Another question about moving to area. (Cape Coral, Pine Lakes: safer, pine, community)

[rikoshaprl]

The biggest draw to Cape Coral is having a water front home with gulf access or lake access boating. There are very few of those in Fort Myers compared to Cape Coral. Also there is no ghetto in Cape Coral.

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by rikoshaprl

The biggest draw to Cape Coral is having a water front home with gulf access or lake access boating. There are very few of those in Fort Myers compared to Cape Coral. Also there is no ghetto in Cape Coral.

Yes, I think that the biggest draw for Cape Coral, other than the attraction of boating, is the crime rates. There is a vast difference between the two. It's a good place for retirees or if you are working in Fort Myers or Cape Coral. If you are looking for safe Estero and Cape Coral are pretty good choices but the latter is more affordable. Fort Myers is very spotty. There can be a nice street surrounded by or next to bad streets. The problem with that is druggies know YOU havve the good stuff.

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by nhkev

From your link Tantasqua 88% proficient in Math 92% proficient in English - both higher than Massachusetts avg which again Massachusetts has some of the best schools in the country. look at your link for lee county schools and show me one that is even close to those levels of proficiency.

My son now takes the Mcast So I can see how he rates against other students his age in Massachusetts he scored in the highest percentage in the state. In fact on one section he had a perfect score on the other he only had one wrong answer. his schools score were average with the rest of the state. So again if you are average in the best state for schools. it is a lot different that being average in a state that is not known for good schools. Good God some of those Lee county schools are in the 20 percent range for math and English.

and if you click on the school it will give you more of a breakdown of the school, Tantasqua student to teacher ratio 11-1 below the state avg. then look at the charts of proficiency vs the state avg. Don't know when you were last in the area but I bet you wouldn't even recognize the school. because it is a regional school you do have some disconnect between the kids from Sturbridge, Brimfield, Brookfield vs the kids from Holland and Wales.

If you break down the AP IB sections they gave a lot of weight of how many "took" the test. if you look at the breakdown for those that took the AP test in Tantasqua 79% passed see how that matches up with the lee county schools. taking a test and failing should not give you points.

Let me put it to you this way. Fort Myers High School is ranking 542nd nationally. Mariner is 1,056th, Cape Coral High is 1,241st, North Fort Myers is 1,302nd and Ida S. Baker is 1,912nd.

Your Massachusetts school isn't even in the national rankings.

Newest figures just came out so I'm taking directly from them.

Best High Schools in the US | Top US High Schools | Education - US News

[nhkev]

[quote=hiknapster;34564935]Let me put it to you this way. Fort Myers High School is ranking 542nd nationally. Mariner is 1,056th, Cape Coral High is 1,241st, North Fort Myers is 1,302nd and Ida S. Baker is 1,912nd.

Your Massachusetts school isn't even in the national rankings.

Newest figures just came out so I'm taking directly from them.

Best High Schools in the US | Top US High Schools | Education - US News[/quote

read their methodology- The reason it isn't in the ranking is because it doesn't meet the criteria they were using for rankings ie number of students enrolled in the 12th grade. it has nothing to do with it's quality looking at the quality My local school blows any of the ones you mentioned out of the water. Now as far as the rankings. one of the things they use to rank a school is the margin between disadvantaged kids and the average student. So for example if you had a school where the proficiency in math was 80% and the disadvantaged kids had a proficiency of 60% that would be a gap of 20% but another school had proficiency of 58% and the disadvantaged kids had a profieciency of 56% the school would only have a 2% gap which gave them much higher ranking. also if a high percent took AP courses they would get a high rank even if they were all failing and not reaching the profieciency.


From the article "methodology based on the key principles that a great high school must serve all of it's students well not just those who are college bound."
Bottom line there are many things that go into a school being a good school. Proficiency rates being a very big indicator, also graduation rates , and % of students that go on to higher education. regardless of the rankings of your link there is NO comparison between the lee county schools and the schools up here.

50% of the kids down there are not proficient in math and reading that's scary.

[nhkev]

Whenever there are any rankings on any subject, we usually joke that they are for entertainment purposes. Magazines constantly put out things like "best places to live" best Job markets, best places to retire. How they determine this is always subject to scrutiny.

When looking for a place to retire I would want a place that is affordable since I would be on a fixed budget. I would want someplace warm, that has recreational things that I like to do available. I would want it to have amenities such as grocery stores, banks, hospitals, airports, cafes close by. I would want low crime.

If a magazine put out a list and did not use these things as criteria they may rank North Dakota as one of the best places to retire (which for some may be ok).

With this school ranking list one of their biggest criteria is how a state does compared to it's state average NOT against the other national schools. Lee county schools are better than Florida's state average but Florida's state average is signifigantly lower than Massachusetts average. So when they are doing their National ranking they are saying the tallest midget at the circus is equivalent to an NBA basketball player. After reviewing the data I am less impressed with Lee County schools than I was before I saw they were ranked well nationally. If you were going to move to Florida Lee county schools are not bad, but I stick by my claim that they are not remotely in the same league as the schools in the northeast. The rankings left out about 10,000 high schools in the nation due to not meeting their criteria which skewed heavily toward urban schools with higher minority populations *which many schools up here don't have.

Hik , you can just tell me that I'm right and we can end this

[stahltkd]

How Florida’s Graduation Rates Compare To The Nation | StateImpact Florida

[nhkev]

Originally Posted by stahltkd

How Florida’s Graduation Rates Compare To The Nation | StateImpact Florida

thanks for the link. so Massachusetts, new Hampshire, Vermont, maine, Connecticut are all above the national average for graduation rates and florida is well below average.

another one 2013 SAT scores Florida avg was a score of 1457 Massachusetts was 1553, I could not find any recent data from my high school but latest data available had it higher than state avg. according to it's own data 80% of it's students go on to higher education. Mariner high school was below Florida's avg with 1371. Cape Coral high fared pretty good with 1520. Ft myers high was exceptional with 1575

here's an article discussing why rankings have to be looked at closer

http://www.fcfep.org/images/20100122...her%20Look.pdf

[Cynthia130]

We have a real interest in Florida but having 3 small children, it makes you wonder.
I do believe that parental involvement is key so I would hope where ever we live my kids would be successful because we aim for that .

[hiknapster]

Well, this is good to know because I'm about to pack my things and my daughters and pull into Massachusetts.

[nhkev]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

Well, this is good to know because I'm about to pack my things and my daughters and pull into Massachusetts.

skip Massachusetts and keep going north to new Hampshire, much better run state with nicer people