Allen High School Eagle Vision

Eagle Vision is a series of annual seminars created to share information about how Allen High School works to ensure its students and parents have a clear understanding of available options and programs.

Texas High School Graduation Programs
The state of Texas offers three high school programs: The Minimum Plan, Recommended Plan, and the Distinguished Achievement Programs (DAP). Allen I.S.D. recommends that all of our students at least begin on the Recommended Plan. Students that wish to upgrade to the Distinguished Achievement Program can easily do so from the Recommended Plan. The DAP requires students to produce four additional measures of post-secondary quality. The measures normally attempted by students include: college classes (grade of 3.0 or above); Advanced Placement (exam grade of 3 or above); or International Baccalaureate exams (exam grade of 4 or above); or National Merit Scholar recognition.

State Testing Requirements
Texas requires that each student pass a series of examinations to be certified as a Texas high school graduate. The TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) exams are given for the final time in the 11th grade. It is important to note that students that do well on the exit-level TAKS are exempt from taking the state-college entrance assessment TASP (Texas Academic Skills Program). The thresholds for being exempt from TASP are: Reading - 89 on the Texas Learning Index (TLI); Mathematics-86 on the TLI; and Writing-a scale score of 1770.

Class Rank/Transcripts/Grade Point Averages
The State of Texas allows students in the Top Ten Percent of their graduation class to automatically enter state institutions based on their class rank. High School rank for students seeking automatic admission to a general academic teaching institution on the basis of their class rank is determined and reported as follows:
• Class rank shall be based on the end of the 11th grade, middle of the 12th grade, or at high school graduation, whichever is most recent at the application deadline.

• The top 10% of a high school class cannot include more than 10% of the class at the time the transcript is issued.

• The student's rank shall be reported by the applicant's high school or school district as a specific number our of a specific number total class size. An example is the 80th ranked student in a class of 950 is reported as 80/950,

• Class rank shall be determined by the school and school district from which the student graduated or is expected to graduate.

PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Program
The College Board sponsors the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) that allows juniors to qualify as National Merit Scholars. Over 700 AHS students, approximately 550 sophomores and 150 juniors, took the PSAT in October 2002. Students that score above a 170 on the Selection Index their sophomore year are considered good candidates for becoming NMS semi-finalists. The cut-off index last year for National Merit Scholar semi-finalists was 212. The index threshold changes based on the fixed number of students that receive National Merit Scholar recognition each year.