Clarks Green vs. Dalton (Philadelphia, Scranton: middle-class, credit, attorneys)

[clarksgreen13]

Hi - I am a 1st time poster here. We bought a fixer-upper in Clarks Green about 5 yrs. ago. We love our house, neighborhood, the Abingtons in general but 2 babies later we are quickly outgrowing our charming 3bd 1ba home.

We are starting to look into the surrounding areas; particularly in Waverly and Dalton and have found some great quiet and leafy established neighborhoods (we aren't so much the subdivision type). In particular we like the 3 or 4 streets in Dalton (Weatherby, Miles) right to the left once you go through the center of town past McGrath's (coming from Waverly). Is all of this part of Dalton still part of Abington Heights? How does Lackawanna Trail match-up? What is the dynamic of the avg. demographic in Dalton as compared to Clarks Green? (Where we now find outselves surrounded by many professionals, executives, advanced degrees). Dalton seems to have a more rural feel, yet some of the homes in this neighborhood are quite stately. Any and all advice on Dalton/Waverly would be greatly appreciated!

[to570717]

Hello, I grew up in that area. Best way to describe it is Dalton is a wonderful place to live and raise kids. Waverly is also a fantastic place to live and raise kids. I would choose Abington over Trail every single time.

Dalton is Trail district, Waverly is Abington. Dalton you will find less professionals, advanced degree than Waverly. Other than the school issue, you cant go wrong with either in terms of quality of towns.

[JD CSummit]

If you're on main street in Dalton looking up the hill towards McGraths, everything to your left is Lackawanna Trail school district. If you follow main street up the hill towards Waverly, the LT school district line goes further off towards your left. For example, most of Lily Lake Road is in Abington Heights.

[clarksgreen13]

Thanks for the info.

That is disappointing that that particular section of Dalton is LT. We'd prefer to be in AH even though we are 99% sure our kids will attend OLP and Prep for HS; you just never know and AH seems like a great public school system.

Dalton seems to offer a bit more bang for your buck as compared with the househunting we've done in Waverly. A bit more yard, quieter but also a tab 'hokey'? Hope not to offend anyone Not sure if we even want to be a few more miles away from all the action in Clarks Summit.

[go phillies]

I would bet that your kids would get just as good of an education at Trail as they would at Abington. It's not as if Trail is some underperforming school district. In reality, there are no bad schools in NEPA. There are differences in test scores, but that's more of a product of demographics than it is the quality of teaching.

[to570717]

I have family in Dalton now. They send their kids to OLP. They would pay the tuition to Abington for High school but may send them to prep.

Abington is the best public school in NEPA IMO

Prep didn't have any Military academy and very little Ivy bound grads this year. Thats a newer trend but none the less, some folks put a lot of weight behind that.

Abington typically produces a few Ivy and West Pointers and is comparable with SAT's to Prep. You will not get that at Trail.

[clarksgreen13]

very helpful info.

never really thought about paying the tuition to attend AH out of district. How does that compare to Prep or OLP tuitions?

[go phillies]

Originally Posted by to570717

Abington typically produces a few Ivy and West Pointers and is comparable with SAT's to Prep. You will not get that at Trail.

But is that a product of the teaching at Abington being better than other schools, or is it the product of Abington being an affluent district, with many of the kids being the children of doctors and other highly paid professionals? I'm not saying the level of education is bad at Abington, I'm sure its very good, but I think any school in the area is a good choice and kids will get a good education.

I think it would be ludicrous to pay tuition to attend Abington...especially when the public school is Lackawanna Trail, its not as if we're talking about the Philadelphia or Harrisburg school districts.

[to570717]

Education aside, the atmosphere plays a large role. Peer pressure exists, so if you are a kid in a school where being a dope is considered normal then the competition is not as high as a place like Prep. At Abington, at least when i went there a few years ago, if you were not going to college, that was looked down on.

Prep is the same way, maybe even more so.

I think Abington tuition is very comparable to Prep and OLP...not sure how close though.

[ScranBarre]

I completely agree with the point Go Phillies has been trying to make. Demographics and parental involvement play a much larger role in a child's educational development than what the online school ranking sites present. The Abingtons are the most affluent portion of our area, so naturally when you have a high concentration of physicians, attorneys, professors, scientists, engineers, etc. in such a confined area you'll tend to also have a higher proportion of students---their offspring---who feel more pressured at home to "perform, perform, perform" with parents who are willing to go the extra mile and do whatever it takes---prep courses, tutoring, nagging teachers, etc.---to ensure that their children are the "creme-de-la-creme" and live up to their lofty expectations. This is why the top school districts in the region (Abington Heights, Dallas, Crestwood, etc.) are also in upper-middle-class suburban areas. A higher proportion of these "pressured" children leads to higher average test scores. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to determine that.

To the original poster, I wouldn't necessarily write off Dalton just because it happens to be a part of the less-sought-after Lackawanna Trail School District. If nothing else I'd tend to guess your property taxes would be lower in that district, and if the neighborhoods seems "ideal" to you, then why not pursue it? As long as you keep involved and take an active role in the lives of your children then they should be able to excel just as well at Lackawanna Trail as they would be able to at Abington Heights---only with a much lower price tag. It's actually a farce, in my opinion, for builders/sellers in the Abington Heights School District to be charging excessive prices for housing in comparison with surrounding districts over some sort of imaginary or perceived notion that this school district is so much "better" that higher asking prices can be commanded.

In defense of folks like to570717 I'm by no means discrediting Abington Heights or suggesting it's not a top-notch school district. However, the only reason why schools like Abington Heights, Dallas, Crestwood, North Pocono, Wyoming Area, etc. area are always so highly-ranked in terms of test scores is that they have an unfair advantage over other public school district because they possess a bulk of the region's upper-middle-class professional families. Scores are dragged down in "working-class" public school districts like Old Forge, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre Area, Mid-Valley, etc. If Scranton had a 6% poverty rate instead of a 21% poverty rate and had 50% of its adults having a college education instead of 18%, then you'd also "magically" see its test score averages SKYROCKET as well. Being poor does not necessarily mean you're not going to do well in school, but your odds of socioeconomic success DO tend to be much lower---it's just a cruel law of averages.