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Old 08-23-2016, 08:49 AM
 
3,581 posts, read 4,317,052 times
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Actually per student, Wando gets the least amount of funding than any other high school in the district. The parents and community make up the difference. The schools in Park West don't do a lot of bake sale like things, they just have a fund that people give directly too. Works out much better IMO.
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Old 08-24-2016, 07:51 PM
 
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With an area that has such high taxes, I don't understand why the schools are so broke. The fact that property taxes are low is stupid. The difference is made up in fees for everything that is done in school.

Honestly, I am not sure what the state is doing with the taxes it collects.
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Old 08-25-2016, 08:03 AM
 
9,613 posts, read 6,859,112 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dougalmanitou View Post
With an area that has such high taxes, I don't understand why the schools are so broke. The fact that property taxes are low is stupid. The difference is made up in fees for everything that is done in school.

Honestly, I am not sure what the state is doing with the taxes it collects.
Although the overall tax liability of this state puts it pretty much in the middle of the country, the revenue sources are unevenly distributed. Gas taxes and property tax are among the lowest in the country, but income and sales taxes rival that of the northeast.

Since it's a rural state, the low property taxes and high income taxes shifts the burden off of rural landowners who otherwise don't make a lot of income. A lot of families in this state are living off land handed down to them over generations and would otherwise be forced out by high property taxes. Being a " stupid" tax scheme is relative to who is or isn't benefited.

"Broke schools" are fairly relative as almost all schools everywhere are in some sort of debt. Overall I find South Carolia to have an overall efficient use of taxes. There are places with far higher taxes and and bad schools.
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Old 08-31-2016, 02:02 AM
 
17 posts, read 22,193 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ziggy100 View Post
Fundraising like bake sales?
Wando doesnt look like a cash strapped school to me. I'm not sure what kooky financing scheme Charleston County and South Carolina has cooked up, but it appears to be pulling it off better than places I've lived with far higher property taxes.
Not really...for the SEO of the parents in that area the students should actually perform better. why? Because research shows that parental education level and income are the best predictor of student outcomes. The scores celebrated at Wando (top non magnet in the district) would be an embarrassment at the top school in the district where I moved from. People would be fired and parents would be livid if the kids scored that low...

So you don't think I'm being harsh, top school Wando's SAT scores for last yr:
Math 525 Reading 525 Writing 498.
Compared to the district average of my old school district in TX:
Math 533 Reading 501 Writing 494. That's an average of 10+ high schools in a majority minority district. If I posted the scores of the top school in the district yeah...those beat the scores at Academic Magnet and you don't have to test to get it.

To add insult to injury we spend 1/2 ( 7k vs. 12k) as much per pupil but pay teachers almost 60% more...where exactly does the money go in CCSD? Don't say ipads and new buildings because we had those things too...yrs before CCSD did.

I say all that to say - it makes more sense to buy an affordable home on Johns Island and send your kid to private school than it does to live in Mt. Pleasant and roll the dice on Wando. What if you kid wants to go to a top school out of state? that SAT score is not going to cut it.
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Old 08-31-2016, 04:52 AM
 
9,613 posts, read 6,859,112 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jayann0513 View Post
Not really...for the SEO of the parents in that area the students should actually perform better. why? Because research shows that parental education level and income are the best predictor of student outcomes. The scores celebrated at Wando (top non magnet in the district) would be an embarrassment at the top school in the district where I moved from. People would be fired and parents would be livid if the kids scored that low...

So you don't think I'm being harsh, top school Wando's SAT scores for last yr:
Math 525 Reading 525 Writing 498.
Compared to the district average of my old school district in TX:
Math 533 Reading 501 Writing 494. That's an average of 10+ high schools in a majority minority district. If I posted the scores of the top school in the district yeah...those beat the scores at Academic Magnet and you don't have to test to get it.

To add insult to injury we spend 1/2 ( 7k vs. 12k) as much per pupil but pay teachers almost 60% more...where exactly does the money go in CCSD? Don't say ipads and new buildings because we had those things too...yrs before CCSD did.

I say all that to say - it makes more sense to buy an affordable home on Johns Island and send your kid to private school than it does to live in Mt. Pleasant and roll the dice on Wando. What if you kid wants to go to a top school out of state? that SAT score is not going to cut it.
I happened to have graduated from a small TX high school. We had 84 people in my graduating class. Our electives were drama, Spanish 3, and band/athletics.
Wando on the other hand is almost the size of my entire home town. As a result, there are a far better choice of electives, programs, sports, etc.

Our house was 1/5 of the price of the house I live in now, yet our property taxes were the same. The inefficiency was most likely due to the fact our school was unnecessarily small. A town of 5000 people had its own K-12 as did all the other small towns in the area. Much better opportunities would exist if they had combined their resources.
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Old 08-31-2016, 09:02 AM
 
Location: Mount Pleasant, SC
52 posts, read 58,183 times
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Freeman's Point is a great waterfront neighborhood on James Island. There is a neighborhood boat ramp and pool with a community pavilion with a crabbing dock. Worth a look.
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Old 08-31-2016, 07:58 PM
 
92 posts, read 83,235 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jayann0513 View Post
Not really...for the SEO of the parents in that area the students should actually perform better. why? Because research shows that parental education level and income are the best predictor of student outcomes. The scores celebrated at Wando (top non magnet in the district) would be an embarrassment at the top school in the district where I moved from. People would be fired and parents would be livid if the kids scored that low...

So you don't think I'm being harsh, top school Wando's SAT scores for last yr:
Math 525 Reading 525 Writing 498.
Compared to the district average of my old school district in TX:
Math 533 Reading 501 Writing 494. That's an average of 10+ high schools in a majority minority district. If I posted the scores of the top school in the district yeah...those beat the scores at Academic Magnet and you don't have to test to get it.

To add insult to injury we spend 1/2 ( 7k vs. 12k) as much per pupil but pay teachers almost 60% more...where exactly does the money go in CCSD? Don't say ipads and new buildings because we had those things too...yrs before CCSD did.

I say all that to say - it makes more sense to buy an affordable home on Johns Island and send your kid to private school than it does to live in Mt. Pleasant and roll the dice on Wando. What if you kid wants to go to a top school out of state? that SAT score is not going to cut it.

I think for SC, Wando is exceptional. With that said, it would be an underperforming lower level school in the NE USA. There is a lot of talk about how great it is but new shiny buildings don't mean crap if the teaching is poor. With such a wealthy area, the overall performance is shockingly bad.

And where in Tx are you from? Places like Dallas and Houston have much larger Asian populations - who tend to inflate SAT scores.
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Old 08-31-2016, 08:05 PM
 
Location: Meggett, SC
11,011 posts, read 10,968,345 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dougalmanitou View Post
I think for SC, Wando is exceptional. With that said, it would be an underperforming lower level school in the NE USA. There is a lot of talk about how great it is but new shiny buildings don't mean crap if the teaching is poor. With such a wealthy area, the overall performance is shockingly bad.

And where in Tx are you from? Places like Dallas and Houston have much larger Asian populations - who tend to inflate SAT scores.
The hyperbole is strong with some of you. Please. I went to boarding school in the NE and no, Wando would not be considered a bad school there - ever. I guess all of those kids going to Ivy League and top 50 school acceptances from Wando mean nothing, right?

What it does have is a ton more students than you would see in most of those NE schools. Additionally, it has to take schools from Title I county schools which is something largely avoided by many of those NE schools as well because of how they district. But the biggest difference is usually something so simple - we have all of our students take the SAT. Most public schools do not do so. So when you see those 'average' SAT scores, do ask if it represents the average for the entire student body or just those selected few.
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Old 09-01-2016, 06:32 AM
 
92 posts, read 83,235 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by southbel View Post
The hyperbole is strong with some of you. Please. I went to boarding school in the NE and no, Wando would not be considered a bad school there - ever. I guess all of those kids going to Ivy League and top 50 school acceptances from Wando mean nothing, right?

What it does have is a ton more students than you would see in most of those NE schools. Additionally, it has to take schools from Title I county schools which is something largely avoided by many of those NE schools as well because of how they district. But the biggest difference is usually something so simple - we have all of our students take the SAT. Most public schools do not do so. So when you see those 'average' SAT scores, do ask if it represents the average for the entire student body or just those selected few.
Um, when reports are given for a things like SAT, ACT and AP exams, they only include those people who took the exam.

The SAT, ACT, and AP scores are below the national average, which puts the school close to or below the lower half. 50% is poor. The numbers when compared to the rest of South Carolina are very good but that is a reflection of the state of South Carolina schools.

What does not fit is the relationship between the wealth of the area and the performance of the schools - which is totally skewed. School performance is directly linked to the wealth of a given area. The area around Wando is very wealthy and the performance of the ACT scores especially should be higher.

Not sure what the percentage of those going to IV schools actually is. I do remember when I looked at it, it was very similar to Academic Magnet.

Now all of this could be related to the area. The kids have much more fun things to do around here. Why study when you can hang out at the beach? Maybe another metric needs to be developed, something like a 10 year examination of student outcome?
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Old 09-01-2016, 07:02 AM
 
Location: Meggett, SC
11,011 posts, read 10,968,345 times
Reputation: 6189
Quote:
Originally Posted by dougalmanitou View Post
Um, when reports are given for a things like SAT, ACT and AP exams, they only include those people who took the exam.

The SAT, ACT, and AP scores are below the national average, which puts the school close to or below the lower half. 50% is poor. The numbers when compared to the rest of South Carolina are very good but that is a reflection of the state of South Carolina schools.

What does not fit is the relationship between the wealth of the area and the performance of the schools - which is totally skewed. School performance is directly linked to the wealth of a given area. The area around Wando is very wealthy and the performance of the ACT scores especially should be higher.

Not sure what the percentage of those going to IV schools actually is. I do remember when I looked at it, it was very similar to Academic Magnet.

Now all of this could be related to the area. The kids have much more fun things to do around here. Why study when you can hang out at the beach? Maybe another metric needs to be developed, something like a 10 year examination of student outcome?
No, I don't think you understand. Every single student, not just those on "college track" must take the SATs at Wando. A lot of schools from other states do not do this. Any of number of reasons from not wanting to bring averages down to saving costs for students who have no intention to attend college. Really the reasons are varied but it does make a difference if you're going to compare average SAT scores from one school to another as you're comparing the entire student body to a select higher scoring group. I wonder if we took our honors/AP students SAT scores and compared, what the result would be?

So what are some other measures? Well, AP exams, there's one. Wando performs excessively high both in number of APs taken and scores - higher than Academic Magnet (a top 10 nationally ranked school). Passing rate is somewhere in the high 80th percentile. I recall that being quite the shock to Academic Magnet.

So, when you say an area's wealth = overall performance of schools, not necessarily, especially in the South. This is substantially different than in the North where your assumption holds because of the way the districts are done. If Mt Pleasant was a district by itself and not part of Charleston County, you would likely see this correlation but this is not so. So you may a small subset of students who do poorly at Wando and they do poor enough to drag down the average but is in no way indicative of the level of education received at the school. This is not a thing you see in Northern schools because you're not county based and forced to take students from lower performing schools who do not do as well academically at the high school level like Wando must do. This is not a unique issue to Wando, it's commonplace across the South since we're county based. Believe this is due to either football or past racial injustices - I'm sure someone else knows the history.

Look at the college acceptances for Wando students to get a very good idea of if Wando can provide students an excellent education or not. I can't think of a student in my daughter's group of friends who didn't get into at least a top 50 school. Included schools such as Harvard, Brown, Princeton, Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, Emory, etc, etc. Now, you can get nothing out of even a great school so it does mean students have to apply themselves to have those results but the point is those results are possible which some schools can't even claim.
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