My wife and I moved into our house before we had children, and schools were not part of our decision-making process. Many years later, we are thankful that we were fortunate enough to move where we did. Westwood High School is a fantastic learning environment, and is very high in national rankings. The International Baccalaureate program is a wonderful program for gifted and motivated students. If you want your child to be ready for an excellent college career, WHS will do a fine job of preparing them.

Westwood does not deserve its high ranking in national publications.Students are routinely asked to complete over an hour of homework in each subject, and when they go in for extra help, often encounter teachers who are not supportive and who tell them they should get this and this is easy, why are you here. There are some teachers at Westwood for whom it is a calling rather than a paycheck (and I thank my lucky stars when my child gets one), but far too many teachers there have decided that quantity equals quality and bury the students in work and pretend that its good teaching. Large numbers of students are required to get tutoring outside school to keep up, not to mention the ones that end up in therapy or counseling because of the anxiety and feelings of inadequacy that such a structure generates when the student cannot keep up with reasonable effort. It feels like you cannot do well at Westwood as a student and have a life..When problems arise, the school is far from sympathetic. Even excused absences due to illness or a family death do not actually excuse the student from work. They are still expected to keep up and are punished with the same penalties (such as not exempting finals and attending detention) as students who are simply skipping school. Students are told it doesnt matter why you were absent, or if youve kept an above average grade during the difficult time, it is policy that they be punished regardless.Westwood also offers a more limited selection of courses than much smaller high schools. There is very little diversity in subjects that are outside the fine arts or STEM academy umbrella. English is simply English 1, 2, 3, etc rather than offering the chance to focus on specific eras or authors. You can take costume design or medical terminology, but you cannot take a semester course in Shakespeare, ecology, or even shop (because not every kid is going to be a doctor, engineer, or lawyer).On that same note, Westwood does not offer any basic life skills/health class where students would learn budgeting, resume writing, public speaking and other necessities. There doesnt need to be a lot here, but a semester course would go a long way toward preparing students for life in and after college.High School is supposed to prepare kids for life and college, but I know several parents whove told me their child burned out at Westwood and did not complete college or delayed a year to recover from the stress. While I appreciate that students say that compared to Westwood, college was easy, high school should offer students the opportunity to explore not only where their academic future lies but also have the time to explore who they are through clubs, social activities, and afterschool jobs. Westwood does not allow for the development of a well-rounded and therefore well-prepared student and that makes its education not rigorous and elite, but problematic.

I havent even gone here yet and I can tell it will be better than cvms

Commonly referred to as Westwood University this school is one of the hardest high schools in the state. It has great IB and AP courses and can easily prepare you for college. With many diverse yet educated teachers and a dedicated AF JROTC Program, this school is perfect for the student looking to impress colleges or just prepare them selves.Yet, the cafeteria is poorly maintained and the tables are mopped with the same mop that is used on the floor. The food is lacking in quality and sometimes the school refuses to buy new ingredients and uses bad, or even expired ingredients. The organization in this school is lacking. In many cases teachers end up teaching at a pace that benefits most of the class, but not all of it, leaving students failing and struggling to catch up. And instead of facing this problem, the teachers commonly ignore it.Overall this school is good, but as every other school, it has flaws. I believe it deserves four stars for this since five would imply perfection.

They give too much HW and all the teachers are diff...some give more and some give less. all the teachers should give the student who is taking the same course and is in the same level same HW and activities. THE END peace out :)GO WOOD!

Probably one of the best schools in Texas not only in the text books but also some of the friendliest teachers youll ever meet by far this is a great school

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Westwood Highschool Classes. The content is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of time management most of the material will go over a typical student’s head. There’s also the teacher’s nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The students understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of this content, to realise that they’re not just deep- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Westwood High School truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn’t appreciate, for instance, the humour in Mr. Acostas existential catchphrase “Gooooooooooo wood,” which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev’s Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I’m smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as RRISD’s genius wit unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools.. how I pity them.And yes, by the way, I DO have a Westwood tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It’s for the ladies’ eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they’re within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothing personal kid 😎

Good school. Difficult but worth it. Parts of building are old but look fine to me.

Great school! great teachers. and the building is really big! youll learn alot there

Good environment and really prepares you for colleges if you take the right classes and work hard!

Great school so far, I transferred for the IB program and so far Im doing well and liking it. Most of my teachers are nice, supportive, and are genuinely good at their job. My counselor is super helpful btw. Also, WW debate program is top notch! Only two complaints: from what Ive experienced and heard from friends, on-level classes are not helpful at all and teachers for on-level seem to be less involved in the learning process than AP/IB teachers. Other is that the cafeteria runs out of some of the meal included items by C lunch, forcing anyone with an appetite (you know, those of us balancing rigourous academics, sports, and everything else about life) to buy the à la carte--cue the how did you spend $200 in a couple months from your mum.GO WOOD!

As a current student who is about to graduate from Westwood, I think it is fair that I can make an educated opinion about Westwood since Ive gone here for all four years of high school. Freshman year I did mostly all AP (advanced placement) classes, sophomore year I did a couple, and after that I dropped into all regular classes. After taking AP classes, let me tell you that if you are in regular classes at this school, that is any class not AP or IB (even harder than AP), then they do not care about you. Be prepared to get the washed up teachers (the coaches and teachers who have been there forever and cant wait to leave) the worst classrooms, the least amount of educational resources (why fund the idiots when you can fund the AP and IB kids?), and quite possibly one of the worst educations of all time. Unless you are willing to push your kids to do 4+ hours of homework every night, spend any free time studying and not be a well-rounded, contributing member of society, then Westwood is not the school for you. However, if you are one of the many who are unlucky and have to go to Westwood and plan to take regular classes, a word of advice from me would be to make sure you have some fun games on your phone and a portable charger, since more than likely it will be dead by the time you reach your third class. For those of you who might not believe me because you have heard such rave reviews about Westwood and maybe I just had a bad experience, let me tell you about my day today. This is just today (which I believe fairly represents the past two years) and I would like to also point out that there are 30 other kids in each of the classes that Im going to describe, so it was their days too. First I went to English. The unit that were in, I couldnt even tell you what the objective is, but were reading the book Kaffir Boy (about a black South African and the daily struggles of his life growing up with apartheid, which includes an extremely detailed prostitution scene, page 72 if you want to read it but beware youll never be able to un-read it), and have so far watched four movies, one of which is Power of One, a movie where you get to see multiple beatings of South Africans that I dont even think grown adults could handle watching. Second I went to math, where we are reviewing a test we recently took. My teacher thought it would be a great idea to separate us into groups to review the problems that we missed, so she took the six kids who scored the best, put them in a group, and took the rest of us and put us in our own separate groups of four. After the groups were made, she went over to the smart group and said, I quote I put you all in a group together so you could figure out the ones you missed on your OWN level. I mean if thats not degrading then I dont know what is. After math, I went to government, where we got a bunch of handouts because my teacher didnt feel like reading off a powerpoint (teaching us apparently isnt what he gets paid to do.) He gave us a word search that was the key (he accidentally made class copies of the key rather than the work) and decided that oh whatever, you all get free 100s (this Im not complaining about, I just think its a joke). After he handed out our papers we sat there for the rest of class playing games on our phones and talking (like I said, dont forget your portable chargers!) My point in making this review is not to complain about a bad day, but to share with everyone who reads it how poor of a school Westwood actually is. And like I said, unless you are in AP or IB classes, they DO NOT care about you. It is not a school of great academic achievement, but one filled with mediocrity, that I wasted four valuable years not getting an education, but basically being babysat.

People are only giving 1 star ratings because of how rigorous the school is. The education is worth it.

Better than your faves. 10/10 would Westwood again.

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Great school with good teachers and faculty.

It is great, we want visit again.

Is gud,but 5/5 are just lies

I love this school

I lost my virginity in the janitor closet

I like this school

The reviews are boosted

Best school ever!!!!!😝😝😝😝

I wanna die

To much stress