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Pretty simple. To the extent the school ratings there are sub-par, Georgetown evidently has parents who don't value education enough or convey that value to their kids. The state could give education ratings to parents as well as schools. But yes, it's really easy to blame educational deficiencies on schools, and it's done all the time. Convenient fall-guy. School is for ed-u-ca-tion, and home is for the rest of your life!! That's what school ratings are trying to lead us to believe. But no, the drive to excel educationally is rooted in the home and family influence.
The Williamson County Sun recently featured an article on the newest school rating scores for Georgetown, and that might be helpful for you. We have teachers in our family and their opinions are that teaching to the test is not a good gauge of student learning. Georgetown has a lot of caring and engaged people, and the plethora of retirees means a lot of volunteers participate in school mentoring programs, library programs, sports and recreation programs. Oh, yes, the library. We have an amazing library that is a comfortable place for adults and children to spend time. There's always something going on there.
As a teacher, I would take those school reviews with a grain of salt. They base their ratings on some pretty strange criteria. For example, I teach in Bushland up by Amarillo. Our district got rated Cs & Ds, which does NOT represent our district at ALL! Visit the school, talk to the principal and some teachers. I have a friend who's grandchildren attend Georgetown and they love it. There's a small university there and university towns tend to have good schools because the professors want good schools for their own kids. Also, look into Leander right next door, which was rated higher (although I seem to recall they had a big budget crisis a few years back?)
The last two comments are astute. School ratings are numbers designed to place the blame for teach-to-test academic deficits on schools and their teachers, rather in the home, where the value of education is instilled. The lege would never want to blame their constituents, so they pay folks to blame. Visiting the school, talking to teachers and ideally parents is the BEST way to assess the quality of a school. Online "experts" abound. Their expertise is that they know how to download STARR scores and the rankings that are derived from them.
Move South and West for good schools. We're in LTISD and it's great. I wouldn't sacrifice my kids skiing to move somewhere I thought was cute. Too important. School rating mite reflect the quality of kids that go to the school and not the quality of teachers. Who do you want your kids to be friends with? Preferably high achievers.
To chime in we are looking at Georgetown and the Midway district in Waco. Midway schools do have higher scores but someone also told me that Midway and Georgetown high schools are pretty comparable. I have kids in elementary, middle, and high school so I want schools where my kids will strive and create good relationships. My high schooler is in honors classes and my 3rd grader in advanced but my 7th grader isn't as enthusiastic about his learning and needs time to grasp things.
I live on the far west side of Georgetown. My son is special needs - currently 2nd grade - so that might skew my view a bit, but here goes...
We started off in the Round Rock ISD when we first got here three years ago, lured there by the bragging and the test scores. The latter is irrelevant in our case for the most part, but still, it was a big campaign. My son was one of fifteen in his class and his behavior went to crap because he was bored (higher functioning for the group he was assigned to, but sacrificed to the lesser functioning). I felt the principal was overwhelmed and pretty much dialing it in; his lead teacher was a recent transfer from out of state and this was her first foray into elementary-aged special needs since her college days (her thing is HS age sped; she and I wound up being good friends, so it's not anything personal against her), and so, looking back, it wasn't a really good situation.
While there, I'm doing my hunts and research to find out where we should land permanently. I was completely unimpressed with Round Rock, Leander, and Liberty Hill ISDs when it came to my son's needs.
We move to Georgetown because we wanted space (we're so tired of urban living), but it was also the attitude of the district that made me happy. So we begin. We aren't at the "home" school, meaning the one that's closest to us, but one down Williams a bit because that's where their sped program is. Fine, no big deal, I understand that's common everywhere.
I can't praise his school enough. He was one of six, not fifteen and growing. His teacher last year bent over backward for us in so many ways; my son, again, was the highest functioning in the class and his behavior suffered again, but she did all in her power to turn it around - some things, such as interpersonal dynamics with his classmates, weren't completely in her control.
At his IEP meeting last spring, I practically begged them to challenge him because I know he's bored and that's the crux of his behavior issues. His entire team, as well as the principal, shows up to the meetings, and really do have his best interests at heart. They all listened to me and bumped him up to the higher functioning class this year, and his behavior has been excellent and he's done some superb work so far ("he's really stepped up!" one of his therapists reported; I replied politely in so many words, "told you so!" I knew full well what he is capable of). The principal is awesome and engaged, and the staff is awesome and supportive and communicative. I have zero complaints.
I think in many ways, a school can be defined due to how they treat their special needs kids. So far, GISD, and my son's specific school, has made us happy.
I will qualify these statements and say that if we were east of I-35 with the higher minority/lower income populations and where the individual schools struggle a bit more,* my tune might be different. But our personal experience so far has been very, very positive.
As for the testing aspect, with the newest ratings system they inflicted on the district last year, it was appalling. They turned around and challenged those results so fast, heads were spinning. There was no way in hell that this school scored that "poorly."
I am not a fan of testing, or teaching to a test - one of the reasons I fled from a career in education - so I have a poor opinion on testing shenanigans to begin with. And yes, they do inflict testing on even the lowest functioning of the special education kids - my son's teacher last year told me all about it and she was not a happy camper about it. She was professional as she always is, and spoke about it professionally, but her opinion on the subject was crystal clear. I was on her page completely, but she, like I, am powerless to do anything about it being inflicted on them.
Testing's stupid and a waste, whether we're talking about typical kids or special ed kids. The time and money wasted is much better used somewhere else in education.
______________________
* I've been seeing the demographic shift in my son's school as well - I don't think there's a GISD campus immune to growing pains, to be honest
The City of GT City Council has approved more low-income, subsidized multi-family units to be built in Georgetown. There is one being built right now near my neighborhood.
In a recent newletter from Councilman Steve Fought concerning low-income housing in GT:
"Housing Developments -- Affordable Housing and Multi-Family Developments
AFFORDABLE HOUSING*
The Pedcore/Live Oak project broke ground recently. It is on Williams Drive, next to the Catfish parlor. The project is a 108 unit apartment complex, all of which will have income restrictions. This is the last of the three projects that were approved in 2016 by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) for competitive low-income Housing Tax Credits (HTCs). The other projects were Kia Pointe and Merritt Heritage. We have covered these projects extensively in this newsletter.
Readers will recall that I voted against all three proposals for the following reasons:
1. The developments were on the west side of I-35, along Williams Drive, and were in areas not covered by the Council approved public transportation system (GoGeo, fixed route bus system).
2. The developments were not near schools, hospitals, places of employment or other facilities and services which might be needed by the tenants of these units.
3. The City of Georgetown had, prior to any of these projects being added, nearly 3 times the number of income-restricted units as the Texas average, while at the same time the surrounding communities had less than 2 times the average, and in some cases none, of these units.
I anticipate we will see more requests for these, or similar, developments under the general heading of "Affordable Housing"."
This leaves a lot of GT residents scratching their heads about this 3X number of income-restricted units being built.
How will this affect the quality of GT schools in the future?
As for the testing aspect, with the newest ratings system they inflicted on the district last year, it was appalling. They turned around and challenged those results so fast, heads were spinning. There was no way in hell that this school scored that "poorly."
What I have heard from several people is that the new testing system is set up to show more schools as 'poor' or 'declining', in one category or another, so as to be a talking point when it comes to schools vouchers. I.e. - "look, all these schools are so bad (look at their ratings!), vouchers would surely do better".
I initially assumed that was conspiracy theory, but having seen several break-downs of the 'rating' system, I tend to agree that the new system makes it much more difficult to achieve the higher ratings (or even average, for that matter, for all the sense that makes).
The City of GT City Council has approved more low-income, subsidized multi-family units to be built in Georgetown. There is one being built right now near my neighborhood.
In a recent newletter from Councilman Steve Fought concerning low-income housing in GT:
"Housing Developments -- Affordable Housing and Multi-Family Developments
AFFORDABLE HOUSING*
The Pedcore/Live Oak project broke ground recently. It is on Williams Drive, next to the Catfish parlor. The project is a 108 unit apartment complex, all of which will have income restrictions. This is the last of the three projects that were approved in 2016 by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) for competitive low-income Housing Tax Credits (HTCs). The other projects were Kia Pointe and Merritt Heritage. We have covered these projects extensively in this newsletter.
Readers will recall that I voted against all three proposals for the following reasons:
1. The developments were on the west side of I-35, along Williams Drive, and were in areas not covered by the Council approved public transportation system (GoGeo, fixed route bus system).
2. The developments were not near schools, hospitals, places of employment or other facilities and services which might be needed by the tenants of these units.
3. The City of Georgetown had, prior to any of these projects being added, nearly 3 times the number of income-restricted units as the Texas average, while at the same time the surrounding communities had less than 2 times the average, and in some cases none, of these units.
I anticipate we will see more requests for these, or similar, developments under the general heading of "Affordable Housing"."
This leaves a lot of GT residents scratching their heads about this 3X number of income-restricted units being built.
How will this affect the quality of GT schools in the future?
It's just the nature of the beast. The area as a whole is becoming increasingly unaffordable for low wage earners. Income restricted housing is everywhere, not just Austin. The problem is that Georgetown is not close to the urban core at all, by any stretch. So any low wage earner who saves money on housing will spend money for gas and wear and tear on their car. There's also a lot of seniors who may have more modest means that can benefit from the income restricted housing in GT.
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