Metro Kansas City School Districts (Independence, Lee's Summit: real estate, best school, teacher salaries)

[thriftylefty]

Some times we put too much blame on the school for low test scores, some inner cities have good teachers and administration, low violence, but it is imposible to educate children who parents make more money than teachers, with out an education, I know personally college educated people in KCK who are Teamsters Making $90,000 a year on a job they could of gotten with out a college degree, their kids are the ones who don't try very hard on test, In a typical Johnson County Home most Parents work jobs you cant get with out and education, But we put the blame or the reward on the school, Johnson county kids are easy to educate

[kcmo]

I made a list of metro area high schools and pulled the rating of each from greatschools.com

I thought it might make for a good discussion. I'm not sure how accurate the great schools rankings are. I'm a bit surprised in some of them. Staley High is a brand new suburban high school for example, why such a low ranking? Does it just take some time to get established? And Raytown. Are things really that bad in Raytown now? Independence has their work cut out for them taking Van Horn from the KCMOSD. There are some schools in JoCo that I thought would have ranked higher too. I also see where some of the more exurban schools have a better number than some of the more popular well regarded suburban schools. I personally would choose a larger suburban school over a smaller more rural school because they offer more. Again, I'm not sure how much I would put into the rankings, but I find it interesting. This is only public high schools, no private or charter high schools are listed, but feel free to discuss those as well.

CENTRAL KANSAS CITY, MO
Northeast High 1
Central High 1
Lincoln Prep 9
Paseo High 3
Westport High 1
Center High 2
Hickman Mills High 3
Ruskin High 2

JACKSON/CASS COUNTY SUBURBS
Blue Springs High 7
Blue Springs South High 8
Lee's Summit High 8
Lee's Summit North High 8
Lee's Summit West High 9
Grain Valley High 7
Fort Osage High 6
Truman High 6
Van Horn High 1
William Chrisman High 6
Raytown High 3
Raytown South High 2
Grandview High 2
Raymore High 6
Harrisonville High 6
Oak Grove High 7
Belton High 6
Pleasant Hill High 6
Lone Jack High 8

NORTH SUBURBS:
Park Hill High 9
Park Hill South High 8
North KC High 4
Oak Park High 5
Staley High 5
Winnetonka High 3
Liberty High 7
Smithville High 8
Platte County High 8
Kearney High 7
Excelsior Springs 5

JOHNSON COUNTY SUBURBS:
Shawnee Mission East 10
Shawnee Mission North 5
Shawnee Mission Northwest 8
Shawnee Mission South 8
Shawnee Mission West 5
Blue Valley 9
Blue Valley Northwest 7
Blue Valley North 10
Blue Valley West 9
Olathe Northwest 7
Olathe East 8
Olathe North 5
Olathe South 7
De Soto 9
Mill Valley 9
Gardner High 8
Spring Hill 8

KANSAS CITY, KS
Sumner High 7
Wyandotte High 1
Harmon High 1
Schlagle High 1
Washington High 2

KCK SUBURBS
Piper High 4
Turner High 2
Bonner Springs High 4
Lansing High 6
Leavenworth High 3
Basehor-Linwood High 6
Tonganoxi High 8

LAWRENCE AREA
Lawrence High 5
Freestate High 6
Eudora High 9

[OneKC]

This is helpful. Thanks.

[RjRobb2]

I wouldnt pay any attention to rankings like this. Nothing can replace learning more about the schools, their culture, and students and parents experiences.

If I was hunting for a school for my kids. I would want to talk to the faculty, parents of other students, and students themselves. One school might be good for one child but might not be good for another.

I went to Oak Park and absolutely loved it. Most of my friends went to Park Hill and Park Hill South and hated it. They treated the kids like they were in elementary school and ran it like a prison. Yet, my friends were always talking about all the fights that took place. At Oak Park, I only remember there being a handful of fights the entire time I was there. There were cliches but everyone either got along or kept to themselves.

In regards to academics. I went to Park Hill school district in elementary school. I moved to NKC in the middle of a school year and I was a half a year behind. It took me about 2 years to get fully caught up with my fellow students.

If I live in KC when my kids are high school age, my kids will go to either Staley or Oak Park. I will not have it any other way.

[OneKC]

Sure, but you're not going to be able to check out every single school in the metro area. The rankings are a good place to start, but you should always do more legwork to see if the school district is right for what you want for your kids.

[famusdarlin]

Interesting Rankings. I know greatschools information can be flawed, but this is a good start. Always interesting when a school district has great elementary schools, but not as good high schools or average elementary schools, but great high schools. You can't just keep moving your kids around, just have to trust your gut when it comes to making that final decision.

[pioneer88]

Great schools rankings are based on parent voting etc. So it can be pretty inconsistent from one school to another. One school might have several parents that know about great schools and also are really pleased with their experiences so they are going to have a higher score, and of course you have the opposite side of the coin. Then you might have a school where there is little representation on great schools leaving little solid info about it.
It is a start but having discussions with people involved is the best bet. For example where I grew up some folks viewed my school as lacking in some ways educationally. But in reality we had the highest scores on ACT, excelled on State testing while still offering quality extracurricular activities. The "problem" was that we had a more diverse (not simply racially, but socio-economically, Sped etc) than the others so we must have not been as good right? Many people, even those that attended our schools didn't realize how good they actually had it. Anyway, hope that didn't sound like a rant as that was not my intention. Good luck and you'll have no problem finding great schools anywhere in KC.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by pioneer88

Great schools rankings are based on parent voting etc. So it can be pretty inconsistent from one school to another. One school might have several parents that know about great schools and also are really pleased with their experiences so they are going to have a higher score, and of course you have the opposite side of the coin. Then you might have a school where there is little representation on great schools leaving little solid info about it.
It is a start but having discussions with people involved is the best bet. For example where I grew up some folks viewed my school as lacking in some ways educationally. But in reality we had the highest scores on ACT, excelled on State testing while still offering quality extracurricular activities. The "problem" was that we had a more diverse (not simply racially, but socio-economically, Sped etc) than the others so we must have not been as good right? Many people, even those that attended our schools didn't realize how good they actually had it. Anyway, hope that didn't sound like a rant as that was not my intention. Good luck and you'll have no problem finding great schools anywhere in KC.

Great post.

You mean to tell me that a school in an extremely wealthy area with very few socially or economically challenged students will have a better overall rating than most schools that serve a more diverse population?

So you are saying that a family could be removed from the Blue Valley High School, which is a "10" and placed in a high school such as Liberty, Blue Springs or even lower rated schools (like shawnee mission ) and the students should get a similar high quality education?

Ahh, how interesting.


BTW, from these stats, it looks like Lee's Summit or Park Hill are the better districts as all of their high schools are an 8 or above while Blue Valley has only 2 of four ranked that high and Shawnee Mission has a couple 5's in there.

First off, with the demographics of Blue Valley, I would have thought every high school in that district would have been a 10.

PS, this is mostly in response to Samantha who has made it a personal goal to make sure everybody knows that the best school districts in the metro are by far Blue Valley and Shawnee Mission. To me, they seem pretty damn average for suburban districts and Blue Valley should be doing better given the easy demos they get to work with.

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by kcmo

PS, this is mostly in response to Samantha who has made it a personal goal to make sure everybody knows that the best school districts in the metro are by far Blue Valley and Shawnee Mission. To me, they seem pretty damn average for suburban districts and Blue Valley should be doing better given the easy demos they get to work with.

Why shouldn't people who ask about moving the area and who say that schools are a priority know which ones I think are best?

This is a serious question.

Isn't that why people ask questions in a public forum? Because they want various people's opinions?



As I have said many times, I have researched extensively schools all over the metro. I have an opinion that I honestly believe is based upon more than just pride and wishful thinking.

Why should I not share it in a forum such as this?

[TabulaRasa]

My workplace handles students from all over the metro on either side of the state line, and my experiences in working with these districts and the students they refer have shown that, of the schools on the MO line that are academically well-regarded, it's really simply not true that the perceived quality is a matter wishful thinking.