Opinions on various high schools (Atlanta, Valdosta: 2013, apartment complexes, homes)
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Just curious what some people with experience with some of these schools or have some kind of knowledge of them think...Trying to get an idea...as examples:
1. How safe is the school, are there security guards? Lots of fights? Trouble? etc.
2. How are the academics? Lots of students move on to higher education?
3. Lots of extracurricular activities?
4. Any particular area the school really shines? e.g., Top rated music program? Nationally recognized for science? Top soccer program in state? etc.
5. What is the area around the school like?
6. Any signs of the school improving or going down hill?
7. How 'snooby', 'elitist' is the student and/or parent culture?
8. How urban vs. suburban is the atmosphere
The schools I'm curious about are: Lakeside
Grady
Chamblee
Norcross
Druid Hills
Tucker
North Springs
Decatur
I am a student at Chamblee Charter High School, so I feel a bit inclined to answer your question, at least for that school.
1. How safe is the school, are there security guards? Lots of fights? Trouble? etc.
At Chamblee, there are two security guards and one school resource officer. This is usually enough, and I've never encountered any problems with this. Chamblee is special, in the sense that there are many people of many backgrounds attending the school. The people I hang out with consistently make Honors, have good grades, and never get into fights. But there are students who always insist on making trouble. However, when compared to most schools, Chamblee is still very tame.
You may have heard about recent break-ins on television. Somebody had broken into a few trailers and stole computers, but it was nothing major and the event occured when the school was deserted. Since then, a new security system has been put in place.
2. How are the academics? Lots of students move on to higher education?
I do not have numbers, but I can assure you the academics are among the best in Metro Atlanta. As of 2009, Chamblee ranks 10th in the State and the best in Dekalb for SAT scores (Top 25 Georgia high schools by average SAT scores *| ajc.com), and a very large percentage of the senior class graduates. Chamblee offers Resident, Charter, Magnet, and Honors programs, over 50 clubs and organizations, 10 varsity sports, and 22 AP Classes ranging from AP Biology to AP Calculus BC. Pass rates for the exams are high, especially in the Social Studies and Math departments.
Personally, I have senior friends that have been accepted to UGA, Georgia Tech, MIT, Northwestern, the University of Chicago, Yale, Cornell, Auburn, Purdue, Texas A&M, Florida, and Georgia State, to name a few. We're sending a lot of folks to college, at least.
3. Lots of extracurricular activities?
Yep! From wrestling to marching band to cross training to anime, this school probably has it.
4. Any particular area the school really shines? e.g., Top rated music program? Nationally recognized for science? Top soccer program in state? etc.
Our math department is outstanding, and math students, some of them even taking college sophomore-year Multivariable Calculus, participate in math competitions and frequently score high on it, if not perfect. We send a lot of kids to the Governor's Honor Program in Valdosta, and our basketball team has nationally ranked players on it. Otherwise, our soccer team performs well, and our chorus and orchestra routinely score superior grades at their examinations.
5. What is the area around the school like?
To Chamblee's immediate south is North Dekalb Stadium (the only high school in Dekalb County adjacent to a stadium), and the neighborhood of Sexton Woods, where the middle school is located. It's a quiet and generally friendly place, and consists of single-family homes. The same could be said for Chamblee's North and West as well. However, to Chamblee's east lies Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, the City of Chamblee's main thoroughfare. Save for the abandoned apartment complexes being torn down to build our new school (more on that later), Many shops and stores lie here (Chick-Fil-A and McDonalds are big favorites after school), and a lot of students catch MARTA and such here too. The only potential safety risk is that sometimes, banks and establishments can get robbed (a SunTrust and a Bank of America were hit on two separate occasions this past year), but so far this hasn't posed any risk to the school or it's students.
6. Any signs of the school improving or going down hill?
There are no immediate signs of decay, and because of how utterly unrepresentative No Child Left Behind can be, I'll omit anything that has to deal with that evaluation. Otherwise, be aware that the school is currently undergoing reconstruction, due for completion August 2013, and currently a little more than half of the school is stretched out across 39 trailers, and the ones left inside deal with a crumbling building last added on to in 1967. The new building will be state-of-the-art, with everything a child would ever need to learn, but until then, we are having to endure.
The stress of construction (and only having one athletic field) may be putting a damper on the school's mood, but hopefully once construction gets moving, things will get better.
7. How 'snooby', 'elitist' is the student and/or parent culture
I'm not a parent, so I can't answer this. I can tell you that the parents at Chamblee are very strong though (not as strong as they are in Dunwoody -_-), and as far as their kids go, they do push their children to succeed.
8. How urban vs. suburban is the atmosphere
The new Chamblee will have a very modern, very urban feel to it. Otherwise, the neighborhoods are decidedly suburban, and everything from the 50's style homes down the street to the concrete pastures that pass as parking lots at the shopping center down the street will reaffirm that.
That was really a great answer. Very impressive. I am curious, are you in the magnet program. It is my understanding that Chamblee is really several schools in one and for students in the magnet program, or for upperclassmen eligible to take the magnet classes, it is a much more positive experience. (Better teachers, much fewer discipline problems, etc.)
I will add, as a parent, that students from Chamblee come from all over the county and socially, this can be a challenge, especially on weekends. If you don't want to traverse (or for your child to traverse) across DeKalb for social reasons, Chamblee may not be a good choice.
In general, Norcross and N. Springs would be my pick for high schools for most students over the DeKalb schools you listed. If a student isn't eligible for the highest level courses, at most DeKalb high schools, their experience will be a mixed bag. Even when eligible, it can be a mixed one.
Gwinnett and Fulton are simply stronger systems and Fulton spends more per student than DeKalb and it generally shows.
WOW...HayateWind, great reply! Thanks so much, that was VERY helpful. Chamblee is definately bumped on our list now, I really didn't know much about it but after reading your post definately have a much better impression!
If your writing is any indication of how smart and well spoken students there are, then I'm definately sold
That was really a great answer. Very impressive. I am curious, are you in the magnet program. It is my understanding that Chamblee is really several schools in one and for students in the magnet program, or for upperclassmen eligible to take the magnet classes, it is a much more positive experience. (Better teachers, much fewer discipline problems, etc.)
I will add, as a parent, that students from Chamblee come from all over the county and socially, this can be a challenge, especially on weekends. If you don't want to traverse (or for your child to traverse) across DeKalb for social reasons, Chamblee may not be a good choice.
In general, Norcross and N. Springs would be my pick for high schools for most students over the DeKalb schools you listed. If a student isn't eligible for the highest level courses, at most DeKalb high schools, their experience will be a mixed bag. Even when eligible, it can be a mixed one.
Gwinnett and Fulton are simply stronger systems and Fulton spends more per student than DeKalb and it generally shows.
See I've heard that quite a few times before. Everybody seems to say just in general to avoid DeKalb schools period. But then you look at the school rating sites and various things like that and DeKalb schools all seem to either be rated horrible or very good. Decatur, Chamblee, Lakeside all seem to rate pretty high...thats why i'm posting here hoping to get more real world opinions and advice!
Decatur is actually in the City of Decatur system, which is separate from DeKalb altogether. The City of Decatur school system is very small, with about 5 elementary schools, 1 middle and 1 high. It also has very different demographics than DeKalb. Decatur City Schools has a free and reduced lunch rate of 22 percent, which is actually shrinking each year, and DeKalb has a 71 percent free and reduced lunch rate which is growing each year.
I am curious what ratings you are looking at. It is important to note that at Chamblee High, the magnet program really skews test scores and is not an experience that is open to all students. Here are the most recent SAT averages for DeKalb high schools. You will see that Tucker's scores more closely resemble many other DeKalb high schools than the ones you listed.
This isn't to say that students aren't getting good educations at many of these schools. It is just critical that a student take only gifted/honors courses and AP classes for most of their course load.
Decatur is actually in the City of Decatur system, which is separate from DeKalb altogether. The City of Decatur school system is very small, with about 5 elementary schools, 1 middle and 1 high. It also has very different demographics than DeKalb. Decatur City Schools has a free and reduced lunch rate of 22 percent, which is actually shrinking each year, and DeKalb has a 71 percent free and reduced lunch rate which is growing each year.
I am curious what ratings you are looking at. It is important to note that at Chamblee High, the magnet program really skews test scores and is not an experience that is open to all students. Here are the most recent SAT averages for DeKalb high schools. You will see that Tucker's scores more closely resemble many other DeKalb high schools than the ones you listed.
This isn't to say that students aren't getting good educations at many of these schools. It is just critical that a student take only gifted/honors courses and AP classes for most of their course load.
Thanks for the info, those links are really helpful! The ratings I saw were just from greatschools.net, and two other websites though I hate to say I can't remember the name of them.
Yeah I forgot that about Decatur schools, the good ones aren't DeKalb and are city schools. We're kinda giving up on Decatur anyway, hard to find a place there, housing is in high demand.
Well from those scores, although as you said it is skewed, Chamblee and Lakeside look to be pretty good, much higher than the state average and even blow away Dunwoody. Tucker, looks like lines up with what you said, resembles more the rest of DeKalb. I'm curious, Druid Hills had about average scores and looks like had a big drop in just the last year.
That was really a great answer. Very impressive. I am curious, are you in the magnet program. It is my understanding that Chamblee is really several schools in one and for students in the magnet program, or for upperclassmen eligible to take the magnet classes, it is a much more positive experience. (Better teachers, much fewer discipline problems, etc.)
Yes, I am in the magnet program. My home school is Southwest Dekalb High School, but I came up through the Kittridge --> Chamblee MS --> Chamblee High Route, and that's how I ended up at Chamblee.
As a result, I haven't been in many of the general classes, but the atmosphere of the magnet classes is one that you're motivated to succeed simply because your peers are. One thing I can say though, is that the courses at the magnet level are generally harder, and the teachers generally give more work. Of course, this leads into the cheating problem (they say no one cheats like a magnet student), but I try to avoid that pitfall when I can.
Also, for things like P.E, Lunch, or any of the electives or foreign languages (except German, which, at the moment, is a program you have to either be tested or grandfathered into), the line between "schools" is blurred, so all of the kids interact in those classes.
If you're looking at North Springs, move a little west to Riverwood. One of the best public schools in the state...if not the best from time to time.
We're in the Chamblee district and it will be 12 yrs before our 1st is able to attend, so we will assess at that time.
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