Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Plano Senior High School

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[edit] Plano Senior High School

I have been working on this article for a long time with the help of such other school editors as User:Harro5, User:Staxringold, User:Bishonen, and others from the school project. It is listed as a good article and is a showcase article at the schools portal. It features mostly GFDL and PD photographs and cites a multitude of sources to verify its content. It has undergone a significant peer review and further editing by many editors. I believe that it is ready for the rigors of FAC! — Scm83x ^{hook 'em} 08:49, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

• Support as nominator. — Scm83x ^{hook 'em} 08:49, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
• Strong support. Another in a small but quality group of high school articles that cannot be faulted. Harro5 12:10, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
• Support, fits criteria nicely. Finally, a good school article! — Wackymacs 15:09, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
• Oppose (for now) - the article is good, I like most of it, but:
  • The 'extracurriculars' section is incomprehensible to a non-American. Can that be translated into straight English (What is 'an enrollment'? I could guess this, maybe, but what is an 'enrollment for competitive purposes?', what does 'district 8 of the 5A class' mean?, how can its enrollment not be an integer?, and so on).
    • "Enrollment for competitive purposes" is explained in the next sentence: "This is the number used by the UIL when determining what other schools Plano competes against in all academics and academic competitions".
    • The district and class divisions are explained on the University Interscholastic League page.
    • The fractional enrollment is explained at the end of the paragraph: "The number is fractional because Jasper High School, one of Plano's feeder schools, is also a feeder school for Plano West Senior High School, and therefore the enrollment is split." — Scm83x ^{hook 'em} 17:46, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
      • I think more I'm just intrigued by how the whole thing works ... is there a page on all this that explains it to those who weren't schooled in the US? Proto||type 08:36, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
  • The fact that there are 3 short paragraphs on teaching methods and academics, and 11 on extracurriculars (sports, bands, competitions) plus two tables says a lot about prevalent attitudes towards the scholastic system in the US. I'd like to see more about how the school teaches, what its methods are, and so on.
    • Because Plano is a public school, there isn't really anything special about the teaching methods that they use. Furthermore, there isn't any information about what teaching methods they use. There isn't really much more that could be said here, and I feel like adding some information on something I have no sources on would bring down the quality of the article. — Scm83x ^{hook 'em} 17:46, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
      • Fair enough - but anything you could find would be useful. Proto||type 08:36, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
  • The claim that has a 'long history of academic excellence' - prove it, or remove it. I see reference to it currently having a high standard (second best in Advanced Placements issued in the US at the moment, but that's it).
    • The claim of academic excellence that Plano states on their website is based on the events of the History section. Some examples of this claim:
      • "By the mid-1910s, a majority of the graduating class, as much as eighty percent, matriculated to an institute of higher learning"
      • "According to the 1915 Plano Review, "The University of Texas probably draws more students from Plano than any one other institution."
      • "The Review goes on to state that "no town in Texas, in proportion to its size, has more students in higher institutions of learning than Plano."— Scm83x ^{hook 'em} 17:46, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
        • Good stuff. Proto||type 08:36, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
  • Add years to the access dates of your URLs.
    • Done. And thank you for your comments, in general! — Scm83x ^{hook 'em} 17:46, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

That's it for now.Proto||type 15:27, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

• Changed to support after my nitpickery was dealt with - good work Mr 83x! Proto||type 08:36, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

• Support Welcome welcome to high school FA #3#4! Staxringold _talk^contribs 19:33, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
• Support, good stuff. Everyking 03:45, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
• Support. Ronline ✉ 10:08, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
• Some minor things—use   in between numbers and units, and make sure that all dates are fully linked (not just the month and day). I've fixed a few of these. Also, why use the 24-hour clock in an article on a US subject ("Academics")? --Spangineer^[es] (háblame) 12:51, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
  • Thanks for that, Spangineer! The last supporter, Ronline, changed the times to 24 hour and I have not been able to find an MoS standard. It seemed to me like it was similar to British/American English split: use British in British topic articles and American in American topics. So I thought 12 hour would be the right choice. Being the MoS date guru that you are, what is your opinion? — Scm83x ^{hook 'em} 17:30, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
• Support. All the nitpickery I have been able to come up with was dealt with before nomination, and this article is now IMO very neat and well-balanced, with one of the best history sections I've seen in a school article. Much credit to the hard work and enthusiasm of Scm83x. Bishonen | talk 18:42, 9 June 2006 (UTC).

• Comment—What does the title "Academics" mean? There are two such titles. I don't like the fuzzy plural of "Extracurriculars", another title. Is this word suddenly a noun? Tony 01:43, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Under the extracurriculars heading, academics refers to academic extracurriculars that have achieved notability (e.g. Math Club or Debate, as opposed to football or band). After your comments, I see that extracurriculars should become "Extracurricular activities". These activities are often referred to colloquially as "extracurriculars" in Plano and Texas in general, I've found. But, adding "activities" would be more correct as extracurricular is an adj. and not a noun, strictly. Thanks for the commentary! — Scm83x ^{hook 'em} 02:14, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

• Comment - what's the 'The 1900 Plano football team, the school's first' caption about? --Missmarple 22:27, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
  • I'm not sure I understand what you mean, but the caption is meant to say something along the lines of "The 1900 Plano football team was the school's first athletic team." I will change it now. — Scm83x ^{hook 'em} 22:30, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
• Support Well done. The last thing to source is a few alums, but that should be easy. --Rob 05:05, 15 June 2006 (UTC)