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Thank you for the wealth of information!!!! This is exactly the type of information I was looking for.
I am leaning towards Lassiter and Pope because I know my kids are above average today, but I do not want them to fall through the cracks if they are not interested in a full AP schedule.
I was interested in Wheeler because I have read good things about the magnet program and the diversity there. My kids are used to diversity and I am not sure if they are willing to give that up.
Security is a big issue for me because I would like peace of mind. And I would like my kids to be in a learning environment and not have to worry about dangers in the hall or on and off campus.
I will check out your links over the next couple of days.
Thanks a again for the great info.
wheeler is safe school. just because wheeler is culturally diverse, that doesnt make it dangerous. you almost sounded "racist".
and wheeler is a safe school, i graduated there afew years ago. walton is probably more dangerous because of it's serious drug/drinking/sex problem. yes, it is a very big problem at walton.
sorry im a year late to reply...
First of all the person who think that wheeler and sprayberry is not part of East Cobb is crazy. This kid are just as snobby as Walton, Pope and Lassiter. They are all great school some have greater diversity than others, and that not a bad thing. These kids parents all have great deal of money no matter where you live in the East Cobb. And the idea that Sprayberry having security guard is ridiculous. All these schools are safe environments. Now if you want to talk about school with drug problems that would be Walton and Pope and if anyone that says it is not true the2 years ago and it the place for drugs and so is walton. The more money people have, the greater the drug problem
I just read this post and I am almost speechless. First of all, your statement, "These kids all have a great deal of money no matter where you live in East Cobb" is one of the most ridiculous, ill-considered things I have ever heard in my life. You also said that East Cobb kids are all snobby no matter what high school they attend. You must not live in East Cobb or have any real, personal, first-hand knowledge of the area or its current residents.
I have lived in East Cobb for over 11 years. My daughter is a student at East Cobb Middle School and she will be continuing on to Wheeler High School in the future. I am a single parent and I have NEVER been anywhere near wealthy. Nor has any member of my family. Not even remotely close! My daughter and I know lots of kids and parents from other sections of East Cobb and we'd be hard-pressed to name even a handful of "wealthy" families. I would say that the vast majority of kids and adults are normal people with normal lives.
So my response to you is: Things are not always what they seem. You would be surprised at how many struggling to average families live in East Cobb. And as for all East Cobb residents being snobs. Well, that is just as ridiculous as your statement about wealth. Every area has its stereotypes (which are just that - Nothing but stereotypes). Being wealthy does not automatically make someone a snob. Nor does being a resident of a particular area of a city automatically make someone rich or poor.
Making such broad, sweeping statements casts you in a negative light. It is not the right thing to do in regard to any one person or any group of people from anywhere unless what you are saying is an absolute fact. Just some truth for your consideration.
I am deperately seeking an after school program for my middleschooler who is attending Mabry Middle. We are new to the area. I have asked many different people in the area, but they all just tell me that there isn't anything available. The school's response to me was that they don't have any programs because the students get dismissed so late. Well, 4:15 is not "late" to parents who work full-time. My son is very athletic and loves baseball and basketball. I really thought I'd have more options in East Cobb and am disappointed. Does anyone out there have any info that may help us? About ANY good program that may work? I can't be the only person who works full-time in the area and is facing this problem. Can I??? Thanks!
ECMommy, this is pretty common in most suburban schools. 4:15 is late for almost any school, and after school programs are pretty expensive to fund, plus it is hard to determine how many/which ones to fund, and then of course if there is demand for those programs which suburban schools do not have as much as inner city schools, as many times in suburbs you may not have both parents working full time. My only suggestion is #1 your son is old enough to take the bus back home and hopefully responsible enough to be home alone for the hour or two you are not there. #2, I assume the school has basketball and baseball sports teams and/or intramural, have him try out for those. #3 find a league after school and make friends so you can set up a car pool with some other families- unfortunately you may have to leave early from work 1-2 days a week to do your part. #4 find out if the local YMCA, or Boys and Girls clubs have anything after school.
Those lists are just for reference, since they are lists they can't explain things to you. But I live in East Cobb and know the schools really well.
The best high schools are Walton, Lassiter, and Pope. The best middle schools are Dickerson, Dodgen, Hightower Trail, Simpson, and Mabry. Any combination of these schools is a winning choice. Note that there's a typo on the list, Durham Middle School is not in East Cobb, in fact it's really far away in Acworth.
Walton, Pope, and Lassiter serve only East Cobb. Sprayberry and Wheeler are both physically located in East Cobb (close to the western edge though), however these schools serve many different areas. The Sprayberry school district serves part of East Cobb as well as unincorporated parts of Kennesaw and north Marietta, including most of the Town Center retail/apartment district. Wheeler serves part of East Cobb, unincorporated eastern Marietta, and most of the Cumberland business district, which is a large office/retail district with a skyline of office towers where a HUGE amount of people work. It's one of the five employment hubs of Atlanta (the others are Downtown, Midtown, Buckhead, and Perimeter). About 100,000 people live in Cumberland, most of whom have no older children or any children at all. It's the most city-like place in Cobb County (though still not urban).
This zoning is the chief reason Sprayberry and Wheeler are viewed as average schools. Walton, Lassiter, and Pope serve a residential, almost completely single-family house area. The main reason these schools do well is because the area is wealthy and people move there specifically to send their kids to the best schools, so these three schools have slowly grown in excellence and continue to do so. Sprayberry and Wheeler have very mixed demographics compared to the other three schools, in terms of family income and also how settled down the families are, resulting in your average American high schools. Definitely not bad, but not exceptional.
Out of the three you noted, Mabry/Lassiter is definitely the best. Sprayberry and Wheeler are very similar, but Simpson is a far better middle school than East Cobb. In fact, East Cobb Middle is easily the worst middle school in the whole area (east of I-75).
Wheeler Magnet is not that great in the first place, and Wheeler High School for students not in the Magnet is a very average high school. I know a girl who went to Wheeler Magnet for 2 years but transferred to Walton (where she actually lives) because she hated Wheeler Magnet so much. She graduated from Walton and went to Northwestern.
Sprayberry is your average high school in every way. They even have security guards and hall monitors (these ideas are unthinkable at, for example, Walton, where security is of practically no concern and students can walk around whenever they want without consequence). I know several people well who went to Sprayberry, and they all went to Georgia Tech afterwards. They were however among the best in the school, and good students are going to do well regardless of what school you put them in.
Pope and Lassiter are both above-average high schools. Lassiter has one of the absolute best music programs in the country. These are both highly recommend schools.
Walton on the other hand is a very unique school. It is the best school out of the group, and probably the entire state. Walton excels in pretty much everything (sports, academics, music), and parents specifically move to this district to send their kids to Walton, more than any other place in the area. This part of East Cobb used to be be a conservative old-Georgia Republican type of area, but that is changing as there are tons of transplants now from other parts of the country and state. Walton also resembles a private school in many ways. Walton has its own special charter (which it gets to have only if 99% of Walton parents vote to keep it, which is done every 4 years). This charter allows Walton to pretty much have its own rules and transcend Cobb County regulations. Walton parents are also more involved than any of the other schools. Walton extracurricular activities like sports and music are all top-ranked, mostly because parents push their kids and also because parents pour lots of their own money into the school. Walton gets the same amount of funding as the other schools but spends far more, mostly from donations from parents and local businesses. The marching band alone spends something like $100,000 more per year than what the county gives them.
However, Walton is extremely packed. The school is practically overflowing with kids and is constantly expanding. The school buildings themselves is also not that nice, very average. However, many of the sports fields and things like that are very nice because the parents pay for them. Houses in the Walton district have practically unfair prices compared to other parts of the county, simply for being in the district. It's an expensive place to live which is the biggest downside. Pope is also very expensive. Lassiter is probably the best value.
Keep in mind that a good student is going to do well regardless of the schools. However good schools can be a big help to students. However, there's one thing that bears mention. Walton is not a friendly school for average students. Walton caters to its best students (which is a good 200 to 300 students out of the 600-700 per grade). A student with a 4.0 GPA will not even be in the top 100 of the class at Walton. Walton is a really split school: you have the 400 kids in the grade who take all regular classes, are not really payed attention too, and most of these end up in your average universities, mostly in Georgia because of HOPE (which practically every in Walton will get). Then you have the 200 kids in the grade who take nothing but college level classes, have 4.0 and higher GPA's, get ridiculous SAT scores, are taught by the best teachers at Walton (the AP teachers, most of whom are more than qualified to be excellent professors), and all of these kids will go either to GA Tech, Emory, UGA, or high ranked schools in the north and California. Only students at Walton can really tell you this, but Walton students are treated differently and have very different experiences based on if they are in the "regular" or "AP" group of the student body.
This is a lot of information, but I'm telling you this because everyone likes to say Walton is so great (and it is), but Walton is a very specific place and not for everyone, and most average students actually dislike the school, though most high-achieving students, of which there are a lot, really love it.
Pope and Lassiter on the other hand, don't really have this unique situation. They are simply good schools with nothing really weird to comment about.
Since you mention graduation and colleges... kids from Sprayberry and Wheeler tend to go to "worse" colleges, but like I said before a good student will still be a good student. Around 10 to 15 students from Sprayberry go to GA Tech per year for example, compared to at least 50+ per year from Walton or Pope. The number would be over 100 per year from Walton if students did not leave the state for college.
As for the middle schools.... it really doesn't matter. They are all fine. Dickerson is perhaps unnaturally ahead in math classes offered because of its connection to Walton (it is not uncommon for 9th/10th graders at Walton to take college level Calculus courses), but they are really all the same. Mabry, Simpson, Hightower Trail, Dodgen, Dickerson are great. Daniell and McClesky are pretty good. Avoid East Cobb Middle School. (note that a large part of McClesky students go to Kell High School, which is a rather bad school, but some go to Sprayberry and Lassiter I believe)
I've been rambling on, mostly because I'm bored, but I guess some of this information will be useful to you.
What wonderful information! Do you have any insight as to Fulton County and their schools? We will be traveling to Atlanta in March and want to narrow down some possibilities to look around. We will definitely be looking into East Cobb (Timber Ridge and any schools that feed into Pope or Lassiter.) We'd like a variety that doesn't take us too far up north. My husband will have to commute to downtown Atlanta. Our price range is $500>. Would you recommend another area to look around that offer excellent schools? From what I've searched, Dunwoody and Norcross are not an option for one reason or another and not sure if we want to go down to Peachtree. Anything you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
What wonderful information! Do you have any insight as to Fulton County and their schools? We will be traveling to Atlanta in March and want to narrow down some possibilities to look around. We will definitely be looking into East Cobb (Timber Ridge and any schools that feed into Pope or Lassiter.) We'd like a variety that doesn't take us too far up north. My husband will have to commute to downtown Atlanta. Our price range is $500>. Would you recommend another area to look around that offer excellent schools? From what I've searched, Dunwoody and Norcross are not an option for one reason or another and not sure if we want to go down to Peachtree. Anything you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Dunwoody and Norcross are definitely options for you.
For Norcross, look in the Simpson Elementary, Pinckneyville Middle, and Norcross High cluster of schools. This area of Norcross is known as Peachtree Corners.
For Dunwoody, look into any of these elementary schools: Chestnut, Kingsley, Austin, and Vanderlyn. These are all K-5 elementary schools. They will be shifting the district lines between the schools somewhat next year, but all of the the schools are good--so wherever you end, you will be fine. Plus, there will also be a new K-5 elementary that will take students from Vanderlyn, Austin, and Chestnut: Dunwoody Elementary.
All five elementary schools will feed into Peachtree Middle and Dunwoody High--two good schools.
And for the record--in reference to GF72's post above:
Sprayberry, Kell, and Wheeler are great high schools. They are excellent East Cobb options with many nice neighborhoods and homes. Their feeder schools are great as well. No one has to pay Walton prices if they do not want to.
Fulton Science Academy M.S. also has this system; it's great for parents & students, but sometimes I find myself being a little too obsessive
The original post from GF72 is very old (2007). Don't all public high schools have a system like this now? Cobb County schools do, anyway. It's called Pinnacle.
I have a real problem with my kids class size @ Eastside....the teacher can't possibly have the bandwidth to focus on my child.....are there any private schools in EC that have a decent rep?
Would anyone say that Pope and Lassiter cater to the top 10%? I've ruled out Walton for that reason and now doing research on these two high schools. Would a second best choice be either Sprayberry or Kell?
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Are you serious?
First of all, your statement, "These kids all have a great deal of money no matter where you live in East Cobb" is one of the most ridiculous, ill-considered things I have ever heard in my life. You also said that East Cobb kids are all snobby no matter what high school they attend. You must not live in East Cobb or have any real, personal, first-hand knowledge of the area or its current residents. 
You would be surprised at how many struggling to average families live in East Cobb. And as for all East Cobb residents being snobs. Well, that is just as ridiculous as your statement about wealth. Every area has its stereotypes (which are just that - Nothing but stereotypes). Being wealthy does not automatically make someone a snob. Nor does being a resident of a particular area of a city automatically make someone rich or poor. 
