School Ratings (Jacksonville, Plantation: to rent, homes, neighborhood)

[mroth]

Hi Everyone,

We are hoping to move down to Jacksonville this summer (got a seller for our current home), and I had a questoin about the 'School Ratings'. Is there a huge difference between an 'A' rated school vs. a 'B' rated school? What I am looking at is a school for our 13 yr old son. My sister lives in Oakleaf Plantation and raves all the time about how great her neighborhood is. We've been there, thought it was nice, but I noticed that while the Elementary (good for our 2 toddlers), and Middle schools are A rated, the High School is not. (Although she seems to think that when the new High School is built, it will be). I've also been looking at homes (online) in the Fleming Island area, and noticed that their High School is A Rated. I guess what I mean is at what point is the school just too bad to go to, vs. it is more of a matter of the parents/student taking the right actions.

We are thinking about 'Renting' before buying so I'd like to rent in the area where we'd end up sending our son. I'd rather he not have to change High Schools during the school year, or after a year, etc...

Thank you for any help!!

[BobbiJ]

go to GreatSchools.net and that will give you a much better idea of the school vs. just the letter grade-test scores, school envionment,etc.

[pawwms]

St. John area is a great school area or south side area good luck!

[riveree]

The ratings are helpful, but you can't put too much weight on them.

I would be more interested in the track record, or the trend of the rating for each school. Is it consistently "B"-rated? Or does its' rating jump around a lot?

A "C" or "D"-rated school would concern me more, I wouldn't worry too much about the difference between A or B.

The high schools seem to be where the ratings drop a lot, no matter which county. My neighborhood has an "A"-rated elementary, "A"-rated middle, but the high school is lousy...pretty typical of NE FL it seems, at least in the more dense areas. People definitely don't move to FL for the schools.

[mroth]

LOL.. .I dunno, I checked GreatSchools.net for our local schools... he might be better off down there.

[riveree]

Originally Posted by mroth

LOL.. .I dunno, I checked GreatSchools.net for our local schools... he might be better off down there.

Well, that'll be good then!

You're right, really, it is a problem nationwide - our overall education system seems to be doing worse and worse each year...so sad.

I'd like to find a neighborhood where the public schools would be top-notch from K all the way through 12, but I don't know of one in the NE FL area, at least not in any of the areas where I'd be willing to live. Let me know if you find one !

[kort677]

Originally Posted by riveree

Well, that'll be good then!

You're right, really, it is a problem nationwide - our overall education system seems to be doing worse and worse each year...so sad.

I'd like to find a neighborhood where the public schools would be top-notch from K all the way through 12, but I don't know of one in the NE FL area, at least not in any of the areas where I'd be willing to live. Let me know if you find one !

FYI:
PVB claims their public schools k-12 are the best around, I don't have any first hand experience.

[mroth]

My sister swears by her schools in Oakleaf, which for the Elementary and Middle seem to be good. The High School seems to be slipping some though. Of course she seems to think that because they are building new schools it will be all good again <dunno>.

The schools in the Fleming Island area seem nice, and the Julington (sp?) area also seem nice. Definitely nicer ratings that my School received. Hopefully, it was better rated back then. (Although it would explain much... )

Thank you again for the help!!

[riveree]

Originally Posted by kort677

FYI:
PVB claims their public schools k-12 are the best around, I don't have any first hand experience.

Could be. I've never looked that closely since I'm in Duval and that is St. John's (no plans to leave Duval county), but I'll have to take a look next time I come across some stats.