[blakesq]

Hi All,

We are considering moving from CT to FL. I keep on hearing how pupblic schools are so much better here in CT than in FL, but I can't seem to find an objective comparison/ratings between schools in CT and those in FL, or comparison/rating of schools from one state to another.

Is there anyway to get an objective comparison? I keep saying objective, because, (I don't want to get political) some ratings seem to be influenced by the teacher's unions. For instance, I remember one ratings of schools that gave school good marks based on the amount of money spent by the school, and by the number of teachers who were members of a union.

What I want to know is, how the students compare between CT and FL, specifically how they do after public school, what percentage go on to university and graduate from university and become productive successful members of society.

Or am I asking for the impossible?

[ferret111]

Good luck finding a decent comparison sheet. I don't know if they're out there.

One thing that you have to keep in mind is that Florida's school districts correspond with the counties; we have sixty-seven school districts compared to over one hundred in Connecticut. This can skew some school districts' statistics, as a district could have a few inner-city schools that are essentially drop-out factories but also have suburban schools that are nationally recognized.

[JazzmanLI]

I can't find exactly what your asking for but I know of this site (I'll copy the link on the bottom of this post) and tells you the areas of the state where education is focussed on the most. Something to take note of is northeastern school districts are def. going to be rated higher and be further ahead in education then other states in the country. I don't think Florida is far behind but I have heard that they have come a long way. Hope this helps a little.

Florida Schools - Find a Public or Private Florida School - SchoolDigger.com
Connecticut Schools - Find a Public or Private Connecticut School - SchoolDigger.com

[newyorker24]

Do a Google search. I recently did this and found information on spending per student by state, SAT scores by state, and % of students that go to college by state. I don't believe high school graduation percentages are a good metric because the criteria to graduate is set by the states. FL was in the bottom 10 for spending. The percent that go to college was also pretty low, around 50% I think.

My personal experience was that schools in FL were 2 years behind NY. Never went to school in CT so I can't comment.

[markhunt]

Originally Posted by blakesq

Hi All,

We are considering moving from CT to FL. I keep on hearing how pupblic schools are so much better here in CT than in FL, but I can't seem to find an objective comparison/ratings between schools in CT and those in FL, or comparison/rating of schools from one state to another.

Is there anyway to get an objective comparison? I keep saying objective, because, (I don't want to get political) some ratings seem to be influenced by the teacher's unions. For instance, I remember one ratings of schools that gave school good marks based on the amount of money spent by the school, and by the number of teachers who were members of a union.

What I want to know is, how the students compare between CT and FL, specifically how they do after public school, what percentage go on to university and graduate from university and become productive successful members of society.

Or am I asking for the impossible?

I moved from Florida back to CT recently because of the schools. You can do a search for previous posts of mine to get more details on how I felt on this subject. But the bottom line is that in general, the traditional public school system in Florida is not near as good as in Connecticut.

The below link is around 7 years old, but I would bet things haven't changed too much. In fact with Rick Scott as governor in FL now, he will be setting public education back in FL even further.

Data Visualization at The Pew Center on the States

"In 2008, there were 38,332 Connecticut high school graduates, 29,217 enrolled in a two-or four-year college, which means more than 76 percent enrolled." (from below article)

http://www.newstimes.com/news/articl...ear-498112.php

Recent article stating that 35% of FL graduates do not plan on attending College after high school.

http://www.wesh.com/education/24156194/detail.html (broken link)

Some more stats (from 2008)

http://www.higheredinfo.org/dbrowser...&submeasure=63

[kyle19125]

Florida's stats are skewed as "success" is mostly based upon a test called the FCAT which is taken in grades 3-11. The issue is that curriculum is geared toward the test and is basically a legal version of "here's the test answers before you get the test". This was a byproduct of that wonderful No Child Left Behind initiative which our mostly conservative politicos here in Florida continue to endorse. Teachers and Administrators have long protested but to no avail. Despite teaching to the test Florida students still lag in test scores and roughly half make it to college and many of those only to Community College or Technical Schools. Most areas of the state however do have at least one decent school district where students succeed better than average. What area are you moving to?

[annerk]

Keep in mind that there are good and bad in both. You aren't going to find a level of education that even comes close to what Weston offers anywhere in Florida.

But there are some schools in Florida that will offer an education that is better than what you'd get in many of the public schools in Hartford.

It's all relevant.

[blakesq]

Again, what are the objective facts that leads one to say Weston schools are better than any shcool in FL? How do you KNOW this?

Originally Posted by annerk

Keep in mind that there are good and bad in both. You aren't going to find a level of education that even comes close to what Weston offers anywhere in Florida.

But there are some schools in Florida that will offer an education that is better than what you'd get in many of the public schools in Hartford.

It's all relevant.

[blakesq]

Sarasota is where we want to move. I understand they have good schools. It almost seems like educators do NOT want us to have a way to objectively quantify which schools are good and which are bad.

Originally Posted by kyle19125

Florida's stats are skewed as "success" is mostly based upon a test called the FCAT which is taken in grades 3-11. The issue is that curriculum is geared toward the test and is basically a legal version of "here's the test answers before you get the test". This was a byproduct of that wonderful No Child Left Behind initiative which our mostly conservative politicos here in Florida continue to endorse. Teachers and Administrators have long protested but to no avail. Despite teaching to the test Florida students still lag in test scores and roughly half make it to college and many of those only to Community College or Technical Schools. Most areas of the state however do have at least one decent school district where students succeed better than average. What area are you moving to?

[newyorker24]

Originally Posted by blakesq

Sarasota is where we want to move. I understand they have good schools. It almost seems like educators do NOT want us to have a way to objectively quantify which schools are good and which are bad.

It's hard to compare because every state is different. What do you think is an objective comparison metric? Percent of students graduating is not because it's presumably harder to graduate in some states than others. SAT scores are all over the place and don't seem to follow much of a pattern. Spending per student is available with some searching. Perhaps some statistics on crime would also be helpful. I would personally love to see the percentage of high school students and graduates, separately, that successfully complete a 4 year college degree within a 4-5 year period by state.

The issue is that different states have different curriculums, standardized tests, evaluation methods, and passing criteria. That's why it's such a hard thing to do. In FL schools get assigned a grade (criteria determined by the state) that is heavily based on FCAT results so it doesn't really mean the A schools are providing a better education than the C schools. It just means the A school was better at teaching the students what's on the FCAT.