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Old 03-20-2016, 09:55 AM
 
2,307 posts, read 3,817,961 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by darthnbjenni View Post
I teach in a middle school in Greenville County, so I'm familiar with many of the local high schools.

I must say, I love the principal of Wade Hampton. He was an amazing administrator to work for, and many colleagues were saddened when he left our school to take that position. The Fine Arts Center there has also helped to make WHHS a great school.

Riverside is very academically rigorous. They are one of the few schools to offer three levels of classes for freshmen: college prep (which is basically grade level), advanced, and honors. They do not offer any AP (college credit) courses for freshmen, as they don't believe most freshmen are ready to take them. Statistically, that's correct. The AP Human Geography exam has the highest failure rate (60%), despite being one of the easiest AP exams. However, by not offering AP courses to freshmen, they don't get as many brownie points on data driven report cards by third parties. If your child goes to RHS and is in the advanced/honors/AP track, they will be very well prepared for college (and I say this as an alumni who found the transition to Clemson to be very smooth).

Eastside is just down the road from RHS, but the school is smaller. I end up sending a handful of my students to EHS on special permission, because it's not as academically competitive as RHS is. I believe they have also started the three level track of college prep, advanced, and honors.

I student taught at Mann, and it was very much the haves and have nots. I don't know that I would send my children there, unless they were in honors classes. I'm sure things have changed in the years that I've been there, but there was such a disparity between the levels. I had 38 students in a portable for the grade level class, and at that point, it was crowd control more than teaching. The honors class had 18 students and all were engaged and wanting to learn.

Be careful with charter and magnet schools. Some are made to attract people into areas with special programs, to even out the numbers in low socioeconomic areas. But, throwing iPads at poverty is not a viable solution, and many teachers burn out very quickly. Please feel free to PM me if you'd like any more information!

There is no such category as ADVANCED at the high school level in any of the high schools. The GCSD student handbook lists CP, Honors and AP / IB.
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Old 03-20-2016, 11:24 AM
 
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Test scores and academic performance at Wade Hampton, Eastside, Mauldin, Mann and Riverside seem to put them at the top of the academic achievement ladder in Greenville. These schools get more than their share of National Merit Semi-Finalists and have high average SAT scores.

I attended Wade Hampton High School and liked it. Even though this was a long time ago, I believe the school is still a very popular school with most students and they enjoy going there. I think most kids enjoy their time at most Greenville high schools. There's good times and bad times, it's like life. But I wouldn't avoid any school in particular in your list. I would probably avoid Carolina High, maybe Woodmont, maybe Hillcrest. I do personally think Mauldin is gigantic with 3,000 students? A friend of mine at work almost took his kids out of there and sent him to Mann because he signed up for 5 AP classes and was doing homework at 3 in the morning to keep up, with his dad's help. I think he may have been pressured to take a lot of AP classes? I think that is a point of pride at that school for the teachers and helps in their rankings. I will say the young man survived the experience and is now on his way to get his MD. Not too shabby.

One paradox you may face here is a common one. A lot of the folks that move here at my workplace, they buy new houses. A new house is often about the same price as an established one due to the low labor costs and cheaper construction methods and smaller yards that most people prefer these days. However, a lot of the new houses are in the Simpsonville area. The new folks get told by the real estate agent what great schools Greenville has (true) and what a great house they can get in Simpsonville (also true). Then their kids get to high school age and realize their kids will go to Hillcrest. Now, before I get Hillcrest/Simpsonville folks all mad at me, Hillcrest is a good school but let's face it, it is not one of those top 5-6 that the OP mentioned. Can you be happy there? Of course.

But some people find that situation something of a paradox. They want the best of everything, new house, best schools and they either get told they can have it or they talk themselves into it but the cruel fact is that it's hard to get both here. You will have to choose.

Another complication is that the established areas with older homes with the better schools have more natives and locals which is what some newcomers want to avoid, understandly so. They want to be around other transplants. So then we are back to the heavily transplanted neighborhoods in Simpsonville areas as a comfort factor.

I personally wouldn't hesitate to consider the better schools and buy a 20-30 year old house. I think you and your kids will be glad you did.

Hope that helps!
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Old 03-20-2016, 07:31 PM
 
20 posts, read 14,542 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by greenvillebuckeye View Post
There is no such category as ADVANCED at the high school level in any of the high schools. The GCSD student handbook lists CP, Honors and AP / IB.
That might be what the handbook says, but I can personally attest that I have a student enrolled at RHS who has taken more than one "CP Advanced" level class. She has also taken CP, Honors, and AP classes.
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Old 03-21-2016, 12:47 PM
 
45 posts, read 76,116 times
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Hobo...excellent feedback (as well as the others here). What you explained is very similar to our thinking and with 2 our of 3 of our kids going into high school (1 next year and 1 the year after) we focused our searches on the high schools exclusively. Based on the research done many of the elem. and middle schools fair well so we weren't as concerned with those. We narrowed our home search down to Riverside, Eastside, and Mauldin. Once we added Mauldin in, we got more houses to review which was a nice fit. We are excited to come down soon with the whole family to look around and see if we can make this work. Any feedback on Mauldin is appreciated.
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Old 03-22-2016, 09:06 AM
 
81 posts, read 90,010 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by al8822 View Post
For the last three years my daughter has been miserable at Beck. She comes from Mauldin Elementary and has struggled to fit in at Beck for the very reason you stated. I wonder if our girls know each other? I am not looking forward to the next four years at JL Mann. We moved here 5 years ago, and we thought we did our homework regarding schools, the one thing we did not realize was how the schools fed into each other. Had we known that all her friends she made in elementary would be going to a different middle and high school, we would have chosen someplace different to live.
I'm sorry to hear this about your daughter - I certainly feel for her. I don't know if they know each other, I know most of her friends are from Oakview and Pelham and about five are from Sara Collins. I will ask her tonight if any of her friends went to Mauldin.

Surely there are other children in your neighborhood who are zoned Beck/Mann, who she went to elem school with?
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Old 03-22-2016, 09:41 PM
 
1,153 posts, read 1,649,309 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fightingirish2321 View Post
Hobo...excellent feedback (as well as the others here). .
Glad I could help.

I went to a Mauldin high summer science class. It was a great decision. I met science teachers from Mann, Mauldin, and did research, chemistry, debated, lasers, programming, more. I joined the science club at my high school, was voted president junior and senior year, and served as state junior science academy vice president. I think if they still carry on those traditions at Mauldin, it is a great school.

I think its one of the really good ones academically, just maybe not in top 3. Mauldin is a very family friendly town. Lots of families live there.

I will say my high school quiz team beat Mauldin narrowly when I was a senior. Just sayin,.
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Old 03-24-2016, 07:32 AM
 
39 posts, read 72,063 times
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Eastside has a satellite support program for students with autism, FYI
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Old 03-24-2016, 08:17 PM
 
271 posts, read 792,751 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hobo7396 View Post
Test scores and academic performance at Wade Hampton, Eastside, Mauldin, Mann and Riverside seem to put them at the top of the academic achievement ladder in Greenville. These schools get more than their share of National Merit Semi-Finalists and have high average SAT scores.

I attended Wade Hampton High School and liked it. Even though this was a long time ago, I believe the school is still a very popular school with most students and they enjoy going there. I think most kids enjoy their time at most Greenville high schools. There's good times and bad times, it's like life. But I wouldn't avoid any school in particular in your list. I would probably avoid Carolina High, maybe Woodmont, maybe Hillcrest. I do personally think Mauldin is gigantic with 3,000 students? A friend of mine at work almost took his kids out of there and sent him to Mann because he signed up for 5 AP classes and was doing homework at 3 in the morning to keep up, with his dad's help. I think he may have been pressured to take a lot of AP classes? I think that is a point of pride at that school for the teachers and helps in their rankings. I will say the young man survived the experience and is now on his way to get his MD. Not too shabby.

One paradox you may face here is a common one. A lot of the folks that move here at my workplace, they buy new houses. A new house is often about the same price as an established one due to the low labor costs and cheaper construction methods and smaller yards that most people prefer these days. However, a lot of the new houses are in the Simpsonville area. The new folks get told by the real estate agent what great schools Greenville has (true) and what a great house they can get in Simpsonville (also true). Then their kids get to high school age and realize their kids will go to Hillcrest. Now, before I get Hillcrest/Simpsonville folks all mad at me, Hillcrest is a good school but let's face it, it is not one of those top 5-6 that the OP mentioned. Can you be happy there? Of course.

But some people find that situation something of a paradox. They want the best of everything, new house, best schools and they either get told they can have it or they talk themselves into it but the cruel fact is that it's hard to get both here. You will have to choose.

Another complication is that the established areas with older homes with the better schools have more natives and locals which is what some newcomers want to avoid, understandly so. They want to be around other transplants. So then we are back to the heavily transplanted neighborhoods in Simpsonville areas as a comfort factor.

I personally wouldn't hesitate to consider the better schools and buy a 20-30 year old house. I think you and your kids will be glad you did.

Hope that helps!
You must have student taught at J.L. Mann several years ago when they were in the old location. Their new school does not have any portables and they've been in that school for at least 12 years now. So your information may be outdated.
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Old 03-25-2016, 04:28 PM
 
1,153 posts, read 1,649,309 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by samiis View Post
You must have student taught at J.L. Mann several years ago when they were in the old location. Their new school does not have any portables and they've been in that school for at least 12 years now. So your information may be outdated.
I didn't say anything about portables at J.L. Mann. I think you meant to reply to Darthnbjenni.
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