids per class cap lifts, and our year had 34 kids in the math class. In addition, despite tons of feedback each year from parents, the 5th grade math teacher does not teach math like any of the surrounding schools. The kids are thus not ready for middle school math - everyone we know is doing tutoring or Mathnasium this summer to get caught up. My high-achieving child moved DOWN in math quantile due to the math teacher - she teaches every kid like they are too dumb to understand things like multiplication or division. These kids are not ready for their feeder school math - Lamar, and not ready for Kealing, ARS or private either. Parents are told not to teach their kids algorithms and kids get in trouble for using them in class. It's like remedial math for all. Super disappointing to start out behind in middle school due to this.