Moving to Fl from Long Island March 2016 Suggestions

[ExIslander]

Originally Posted by expatCA

One thing to keep in mind about schools as to their rating, is that it does not mean that many students do not do very well, in even a low rated school. The involvement of the parents has a major impact. Too long of a commute can negatively impact the time and energy to give to a child, to help them do well.

Yep. School ratings are based on aggregates which are heavily influenced by demographics, which may or may not have anything useful to say on our kids' experience. Just off the top of my head, my daughter's club soccer teammates go to six or seven different high schools and none of the parents are complaining.

I would say, though, that because Florida's counties are so large, county-wide ratings are fairly useless measures. Like you said, every district has good schools and not-so-good ones.

[hotkarl]

Florida schools are fine. Some better "rated" than others but they are just fine.
If your kids are not drugged out derelicts they will do well just about anywhere.
I know LI is all about the schools, woo wooooo, and property values.
It's horse crap. LI schools ain't all that. Many of the numbers are manipulated for obvious reasons. LI schools in all reality are on par with Florida schools.
Sleep well. All will be great.

[CyberConch]

I tend to agree with hotkarl on this. We're currently living in Loudoun County, Virginia, which has some of the highest rated schools in the nation, and it does seem to be about gaming the system by getting more kids taking AP exams and a general culture of emphasis on metrics. Our children had better teachers, for the most part, in Brevard County schools despite their budget struggles. I would approach magnet schools with caution, though: our son had some really great teachers at McNair Middle, for example, but has also had a lousy (but highly rated!) science teacher and a principal who hasn't interested in addressing the situation.