Top 50 Cities in California ranked by Quality of Public Schools

[Clarks]

The schools are rated by student performance on multiple choice tests, a notoriously bad way to rate schools. By ignoring education and training students to do well on multiple choice tests, it is not difficult to achieve high test scores.

Life, is not a multiple choice test.

[clongirl]

Originally Posted by Clarks

The schools are rated by student performance on multiple choice tests, a notoriously bad way to rate schools. By ignoring education and training students to do well on multiple choice tests, it is not difficult to achieve high test scores.

Life, is not a multiple choice test.

Well, although I don't believe that you can truly measure a school's performance solely on those tests (I certainly think the rote memorization way of teaching is terrible), I did discover last night (at an info meeting) that 97% of the students (at one of the schools mentioned) go onto college. Several Olympians also graduated from this particular school. The community and it's financial support of the school was difficult to dismiss. The up to date materials/equipment were impressive.

Now, whether statistics matter to you personally, of course is another issue! Whether one believes that college even matters to begin with is also a personal matter. I think that there's more to a good school than those dumb test scores, but I certainly see why the one I'm getting information about is one the list.

[Clarks]

The kids do well on the tests because of parent support, which is typical in high income locations. They are also exposed to education, often through family activities.

Good test takers often do well in college, but, can struggle in a less black and white real world situation. When you state Olympian, I am not sure how important that is. My son was well on his way to the US team in Nordic Skiing, and he was a less than stellar student (why he did not make the team is not connected either with skiing or academics)

I think that one can consider quality of life as a mix of job satisfaction and family life. University, or high test scores, or high high school academics do not translate to high quality of life.

I read once where the people with the highest job satisfaction were heavy equipment operators, grown ups with cool toys.

[City Boy]

Originally Posted by Dean Trails

Of course, none of them would rank higher than 609th in Arkansas!

Nice Try. Arkansas? LOL ok.

[clongirl]

Originally Posted by Clarks

The kids do well on the tests because of parent support, which is typical in high income locations. They are also exposed to education, often through family activities.

Good test takers often do well in college, but, can struggle in a less black and white real world situation. When you state Olympian, I am not sure how important that is. My son was well on his way to the US team in Nordic Skiing, and he was a less than stellar student (why he did not make the team is not connected either with skiing or academics)

I think that one can consider quality of life as a mix of job satisfaction and family life. University, or high test scores, or high high school academics do not translate to high quality of life.

I read once where the people with the highest job satisfaction were heavy equipment operators, grown ups with cool toys.

I'm not in disagreement with you at all.

I'm not implying that one must follow the standard college path to some sort of perception of financial success/achievement. (In fact, one of the great things about this particular school was that it offered MANY course options like; auto tech, bio tech, wood tech, furniture design, drama/theater/art etc.

Many schools that are not heavily supported with parent/community funding don't allow the vast choice in classes and are just struggling to keep the basics like a regular PE class.

I'm also not saying that being an Olympian is the end all be all in life either. You might have missed my point here. The fact is, when there's funding and a sense of pride and importance in a good education, then more doors open up whether it's becoming a doctor OR a car mechanic that would like to own his own business and run it well.

Also, not to turn this topic thing into a big debate, but our economy is quickly becoming a global one and to way to achieve the higher quality of life is to have stability/competitiveness in our own economy.

Higher education, imo, is the way forward in our economy's broader future, which in turn creates a higher quality of life for more people.. so even the auto mechanic or plumber that graduated from a well funded high school, will be able to benefit from knowledge and skills taken away from the school, and then pass it down to his children.

[Dean Trails]

Originally Posted by Fontucky

Coto de Caza's not a city.

Yes, but it is a fantasy playground for all the rich and famous! And,all the houses are carpeted in beautiful, rich, corinthian leather.

(recited in my best Ricardo Montalban accent)

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Delron

LOL. Do you honestly think there are many schools/school districts in the entire country, let alone the planet, that can compare to those that are next door to Stanford, UC Berkeley/Lawrence Livermore Labs, that are in Silicon Valley, that are right next to NASA's Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL - La Canada High School is practically across the street)? Let alone school districts in Arkansas?

Perhaps for animal husbandry courses and corn shucking 101, Arkansas offers a top notch education, but there is a reason why many of the most brilliant minds on the planet continue to flock to and reside in California. And where they are concentrated, the schools are exceptional because the parents care more about education than practically anything, the schools are actually well funded, and the parents themselves tend to be extremely intelligent, as in, falling into the top 1% of the planet, and thus they tend to have extremely intelligent children. The rest of California's public schools might be incredibly awful, but California is the prime example in this country of the disparity between the haves and the have nots. Yes, ALL of those areas are incredibly affluent, with property values to match. The individual who mentioned work ethic and focus on education was spot on.

Do you honestly think a school district where a large concentration of the top scientific minds, not only rocket scientists but the absolute BEST rocket scientists, put their children is going to be anything but exceptional? Where the top minds of UC Berkeley, Stanford, google, microsoft, and other top technological companies put their kids is going to be second rate to ANYWHERE?

he said what he did in jest, let's not get into what state offers what and btw, have you even been to AR? Can we keep this on a lighter note???
Oh and I might add I was educated in Ca as were all of my kids and my husband. In fact our kids were in the Arcadia school district and I went to the highest rated high school in Los Angeles, (back in the 50s I will add)


Nita

[Fontucky]

Originally Posted by Dean Trails

Yes, but it is a fantasy playground for all the rich and famous! And,all the houses are carpeted in beautiful, rich, corinthian leather.

(recited in my best Ricardo Montalban accent)

And the housewives are famous! That alone deserves superior schools over the ones the hoi polloi attend.

[lapommedeterre]

=O where's poway???

[sms1967]

Don't most of the rich and famous put their kids in private schools?