Education

Colleges and universities UT Dallas Student Services Building - A LEED Platinum Building

The University of Texas at Dallas, also referred to as UT Dallas or UTD, is a public research university in the University of Texas System. Despite its name the UT Dallas main campus, consisting of approximately 445 acres (1.80 km2), is within the Richardson city limits at 800 West Campbell Road. The campus is sited with Campbell Road on the south, Floyd Road on the east, Waterview on the west, and Synergy Park Boulevard on the north. The university owns an additional 265 acres (1.07 km2) in Richardson, adjacent to the campus, between Synergy Park Boulevard and the President George Bush Turnpike. The city of Richardson passed a bond election on May 8, 2010, which allocated $2.8 million in funding for a UT Dallas loop road to connect the roads around campus. The loop road will be designed to help keep traffic contained within the campus, rather than on the city’s roads. The UTD Student Services building, completed in 2010, is the first academic structure in Texas to be rated a LEED Platinum facility by the United States Green Building Council. For the fall 2011 semester, UT Dallas had a total of 18,864 students enrolled.

Richland College is a community college that is part of the Dallas County Community College District or DCCCD. The college is in Dallas on the Richardson border. It is the largest school in the DCCCD, featuring nearly 14,000 students. In 2005, Richland became the first community college to receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Primary and secondary schools Public schools

The city is served by the Richardson Independent School District (RISD), except for the portion of the city in Collin County, which is served by the Plano Independent School District (PISD).

Twenty-one RISD schools have officially been named to the Texas Business and Education Coalition's (TBEC) Honor Roll for 2008, the second consecutive year RISD has led the state of Texas in Honor Roll Campuses. The TBEC Honor Roll is the most prestigious award for sustained, academic excellence in Texas. It recognizes schools that have demonstrated three years of consistent, high performance in all subjects compared to other schools serving similar student populations. Of the more than 8,000 Texas public schools less than 4% make the TBEC Honor Roll, while in RISD, 40% of eligible campuses are Honor Roll Schools for 2008.

The RISD and PISD have many Blue Ribbon Schools. The Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States government program created to honor schools. The Blue Ribbon award is considered to be the highest honor that an American school can achieve.

Zoned RISD high schools in Richardson include Richardson High School, Lloyd V. Berkner High School, and J.J. Pearce High School. The Christa McAuliffe Learning Center and the RISD alternative school, are also in Richardson. Lake Highlands High School is part of the Richardson Independent School District but is located in Lake Highlands, an area in Dallas just south of Richardson.

Sections of Richardson in the Plano Independent School District are served by several schools. Aldridge, Miller, Schell, and Stinson elementary schools are within Richardson and serve Collin County portions of Richardson. A section of Collin County Richardson is zoned to Mendenhall Elementary School in Plano. Armstrong, Bowman, and Wilson middle schools in Plano and Murphy Middle School in Murphy serve separate sections of Collin County Richardson. Vines High School and T. H. Williams High School, 9-10 schools in Plano, serve separate sections of Collin County Richardson. Plano Senior High School and Plano East Senior High School serve separate sections of Collin County Richardson. Prior to 2007 a section was zoned to Boggess Elementary School in Murphy.

Private schools

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas operates two K-8 schools, St. Joseph School and St. Paul the Apostle School, in Richardson. Other private schools include Canyon Creek Christian Academy (K-12), North Dallas Adventist Academy (K-12), IANT Quranic Academy (K-12), The Alexander School (8-12), Dallas North Montessori School (ages 3–9), and Peace Academy Magnet School (K-12).

Public libraries

The Richardson Public Library is located at 900 Civic Center Drive at the southwest corner of U.S. Route 75 (North Central Expressway) and Arapaho Road.

The roots of the Richardson Public Library date back to 1947 when a branch of the Dallas County Library was established in a section of the Cash Dry Goods store on East Main Street in downtown Richardson. The fledgling library collection numbered about 400 volumes and was managed by Jessie Durham the store's proprietor. The City Council established the library as a city department in 1958 and in 1959 the library moved into a newly constructed building at 310 Tyler Street. This new library was just under 6,000 square feet (560 m2) in size and was built at a cost of $100,000.

Richardson was experiencing rapid growth in the 1960s and 1970s, and the library facility soon became inadequate for community needs. The current facility was constructed at a cost of $2 million and opened December 1, 1970. The new 81,650-square-foot (7,586 m2), four-story building opened with the use of two floors and a small portion of a third. The basement was finished in 1980 for the reference collection and services. 1995 saw another expansion which finished the upper floor and renovated the three previously opened floors. Another renovation occurred in 2006 when the Youth Services department was expanded and other collections and services rearranged.

In 2008 the library set a new record for the number of items circulated in a fiscal year when the 1 millionth item was checked out in the fall of 2008. The building has undergone building renovations and technological improvements in recent years that enhance the library experience for patrons.

The Texas Municipal League recognized the library with its "Achievement of Excellence in Libraries" award every year from 2004 to 2008. Hennen's American Public Library Rating publication has ranked the library second in the state of Texas every year from 2005 to 2008.