Good Private Schools in Cobb County

[RainyRainyDay]

Originally Posted by arjay57

The Cobb school system is now majority minority, right?

I think that's true but perhaps not really meaningful when comparing specific schools because the demographics vary so much. For example, the student population at the Cobb high school my daughter attends is almost entirely white.

[Marsha33]

Originally Posted by suprascooby22

Nothing but the cost of housing. The area that Harrison pulls from has far fewer low end homes than McEachern or Hillgrove and many more subdivisions over $300K.

But there are a lot of minorities who own homes in that price range. The location must be a factor. For that price, there may be more attractive options.

[Encyclopedia Brown]

I must say every time I read this city data forum I want to vomit. Here's my background and it is going to appear that I'm bragging but if it is true then it is not really bragging, but simply a stmt of facts. From grade school to high school I always had the highest grade point average in the school, or at the very least in my grade level. I went to the best public schools in Augusta, GA and the high school I attended was ranked #1 in the nation during my tenure. I was valedictorian of my class. My IQ was tested when I was younger and qualified in the genius range of 145-200's. I graduated from Emory University and have attended several other colleges and universities for law school, physical therapy, and multi-media and web design as I always like being a professional student and saw myself as a Renaissance person. My son, who is 5 years old, started sight reading before 18 mos, spelling words around 2 yrs, and currently is on par with 2nd or 3rd grade math student and I am most certain, although he has not been tested, that his IQ far surpasses mine or my very brilliant husband's. My husband also attended a highly ranked high school in NYC, went to UVA as an architecture student, and holds 2 master degrees - one in bldg construction and the other is a MBA with a concentration in Real Estate Development. Now I think any school would be blessed to have me, my husband, and/or my children attend. I am black and the way many of you speak of minorities on here you would think just because you are black you are seriously mentally and educationally deficient and if you are white you are naturally the next Stephen Hawking. I wonder what those of Asian descent think of this discussion since based on stats they as a group score the highest on standardized tests and outperform all other groups scholastically in school.

[LovelySummer]

Encyclopedia,

The two classless people engaging in this ignorant comments (SuperScooby and Marsha) are not worth the time that you took to type your response. People who are racist will simply say that you are an anomaly. Why do you care what they think or say? There are people who wish we could go back to the days of Jim Crow and will say so. (shrug - who cares)

I just find it ironic that the original poster has gotten involved in a conversation about what minorities have money to live where when she lives in a crap sh*t part of cobb without even a good elementary school and has repeatedly said she doesn't have the money for this private school or that private school ... and yet she is talking about other people. Insane.

Anyway, I apologize in advance for my language but it is really just ridiculous in this day and age to engage in such conversations. Everyone knows that race has nothing to do with intelligence, class, etc. There are people of all classes, intelligence levels, economic levels in all races.

[LovelySummer]

RCSteiner,
I am from the midwest also so thought I'd chime in.
I am also a product of public schools - right up until lawschool, where I went private for the first time.
However, I am looking at private schools now for our son.

Why? Well, RCSteiner, it looks like you hail from Minnesota. Minnesota has one of the best public school systems in the country so it makes sense to think public school. However, when my family relocated to Georgia, I was near my last year of HS. I went from being ranked in top third of my public high school up north to being ranked in the top ten in my HS in Georgia. I wish I had one of those shocked-face icons because that was the look on my face when they told me I was in the top ten. I also achieved the second highest SAT score in my school...and I barely studied as I was one of those smart kids that liked to goof off and not really apply myself. So, here I am with an SAT score only behind the valedictorian and I barely studied.

So, my concern, and the concern of many others who may come from other school systems out of state, is that even the "good" schools in Georgia might be a tad bit behind some of the other good public schools in other states. Historically, Georgia hasn't been high on the list of states with good educational systems, so it may be a little scary for parents coming from out of state. And Atlanta has alot of people coming here from out of state.

So, the relative strength of the state public schools in general (compared to other state systems) could be factor as to why parents are looking at private schools (even in the face of apparent good public schools in Georgia).

[David1502]

Originally Posted by LovelySummer

Encyclopedia,

The two classless people engaging in this ignorant comments (SuperScooby and Marsha) are not worth the time that you took to type your response. People who are racist will simply say that you are an anomaly. Why do you care what they think or say? There are people who wish we could go back to the days of Jim Crow and will say so. (shrug - who cares)

I just find it ironic that the original poster has gotten involved in a conversation about what minorities have money to live where when she lives in a crap sh*t part of cobb without even a good elementary school and has repeatedly said she doesn't have the money for this private school or that private school ... and yet she is talking about other people. Insane.

Anyway, I apologize in advance for my language but it is really just ridiculous in this day and age to engage in such conversations. Everyone knows that race has nothing to do with intelligence, class, etc. There are people of all classes, intelligence levels, economic levels in all races.

Your comments are the upmost in hypocrisy - saying " when she lives in a crap sh*t part of cobb without even a good elementary school and has repeatedly said she doesn't have the money for this private school or that private school " Talk about the "pot calling the kettle black."

Instead of having empathy for this woman who happens to live south of Dallas Highway, you make a snoddy remark about her neighborhood. Not everyone can afford to live in East Cobb or north of Dallas Highway (in fact a good portion of Cobb lives outside of those areas) and not everyone can afford a private school. However, that dosen't stop those who live in less expensive areas from wanting a quality education for their children.

The reality of education in the Metro Atlanta area is that those school districts in which the overwhelming majority of the students come from single family owner occupied housing have better test scores (and those from more expensively priced homes perform best of all). On the other hand, those schools which draw from areas with a large number of apartments or rental houses have schools with disapointing test scores. You can see this reality played out in the Smyrna area. Presently, the majority of the students attending Smyrna public schools come from mult-family housing (namely apartments) and as a result, the Smyrna schools perform poorly on standardized tests. Consequently many families leave Smyrna and move to East Cobb (or elsewhere) when their children reach school age. So, in response to this pattern, many citizens are in the process of creating a charter school, called Smyrna Academy to address this need for quality education in the Smyrna area.

You can make disparaging comments about these parents, but why shouldn't their children receive as good an education as those who live in the Walton District? Why should their children not be as challenged just because a majority of the students in their school come from disadvantaged backgrounds often moving from one apartment complex to the next?

I feel sorry for Marsha (and other parents in a similar situation) who find that their home is now in a less desirable school district and they face a challenge of either moving to a more expensive area or paying for private school to get a good education for their children. Making insulting comments about her area is not going to improve the situation.

[LovelySummer]

David,
My point was that Marsha was engaging in a racist conversation with another member posting on the thread. Did you read the thread? She and another person are concerned about people of color coming into the schools. Maybe that is ok for you but that is not right and it is all too often accepted. My post was to point out the irony - someone who is herself looking for better education and cannot move to an area that is better is putting down others. Makes no sense whatsoever. Get it now?