Liberty High School (good or not so good)? (Allentown, Bethlehem: school district, university)

[cupid881]

can someone give a little insight on Liberty High School in Bethlehem, pa.. would greatly appreciate it.. :-)

[wings396]

I would have to put it somewhere in the middle. Not one of the best, but not the worst either. I will ask a few people I know in that area for their input.

[cupid881]

thank you sooo much.. i was there today in bethlehem and also Whitehall area wasnt crazy about Whitehall.. im a little nervous as i have children and want to place them where it is safe..

[toobusytoday]

I don't know about safety but less then half of the 11th graders were able to be rated proficient in math and just over 56% were proficient in reading. SchoolMatters - Home . Only 42% of the class of 2005 seniors intended to go to a four year college. Looks like they didn't make the adequate yearly progress for the NCLB standards. Hopefully, wings will know some people with more positive input. Their marching band is great!

[Matt_PSU]

The people that go there "get used to it" basically. They won't come out and say it's bad. But, I will say it. It's bad. I would not send my future children there... whitehall is just OK, it has its bad pockets but nothing like A/B/E SDs. There are some great kids that come out of liberty but they are the exception not the norm. It is not the school or the educators, it's the problem kids in the school that corrupt everything.

[janeannwho]

I went to Liberty eons ago, and the way the campus was set up, the "academic" kids, were pretty much separated from the votech, or general ed kids. But even years ago, 70s, there was the "bad" hall. I had a locker there and never could use it because it would get busted open either by the kids in the "bad" hall or by the admin looking for stuff in the lockers. But using this bit of knowledge to my advantage, I put my finished bio project in the locker, four types of bread mold, so i would not have to carry it around until I could get rid of it, but the disposal was taken care of, when I went back for it, it was gone!! I had a great education there and have gone on to post graduate work. I had friends from all the different groups of kids, but I do not know how it would be today.

[markas214]

Originally Posted by Matt_PSU

The people that go there "get used to it" basically. They won't come out and say it's bad. But, I will say it. It's bad. I would not send my future children there... whitehall is just OK, it has its bad pockets but nothing like A/B/E SDs. There are some great kids that come out of liberty but they are the exception not the norm. It is not the school or the educators, it's the problem kids in the school that corrupt everything.

Did you go there? Were you bullied? What do you base your opinion on. I graduated From Liberty in '79, I had a daughter graduate last year, now at an Ivy League university, and have more on the way. We are upper income but prefer not to be living in a cookie cutter subdivision and sending our kids to a suburban school where everyone is the same and they have no exposure outside of there sub-division lifestyles. Liberty has a diverse enrollment but the go-getters and motivated students excel academically. Our football team is constantly in the top 5 . There is virtually no violence on campus. Remember Columbine was not an urban high school. To say the great kids are the exception is just plain ignorant and insulting? Do you truly believe that greater than 50% of Liberty graduates are losers? Please.

[toobusytoday]

Gee, I had all kinds of comments but now that I'm wearing my moderator hat, I'm going to bite my tongue. Let's try to just give the OP our opinons in a civilized manner without picking on each other.

That said, I am kind of curious about what a sub-division lifestyle is. I bet that the teens in Bethlehem do just about the same things as teens in any of the towns surrounding the city.

Perhaps it would be good if we could try to find things unique about our schools. Sports is certainly a big plus for Liberty, your marching band is another.

[Lehigh Valley Native]

Liberty is the best out of the Lehigh Valley inner city schools. However, compare it to Lehigh Valley suburban schools and it doesn't look so good.
If a quality district is important, I give you my personal Lehigh Valley top 5 districts:
1) Parkland ( North & South Whitehall, Upper Macungie & West End A-Town)
2) East Penn ( Emmaus, Macungie, & Lower Macungie)
3) Whitehall - Coply ( Whitehall & Coply)
4) Southern Lehigh ( Coopersburg, Limeport)
5) Saucon Valley ( Hellertown area)

This is just my opinion based on growing up in the Lehigh Valley for 35 years. I have had children attend two of these districts, friends kids in some others and a friend teaching in one.

[toobusytoday]

My own bias puts Southern Lehigh above Whitehall-Coplay. If you look at any of the school research sites, it's scores are always above Whitehall's. Another School District close to Allentown that is often forgotten is Salisbury, right between SL and Allentown. It's scores are not too shabby and it's conveinent to the city and the popular Promenade shops. Downside is that there is no community feeling, it's not SL and it's not Allentown, it's just sort of in-between.

Hey, on another thread a poster mentioned this site: Schooldigger.com -- Search and compare elementary, middle, and high schools. I've been playing around with it and it's pretty cool. You can easily see communtiy demographics, scores, and an overall ranking. Of course tests scores are not the real measure of a school, but they're a starting point.