Worcester MA Rundown (Boston: low income, rental, high crime)

[Jeremy01506]

Originally Posted by MaiasauraWH

If you have any insight on which are the best elementary schools, I would be so grateful!
Also, does one have to go to the school nearest one's home? Can you pick any school in the city?

I have heard good things about Lake View but I do not have any experience myself, but you can try this website:

Worcester Elementary Schools - Worcester, MA | GreatSchools

[jfitt]

Lake View is a good little neighborhood school. You will have to register your child at the Parent Information Center. When you register, they will tell you which school your child will attend. Under the No Child Left Behind legislation, if the school is identified as needing improvement (I believe about 60% of WPS elementary schools have this designation) you have every right to say you want to enroll your child in a school that doesn't have this designation. By law, they cannot tell you another school doesn;t have room. The district does have the right to say that you must provide transportation to a non-neighborhood school. Do you know which school is your neighborhood school? Some schools identified as needing improvement are really good schools which have a small group of students really skewing the test results. What is your neighborhood school?

[MaiasauraWH]

Originally Posted by jfitt

Under the No Child Left Behind legislation, if the school is identified as needing improvement (I believe about 60% of WPS elementary schools have this designation) you have every right to say you want to enroll your child in a school that doesn't have this designation. By law, they cannot tell you another school doesn;t have room. The district does have the right to say that you must provide transportation to a non-neighborhood school. Do you know which school is your neighborhood school? Some schools identified as needing improvement are really good schools which have a small group of students really skewing the test results. What is your neighborhood school?

I don't know yet-- I'm still in NC. I have to wait till my house sells before I can move up there. At the moment I'm thinking Elm...Elm something, in 01609, not too far from Elm Park and near Highland St, Fruit St, I'm blanking on other nearby streets. On Great Schools it looks bloody awful I don't have a problem driving my child to school. I just care if he turns into a hoodlum, which is what everybody's warning me about

[Greendale]

Where will you be living?

[jfitt]

I would stay away from Elm Park School. A little further up the road in Midland St and it is a nice little neighborhood school as is May St.

It is important to try to move into the neighborhood assigned to a school. The MLS listings usually tell you the neighborhood schools.

Not sure what you mean by "best" schools. If it is academics then Flagg St, Nelson Place, West Tatnuck, Clark St, Wawecus,and Lake View are probably your best bets. Both Chandler Elementary and Union Hill have been designated level 4 schools (the lowest designation given by the state) so you want to stay away from them, as well.

[Gabe1972]

Originally Posted by thenewtexan

The census bureau takes into consideration the population within the city limits. Therefore, Worcester is actually the second biggest city in New England. What you ar ereferring to is the MSA. The largest "suburb" is Shrewsbury and has only about 32K. Cranston, Warwick and Pawtucket have about 250K combined at least.

I fully know what I am saying actually. The second biggest city thing is tossed around all the time as a marketing tool for Worcester. When talking about population in the literal sense, yes it is the second largest, but the way it is used it's a misnomer because when saying it in a way that says, "come to Worcester, we're the second biggest city in New England" people are implying that Worcester will provide you with all of the expectations one would have of the second biggest city in New England, which it cannot provide. Northeastern cities cannot be measured in population alone the way cities in many other parts of the country can because the northeast is based on seperate municipalities vs the city/county form prevelant in most parts of the country. The "second biggest city" thing that Worcester likes to throw around is misleading because if New England was set up from the beginning city/county Worcester wouldn't even be able to touch Lowell. Or maybe it would, if it had actually been set up that way from the beginning. Instead Worcester is a large city surrounded by very small towns.

As a Worcester resident I feel the city would be much better off if it stopped using the second biggest city label as a marketing tool because in the end all it creates is disappointment from it's citizen's and it's visitors.
It's a fine place to live and visit, but it is not a Providence or even a Hartford, it's never going to be, and people should not be led to believe that it is. Worcester is Worcester.

[jfitt]

Worcester is Worcester---hmm, sounds like a new slogan!! Well it beats the old one, Worcester, Paris of the 80's---talk about creating disappointment!

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by thenewtexan

The census bureau takes into consideration the population within the city limits. Therefore, Worcester is actually the second biggest city in New England. What you ar ereferring to is the MSA. The largest "suburb" is Shrewsbury and has only about 32K. Cranston, Warwick and Pawtucket have about 250K combined at least.

Right. But simply put, the Providence area is a much larger urban area (twice as big, really) than Worcester. That is plainly obvious to anyone who has visited both cities.

What many people don't realize is that the population of city limits is a terrible measure of how large a city really is. This is especially true when you consider that "city-limits" are much more loosely defined in other parts of the country (and each city covers a different land area... Boston is 49 square miles while Jacksonville Florida is over 300 square miles). A combination of Urbanized area and MSA is a good measure of how big a city actually is. The lack of accuracy with MSA (which is measured by county) and city limit population in New England has lead to a separate designation called "New England City and Town Area" (NECTA). NECTA uses population measurement criteria that paints a far more accurate picture of population for cities and towns in New England. That figure shows Providence as twice the size of Worcester (Worcester ranks 7th in New England by that measure).

[RLCMA]

I currently live in Worcester and it does get a bad rap. I can't say I enjoy living there but there are some positives such as good restaurants. I would say most of Worcester is rundown but there are some diamonds in the rough. Everyone has different tastes and Worcester appeals to some and not to others.

[xyz789]

I will admit it was many years ago but, after having my car broken in to for the 4th time I moved out of Worcester. I lived there for a little over a year and worked there for just under four years. I would not recommend moving your family to Worcester.