School Districts to avoid? (Minneapolis, St. Paul: environment, relocation, real estate)

[golfgal]

The Newsweek ranking takes into consideration how many kids from the IB program at that school take the SAT, not how well they do on that test, not if they pass, only if they take the test. The Star-Trib did an article on the IB program in the Minneapolis schools a couple months ago, I posted on this board about that article when it came out. The program started the year with 99 students and were down to 45 students by Christmas. That 'ranking' is based on those 45 kids out of thousands, sorry, just not a good ranking at all.

This illustrates the problem with a lot of rankings--what are they looking at? The one ranking I like is the Expansion Magazine one. It is a relocation magazine. It ranks schools on many things, the education level of the community, the funding the schools get, the graduation rates, the test scores and several other things. Since they have no vested interest in the outcome of the results they are very unbiased. Too many ranking simply look at one aspect of school life and don't really give you a clear picture of what the school is really like.

[MNNative]

Originally Posted by golfgal

This illustrates the problem with a lot of rankings--what are they looking at? The one ranking I like is the Expansion Magazine one. It is a relocation magazine. It ranks schools on many things, the education level of the community, the funding the schools get, the graduation rates, the test scores and several other things. Since they have no vested interest in the outcome of the results they are very unbiased. Too many ranking simply look at one aspect of school life and don't really give you a clear picture of what the school is really like.

That's EXACTLY how I've been feeling when I've looked at rankings. They just don't follow the same guidelines or something cause they all tell you something different and they don't all use appropriate data.

Is that publication available online?

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by MNNative

That's EXACTLY how I've been feeling when I've looked at rankings. They just don't follow the same guidelines or something cause they all tell you something different and they don't all use appropriate data.

Is that publication available online?

Yes, Research Studies: Education Quotient

[MNNative]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Yes, Research Studies: Education Quotient

Thanks. I tried browsing around (couldn't actually find any type of rating list for schools or areas that you didn't have to pay for, maybe I'll have to look around more).

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by MNNative

Thanks. I tried browsing around (couldn't actually find any type of rating list for schools or areas that you didn't have to pay for, maybe I'll have to look around more).

In the gold box mid page there are a couple stories about metro schools and 2007 Education Quotient. Click on 'read full article' and you will see the states grouped. Click on the one that reads for MN and it will pull up their rankings. Scroll down and you will find their top 20. The Gold rated districts are in the top 17% of the nations districts.

[MNNative]

Originally Posted by golfgal

In the gold box mid page there are a couple stories about metro schools and 2007 Education Quotient. Click on 'read full article' and you will see the states grouped. Click on the one that reads for MN and it will pull up their rankings. Scroll down and you will find their top 20. The Gold rated districts are in the top 17% of the nations districts.

Ah, the one I didn't click on. lol Thank you (I feel dumb).

[camebacknhappy]

golf girl, its time to get off the links and start reading. my kids go to school in minneapolis. anthony middle school is terrific. barton elementary is terrific. check out southwest high school - always ranks as one of the top 200 schools in the entire U.S. by US News and World Report. their chess team just won the national high school chess championship for the third straight time! Washburn HS just sent their robotics team to the national finals. good stuff is happening all over the place

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by camebacknhappy

golf girl, its time to get off the links and start reading. my kids go to school in minneapolis. anthony middle school is terrific. barton elementary is terrific. check out southwest high school - always ranks as one of the top 200 schools in the entire U.S. by US News and World Report. their chess team just won the national high school chess championship for the third straight time! Washburn HS just sent their robotics team to the national finals. good stuff is happening all over the place

That is very nice but there are STILL major issues in the Minneapolis schools and if they are only graduating 67% of their students something is very wrong. Our district graduates 98% of it's students--that is a HUGE difference. Your kids aren't in high school yet. You also have to look at what those rankings are based on--there is a new post to that topic right now.

Again, this has nothing to do with the teachers there and everything to do with the atmosphere, mainly the number of kids in the schools there that just don't want to be there.

I could run down a pages long list of the accomplishments in our district, all ACADEMIC too, starting with our Rhodes Scholar on down and the the Minneapolis schools couldn't come close to comparing.

It is great that the schools have these programs for the kids and they do very well. It is very possible that these programs might even be keeping kids in school that wouldn't otherwise be there, but they still don't speak to the quality of the schools.

[Slig]

A 7th grader from the Emerson Spanish Immersion Learning Center beat all the suburb kids in the geography bee and is heading to nationals in Washington DC.

MInneapolis 7th-grader knows his way around a globe

I'm still not convinced that suburb schools should be given bottom-line superiority to the city schools. You have to accept that both have their strengths and weaknesses and advantages and disadvantages. golfgal brings up some valid points but some of them are pretty unfair considering they aren't on a level playing field with regards to the student sample they are provided with. If I really wanted to be annoying I could find the likelihood of being a student at Rosemount high school and being stabbed to death by using statistics from the 2007-2008 academic year and then compare those statistics to the Minneapolis and St. Paul schools. I'm pretty sure Rosemount would take the cake there.

[nick is rulz]

yeah there is also the obvious law of percentages. Easy to brag about how many students your district graduates when it has 400-500 in a graduating class compared to tens of thousands.