In what order would you rank ALL the high schools in Charlotte (Matthews: rent, house)

[wyattt]

I've been reading the threads on here about certain schools, but I'm not seeing much about those that wouldn't fall into the top 3-4 high schools in Charlotte. My family is looking to buy a house (we rent now) and I don't think we'll ever be able to buy a home in certain areas and so in looking at other areas, I couldn't find much about the high schools.

There seems to be a lot of development and affordable housing in areas that fall into West Meck, North Meck and Olympic for instance, but I can't find much on them. We rent in an area where our children would attend South Meck and love the area. I really don't want to move outside of Charlotte to Cabarras or Union Co. or Fort Mill.

So what order would you rank Charlotte's high schools?

[momtothree]

This site let's you sort the schools into ranks based on your criteria. It isn't 100 percent accurate but can be useful to narrow down. Then afterwards check out the schools on the official CMS school report card sites and check recent grades.

North Carolina State Elementary Schools - NC School Rankings

Just saw this as well:
http://www.usnews.com/education/best...ngs?int=bdf63a

And Butler High was ranked 3 in the state, #1 in Charlotte if I am reading it correctly. And there are a lot of affordable housing around Butler too.

[wyattt]

I forgot about Butler. We are seeing quite a bit over there. Technically that's Matthews right? I always feel like Matthews is more a part of Charlotte.

[ex-burgher]

Be careful of the criteria they use in these rankings. Most people would not consider Butler #1 in CMS. Also all high schools track - standard, honors and AP. A high school ranking based on test scores may be pulled down by a large number of students at the standard level, when in fact the school may also have extremely high achievers at the other end in an excellent honors track as well.
From test scores alone, I believe Providence is the best. I've also heard they give a lot of homework - which to me confirms that the school has high expectations of its students. I would put the IB Program at Myers Park at #2. Following would be Ardrey Kell, Butler and South Mecklenburg. I don't know much about North Meck though.

[wyattt]

I guess what I am looking for is not so much aside from the top few schools, what are the next best ones? I'm equally curious about how well the school does on tests, etc as the environment. I've heard great things about South Meck, but nothing about North Meck, West Meck, East Meck, West Charlotte, Olympic, Garringer, Mallard Creek, Vance, and any others that I am missing. We always hear about AK, MP, Prov, Hopewell, and even Butler. Out of the others, what would be your top pick if the usual top few were unavailable to you?

[Riley09swb]

Originally Posted by wyattt

I guess what I am looking for is not so much aside from the top few schools, what are the next best ones? I'm equally curious about how well the school does on tests, etc as the environment. I've heard great things about South Meck, but nothing about North Meck, West Meck, East Meck, West Charlotte, Olympic, Garringer, Mallard Creek, Vance, and any others that I am missing. We always hear about AK, MP, Prov, Hopewell, and even Butler. Out of the others, what would be your top pick if the usual top few were unavailable to you?

I would avoid North Meck. I haven't heard anything bad about Mallard Creek.

[kby1108]

West Charlotte HS is a Project LIFT school - meaning it is getting special support because of achievement gaps. I would probably put West Meck in this category even though I don't think its Project LIFT. North Meck isn't a bad school, but it did become high poverty when Hough opened (which by the way you don't mention), before Hough opened North Meck was a great school. Hough is the best of the North schools, Hopewell would be number two. Mallard Creek and Vance are decent, I'm not sure about Olympic. You mentioned affordable developments while citing schools that aren't top tier... those two issues are of course related, but you don't mention what is affordable to you. I would probably put the second choice schools in this order, and anything else would be a third choice - since each community and school is unique and do often have unique programs, its just an opinion based on reputation and personal priorities.

Butler
S. Meck
Hopewell
Mallard Creek
Vance
N. Meck
Independence

[wyattt]

Thanks! That is what I'm kind of curious to see in this thread.

[somersmom]

I teach at Butler and depending on your budget, there are plenty of housing options in the area. Overall, Butler is a solid school. There are some top tier, achievement-oriented students and slackers with many nice kids in the middle.
I have heard good things about Mallad Creek, too.

[wyattt]

Thanks!