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Those complaining about factors like diversity negatively impacting their school rankings have to consider that the mark of a good education is about more than just test scores and graduation rates. It's about preparation for and knowledge of the real world. And the real world is not solely composed of affluent WASPs - in fact the majority of it isn't. So how truly well prepared to go out in the world is a child who has no peers from different cultures that look and/or worship differently than them, or come from a different economic reality?
That said, lets be frank. It doesn't take much to earn a decent diversity score. Top ranked lily white towns like Milburn, Bernards Township, and Basking Ridge have schools that received decent diversity grades. Where the hell are you people living that's even less diverse than places like that?
Those complaining about factors like diversity negatively impacting their school rankings have to consider that the mark of a good education is about more than just test scores and graduation rates. It's about preparation for and knowledge of the real world. ?
I don't think anyone is saying diversity is not important, but it's not as important (or more important) than test scores and school curriculum. I grew up in an affluent community that was 99% white. We had 3 black kids in my class...I can still remember their names 25 years later. Over the years I have lived in Jersey City and worked in NYC (obviously very diverse places) and I have never had any issues adjusting to the diversity. It was the challenging teachers I had and the school curriculum that prepared me for a good college education that have made me successful today.
I don't think anyone is saying diversity is not important, but it's not as important (or more important) than test scores and school curriculum. I grew up in an affluent community that was 99% white. We had 3 black kids in my class...I can still remember their names 25 years later. Over the years I have lived in Jersey City and worked in NYC (obviously very diverse places) and I have never had any issues adjusting to the diversity. It was the challenging teachers I had and the school curriculum that prepared me for a good college education that have made me successful today.
Being well rounded as an individual means more than "adjusting" to diversity. It means embracing it and having it intricately involved in your life. How many friends of color do you have? Have you hosted them at your house? Where they at your wedding?
That sort of thing is what this ranking is going for.
My district is Rutherford and we're in the in the bottom half of the top 100. Our ranking was affected negatively because our sole low grade was we got dinged for bad food. So I think I have a bigger beef with the methodology, and yet you don't hear me complaining. If you're happy with what you're seeing in your school district that's not all that matters and you need not concern yourself with what Niche thinks. The ranking that matters most is yours.
Being well rounded as an individual means more than "adjusting" to diversity. It means embracing it and having it intricately involved in your life. How many friends of color do you have? Have you hosted them at your house? Where they at your wedding?
That sort of thing is what this ranking is going for.
Yes I have many non-white friends, but why does that matter? Does it somehow make me a better person that I have friends who are racially or economically different than me? My child goes to a daycare run by a black person. But again, why would that matter? This person provides good child care, and that's all the matters to me.
In the school district I grew up in, they used to bus black kids in from the nearby inner city to make our district more diverse. However, there was no bus shuttling white kids to the inner city to make their school more diverse. Why do you think that is...
Being well rounded as an individual means more than "adjusting" to diversity. It means embracing it and having it intricately involved in your life. How many friends of color do you have? Have you hosted them at your house? Where they at your wedding?
That sort of thing is what this ranking is going for.
My district is Rutherford and we're in the in the bottom half of the top 100. Our ranking was affected negatively because our sole low grade was we got dinged for bad food. So I think I have a bigger beef with the methodology, and yet you don't hear me complaining. If you're happy with what you're seeing in your school district that's not all that matters and you need not concern yourself with what Niche thinks. The ranking that matters most is yours.
Identity politics rule some peoples' lives. IF you look at the Niche countrywide rankings for schools like Jericho in Long Island, which ranks higher than any NJ school, it gets an A for diversity which is the category reason why it ranks better than all NJ schools. But it is not the diversity you talk about in your post. Jericho is 86% white, 1% Black, 2% Hispanic. It gets the A on diversity bc it is 11% Asian.
I've said before and will say again, some of the most culturally diverse places are the most non-diverse in terms of groupthink. I say that as someone who has grown up in the Bronx, so I know from where I speak. I would rather diversity OF THOUGHT rather than some magic mix of skin color.
Identity politics rule some peoples' lives. IF you look at the Niche countrywide rankings for schools like Jericho in Long Island, which ranks higher than any NJ school, it gets an A for diversity which is the category reason why it ranks better than all NJ schools. But it is not the diversity you talk about in your post. Jericho is 86% white, 1% Black, 2% Hispanic. It gets the A on diversity bc it is 11% Asian.
I've said before and will say again, some of the most culturally diverse places are the most non-diverse in terms of groupthink. I say that as someone who has grown up in the Bronx, so I know from where I speak. I would rather diversity OF THOUGHT rather than some magic mix of skin color.
I don't think they have any rhyme or reason. My town is 20% Asian, and we got a B- for diversity.
Yes I have many non-white friends, but why does that matter? Does it somehow make me a better person that I have friends who are racially or economically different than me? My child goes to a daycare run by a black person. But again, why would that matter? This person provides good child care, and that's all the matters to me..
The more important question is why does it matter to a school ranking that should logically be based on academics and other activities enriching students' experience and lives, like a variety of clubs, community service, and sports.
Diversity is arguably important for sure in life in general but I still fail to see its relevance to these rankings, personally.
I could also count the number of black kids on two hands at my high school (and I did not graduate that long ago), but we probably had more Hispanics than blacks and a small number of Asians, and academically my high school did and still does perform very well. It had/has honors courses, lots of APs with students who tend to do well on the AP tests, a high graduation rate, lots of community service opportunities, etc. It would be annoying to find out my high school perhaps would not do as well on some rankings because it wasn't diverse enough. It just seems completely irrelevant and makes rankings seem arbitrary. At the time my town was about 92% white but I'm sure it has changed a bit since, even though it hasn't been that long.
Yes I have many non-white friends, but why does that matter? Does it somehow make me a better person that I have friends who are racially or economically different than me? My child goes to a daycare run by a black person. But again, why would that matter? This person provides good child care, and that's all the matters to me.
In the school district I grew up in, they used to bus black kids in from the nearby inner city to make our district more diverse. However, there was no bus shuttling white kids to the inner city to make their school more diverse. Why do you think that is...
Whether or not you having a diverse set of friends makes you a better person is not for me to say. I don't know you. But objectively speaking it does make you a more well rounded person because you have intimate knowledge of other viewpoints and experiences than your own.
If the school you grew up was busing in black kids, it's probably because it was being desegregated pursuant to federal law. Even though segregation wasn't the law in the north, there were many de facto instances of it that the feds delt with. As to why the busing never went the other way, I hope you surely don't think just black people live in improvised inner cities. As the majority ethnic group, there are far more poor white people in America than any other group. So those areas are already plenty diverse.
Identity politics rule some peoples' lives. IF you look at the Niche countrywide rankings for schools like Jericho in Long Island, which ranks higher than any NJ school, it gets an A for diversity which is the category reason why it ranks better than all NJ schools. But it is not the diversity you talk about in your post. Jericho is 86% white, 1% Black, 2% Hispanic. It gets the A on diversity bc it is 11% Asian.
I've said before and will say again, some of the most culturally diverse places are the most non-diverse in terms of groupthink. I say that as someone who has grown up in the Bronx, so I know from where I speak. I would rather diversity OF THOUGHT rather than some magic mix of skin color.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnesthesiaMD
I don't think they have any rhyme or reason. My town is 20% Asian, and we got a B- for diversity.
Their methodology does not consider just the percentages of diversity. The grade is based on racial and economic diversity and survey responses on school culture and diversity from students and parents. So if a district has people of various ethnic backgrounds, but they're all and (or all poor for the matter), that's a ding on the diversity score. Likewise, if a distinct is diverse percentage wise, but the surveys they got from people indicates certain groups were having a rough go at it socially due to bigotry or something, that would likewise ding the score.
I'll say it again, if towns like Milburn and Basking Ridge got good diversity scores, it obviously ain't that hard a standard. So what kinda towns are some of you living in that can't meet such an easy metric?
The more important question is why does it matter to a school ranking that should logically be based on academics and other activities enriching students' experience and lives, like a variety of clubs, community service, and sports.
Diversity is arguably important for sure in life in general but I still fail to see its relevance to these rankings, personally.
I could also count the number of black kids on two hands at my high school (and I did not graduate that long ago), but we probably had more Hispanics than blacks and a small number of Asians, and academically my high school did and still does perform very well. It had/has honors courses, lots of APs with students who tend to do well on the AP tests, a high graduation rate, lots of community service opportunities, etc. It would be annoying to find out my high school perhaps would not do as well on some rankings because it wasn't diverse enough. It just seems completely irrelevant and makes rankings seem arbitrary. At the time my town was about 92% white but I'm sure it has changed a bit since, even though it hasn't been that long.
Socioeconomic diversity seems completely irrelevant to you. That's because you're only seeing things from your perspective. And you're entitled to your perspective. But look at it from my perspective. My wife and I are a high income household in a mixed marriage - but both non-white (I'm half actually, but don't identify that way). So we have a mixed child.
We could afford to live in any town in Jersey on that list (unless the likes of Alpine, Saddle River, Rumson, etc. are on it). But from our perspective, a non diverse school district is not a good school district to put our child in regardless of our its scores and graduation rates. We wanted a place where people who look different are embraced. And a place were some of our peers are rich, some middle class, and some poor. So we looked beyond the scores. We looked at socio-economics too. Rutherford won out because it had everything we wanted, most importantly including the the quickest possible commute to downtown NYC.
So this ranking is by - and speaking to - people with a viewpoint similar to ours. That's not to say there's anything wrong with your perspective. I'm sure there are rankings out there that just consider raw academic numbers that would be more to your liking.
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