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I see when people, specifically parents are choosing where to live, school choice is foremost. People are seemingly willing to spend perhaps $200K+ on a similar house to move to a place with a good school district.
I attended high school in NJ and it is a Top 20 school (which I think is a joke, but that is for another thread) and over the roughly 2 decades since then, I have met several people who graduated from several different high schools.
Anyway, having the benefit of hindsight and having seen what people accomplish in life coming from where, my 2 cents is that the importance of school district is vastly, VASTLY overrated.
OK. If you finish as valedictorian of Piscataway High school (ranked somewhere in the middle) and the valedictorian of Millburn high school, it makes a difference. You probably have your choice of schools if you are valedictorian of Millburn, Piscataway less so. How much of a difference does that make in life? I would argue little, but it's still there.
Still, the vast majority of people will not have a kid who is valedictorian at Millburn, and for those people, wherever they send their kid to school, a good work ethic can get them into an Ivy League school, such as a Columbia, UPenn, or Hopkins. Whether that kid attends Morris Hills, Piscataway High school, even Union, it is possible.
Now, there is a difference between the poorer schools, such as the Camdens and etc. I am not talking about that. But generally, any school system in a nice, suburban safe town will do. Anything above that will generally not make any difference in what your child accomplishes in life. The cream will rise to the top. This has been my observation and experience.
i agree overall with the OP and that if you want to suceeed you will regarless of if your school is #5 or #50, the very bottom is an issue like the camdem and newark schools but overall most of the school in NJ will give a kid the tools needed. i went to mahwah school systems from k-10th grade and 11-12 at bergen catholic.
current ranking show mahwah as better than most but i feel it was a joke looking back (graduated HS 2001) and bergen catholic was an even bigger joke, we barley had test, quizes and hw to the point we were genuinely curious what our grades would be when report cards came around. that said, i wasn't a frontrunner for valedictorian at either and did my average work. i got my sh1t straight in college and have turned out pretty decent with a great job and peaceful life.
now that i have kids, i feel to the greater extent, what i teach them in terms of "the right thing to do" will largely dictate how well they do with education BUT i am looking for a home now in good school districts because i want to give my kids every opportunity to succeed.
so.... the schools dont matter all that much but ill play the game to try and give my kids the best chance.....taxes be damned
Agree that the obsession of some to land in the very best school district is overdone.
But the quality remains an important factor. I'd agree that parental involvement and drive of the student are even more critical. But being surrounded by kids of like-minded education-focused parents does create a stronger learning environment. The availability of an IB program or lots of AP courses allow students to challenge themselves and achieve more. And it certainly matters to college admissions.
I see when people, specifically parents are choosing where to live, school choice is foremost. People are seemingly willing to spend perhaps $200K+ on a similar house to move to a place with a good school district.
I attended high school in NJ and it is a Top 20 school (which I think is a joke, but that is for another thread) and over the roughly 2 decades since then, I have met several people who graduated from several different high schools.
Anyway, having the benefit of hindsight and having seen what people accomplish in life coming from where, my 2 cents is that the importance of school district is vastly, VASTLY overrated.
OK. If you finish as valedictorian of Piscataway High school (ranked somewhere in the middle) and the valedictorian of Millburn high school, it makes a difference. You probably have your choice of schools if you are valedictorian of Millburn, Piscataway less so. How much of a difference does that make in life? I would argue little, but it's still there.
Still, the vast majority of people will not have a kid who is valedictorian at Millburn, and for those people, wherever they send their kid to school, a good work ethic can get them into an Ivy League school, such as a Columbia, UPenn, or Hopkins. Whether that kid attends Morris Hills, Piscataway High school, even Union, it is possible.
Now, there is a difference between the poorer schools, such as the Camdens and etc. I am not talking about that. But generally, any school system in a nice, suburban safe town will do. Anything above that will generally not make any difference in what your child accomplishes in life. The cream will rise to the top. This has been my observation and experience.
I think a lot of NJ people will agree with your post but there are still the "school Nazi's" that will argue you to their death on that one.
I just happen to have graduated from Piscataway HS in the 60's but I was a poor student and never attended college however I got smarter as I got older and both our kids are college graduates. One was accepted at Johns Hopkins and Tufts but chose Rutgers because of the free academic scholarship and we couldn't afford JH.
Both are in upper managment in National companies. Not too bad for not having lived in Milburn.
I think it can be overdone by some but it is important factor like crime rates & access to mass transit. The "it doesn't matter" people aren't moving to Newark & Paterson anytime soon.
It depends on how much importance people attach to it. NJ has really good schools for the most part. The top, say, 25% really kind of shuffle the "best school" mantle around between them and sometimes go up and sometimes go down. Is, say, Glen Ridge really that much better than Summit?
Some people see spending the money to get the "best" school district as something they can control, they can afford, and see it as worthwhile. Other people are trying to balance things a little more finely and might be more realistic about how much the schools affect education compared to home life as a bigger player, but it's like "nature vs. nurture" and who would make a better student? Some people are willing to spend the money to give them the best nurture to help the nature.
The cream will rise to the top, but there are a lot of people who want to start their kid in an environment filled with heavy cream, others are more content with 2%. I went to a terrible public high school in another state and have low opinion of the entire process anyway, so I'm certainly inclined to agree with you, but there will always be people who want to spend more just because they can. Doesn't a Smart Car get you the same place as a Tesla? Some people are willing to spend to have additional options.
A major importance would be how you are raised and the way things function at home. School is very overrated but it is important. I grew up going to school down south in TX , I never finished 8th grade but i have had a few different jobs, picked up on web design, construction, general labor work, learned about computers, sales jobs, and have successfully owned and operated 2 pizzerias in NJ.
I picked up a lot of street smarts and dedicated time into educating myself online and reading a lot. I may not have all the degrees on paper but i have been able to make a great living with a salary over 100k.
I think it can be overdone by some but it is important factor like crime rates & access to mass transit. The "it doesn't matter" people aren't moving to Newark & Paterson anytime soon.
Agree with this. It's a factor that may or may not carry a bit too much weight, although theses three often go hand in hand.
In NJ if you're in the top 100 or so you're in a very good district by most measures nationwide. Putting yourself into a shoe box to pay the premium for Millburn may not be worth it in most cases, unless little Johnny is a rocket scientist. While Millburn does most likely have relationships w/ top tier colleges and plenty of academic and extra curricular activities many schools in the top 40 do to. This again is not to say Camden, or even someplace like Toms River has the same offerings, but Millburn vs. Gov Livingston or Cranford may not really be make or break.
That being said, the ratings used are usually so flawed to begin with that many of these arguments aren't even worthwhile, many of the flaws have been discussed to death on this board. Yes, the ratings are a good baseline, but when i looked last time i saw two schools ranked something like 40 & 41 with a 300 point spread between them on SAT score, that shouldn't happen.
shush. We're encouraging the school district thing to keep all the snobs contained.
+1
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