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but being a numbers guy, I couldnt help myself:
Orlando Business Journal put out the public schools in the orlando area with the top 50 sat score averages (based on florida doe data). Here are a few notables
Winter Park High - 1467 (786 test takers)
Lake Mary High - 1531 (378)
Winter Springs High - 1542 (278)
Oviedo High - 1577 (372)
Lake Brantley High - 1579 (372)
Seminole High - 1590 (432) -- This was #2 on the list, #1 was orlando science but reported only 38 test takers which is suspect
Then I looked up Trinity Prep and Lake Highland Prep and they list the middle 50%
Trinity Prep (2014-2016 - 379 students) - 25% = 1680, 75% = 2070
Lake Highland Prep (2016 - 176 student) - 25% = 1680, 75% = 2020
I then looked up the average SAT scores for assorted public school districts in MA (where I grew up), a few examples:
schools that are considered slightly below average score in the high 1400s
eg, Norwood High - 1481, Waltham High - 1466
schools that are average score around the 1500s
eg, Burlington High - 1574, Wakefield High - 1553
schools that are considered above average score around the 1700s
eg, Bedford High - 1707, Belmont High 1765
schools that are considered excellent score 1800-1900
eg, Lexington High - 1903, Lincoln-Sudbury - 1801, Weston High - 1839
Finally I looked up Phillips Academy (one of the most well known boston area private schools)
average SAT score for class of 2017 was 2118
So to put it all together ... as someone coming from the Boston area ... the top public high schools in the orlando perform on SATs on par with an average boston area public school. And the top orlando private schools perform on SATs on par with the top public schools in the boston area.
Of course, these are just averages and excellent students excel at any school.
And FWIW the current average SAT score for the Harvard class of 2019 was 2229! So if your kid wants to go there he is going to have to destroy the average score of ANY school.
As someone coming from the northeast as well (Tri State) this is an interesting post as our family is looking at seriously moving down to the Winter Park area as well. Here's my take as someone who has been house hunting in the NY suburbs (Westchester, NJ, CT) as well as someone who has spent quite a bit of time in Orlando. The Northeast areas with good schools have neighborhoods that are zoned with literally nothing but great neighborhoods, they don't pull in kids from other hoods Eg: Scarsdale, Bronxville, Westport, Short Hills, Chatham, etc etc.. There is almost no diversity, whatever you feel that brings to the table or not, what that means is economically its upper, super upper, uber upper class. In Florida it is quite different because of the school zoning. For example, in primo Winter Park, if you look at where the school is pulling from it pulls quite a bit from outside of the primo part of town. That will bring economic diversity into the school, but pull the grades down. It is what it is. But when you view only SAT scores, that will manifest in the average.
Keep in mind that SAT scores are not the only metrics used to evaluate students that go to college. Any student that gets above a 1200 is acceptable to almost all top universities in America. Actually, the SAT isn't really a make-or-break thing. They're going to take a wholistic approach, and not just look at the SAT score. The GPA (grade point average) and the rigors of the class taken play a bigger role. The bigger issue is the number AP/IB classes the student has and how much access the student has to a lot of extracurricular activities that can make them look good to a college campus. It's how hard the classes are, how well the student does in the class. By far the most important aspect is the GPA. A student can get very far in some of these public schools, because public schools have more AP classes than private schools (because they're bigger, population-wise) and so a student that takes advantage of that can easily be taking all college-level classes by the time they're juniors and seniors in high school.
For example even a student going to a rural school, can go to the Florida Virtual School and take online AP courses if they're really motivated. This means that even if you go to a bad school, in theory, it's possible for you to get ahead and do well.
Many other aspects come into play when it comes to college acceptance, but basically a college will try to look at where you come from and what you did. If you came from a rural school, they'll know that there aren't as many opportunities as in a larger school, so they'll take that into account when evaluating you.
Other aspects that matter are the personal essay and extracurricular activities, but these are all things you can discuss with your guidance counselor.
That being said, in places like New York, they're literally like 2 years ahead of Floridians. They're taking Algebra 1 in 7th grade and Pre-Calculus by 10th and AP Calculus by 11th grade. These things are unheard of in Florida. The truth is, most Floridians are not very nationally competitive when it comes to academics. Most Floridians go to state schools and schools that are nearby. That's okay. Florida has some great schools and if you're planning on being in Florida, it's perfect. If your student is planning on getting into other top schools in America, they better be going above and beyond and maybe even more than what the average Floridian does, but you can talk to a guidance counselor about that.
If cost is not the primary consideration, then I'm not sure why you would even be considering central florida public schools. Especially if that means living in Seminole County, which doesn't seem to be your first choice (nor would it be mine).
If cost is not the primary consideration, then I'm not sure why you would even be considering central florida public schools. Especially if that means living in Seminole County, which doesn't seem to be your first choice (nor would it be mine).
I grew up in a mixed but generally poor working class town in the Boston area so I'm well aware of the difficulties achieving academic success in a mediocre school system.
That said, despite my current financial success, I don't want my kids to turn into entitled snobs which might happen if I sent them to private schools back in New England.
Perhaps the private schools in Orlando don't suffer from this kind of problem as I'm sure they will be more diverse both ethnically and economically?
I grew up in a mixed but generally poor working class town in the Boston area so I'm well aware of the difficulties achieving academic success in a mediocre school system.
That said, despite my current financial success, I don't want my kids to turn into entitled snobs which might happen if I sent them to private schools back in New England.
Perhaps the private schools in Orlando don't suffer from this kind of problem as I'm sure they will be more diverse both ethnically and economically?
The biggest problem with exclusive private schools besides the snob factor and what may very well be worse is when families with big bucks wield influence on the school and get preferential treatment from the school bc the money train is more important than applying standards to kids equally. I'm quite sure that this happens with the mega wealth around the Winter Park private school area just as much as it would in the New England area.
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That being said, in places like New York, they're literally like 2 years ahead of Floridians. They're taking Algebra 1 in 7th grade and Pre-Calculus by 10th and AP Calculus by 11th grade. These things are unheard of in Florida. The truth is, most Floridians are not very nationally competitive when it comes to academics. Most Floridians go to state schools and schools that are nearby. That's okay. Florida has some great schools and if you're planning on being in Florida, it's perfect. If your student is planning on getting into other top schools in America, they better be going above and beyond and maybe even more than what the average Floridian does, but you can talk to a guidance counselor about that.
This is not true. Even in Orange County schools, you can take Algebra I in 7th grade, precalc by 10th and AP Calc by 11th. In fact, Florida seems to be in a huge rush for high school students to complete a year or two of college or get an AA degree before graduating though dual enrollment programs (I assume because it frees up seats in their overcrowded schools). While in the north, the focus is on AP classes.
Regardless, I can't in good conscience recommend Orange County schools. My son attended A rated Orange county schools briefly. I would call the elementary school OK but it was one of the least crowded in the area. Can't say the same for the highly rated middle school. Overcrowded, terrible leadership, and complete lack of control- weekly fights, thefts. The district made it clear that they weren't going to do anything about it. Despite the quality of the teaching and the challenging classes, I had to give up and pay the private school tuition.
This is not true. Even in Orange County schools, you can take Algebra I in 7th grade, precalc by 10th and AP Calc by 11th. In fact, Florida seems to be in a huge rush for high school students to complete a year or two of college or get an AA degree before graduating though dual enrollment programs (I assume because it frees up seats in their overcrowded schools). While in the north, the focus is on AP classes.
Regardless, I can't in good conscience recommend Orange County schools. My son attended A rated Orange county schools briefly. I would call the elementary school OK but it was one of the least crowded in the area. Can't say the same for the highly rated middle school. Overcrowded, terrible leadership, and complete lack of control- weekly fights, thefts. The district made it clear that they weren't going to do anything about it. Despite the quality of the teaching and the challenging classes, I had to give up and pay the private school tuition.
I didn't mean to say it wasn't possible in Florida public schools, just that it wasn't as common, although maybe that's changed in more recent times. I'm not too familiar with the latest news. Nevertheless, in a place like New York they have standardized tests for all subjects that are preparatory for college and AP courses, so that they're taking AP courses by the time they're in 10th, 11th and 12th grade on all subjects, not just math.
In Florida, you could still do this, with the virtual school and online schooling, so it is possible for a Florida student to be able to complete more AP courses than their school offers. Still, I appreciate your insights, since you've had first-hand experience.
Did your child notice a difference between the private school and the public school experience?
I didn't mean to say it wasn't possible in Florida public schools, just that it wasn't as common, although maybe that's changed in more recent times. I'm not too familiar with the latest news. Nevertheless, in a place like New York they have standardized tests for all subjects that are preparatory for college and AP courses, so that they're taking AP courses by the time they're in 10th, 11th and 12th grade on all subjects, not just math.
In Florida, you could still do this, with the virtual school and online schooling, so it is possible for a Florida student to be able to complete more AP courses than their school offers. Still, I appreciate your insights, since you've had first-hand experience.
Did your child notice a difference between the private school and the public school experience?
My son is only in middle school- so while I don't have first hand high school experience yet, we've been exposed to the course offerings catalogs and the experiences of friends and neighbors here. There is definitely a lot of AP courses available. For example, Dr Phillips HS has 27 AP course offerings. Also, IB programs seem to be very popular here- I never heard of these up north.
As for private vs public- I thought my son's teachers at the public school were great. However, he works a lot harder in private school. For example, just turning in homework earned him 100% on an assignment in the public school. I felt it would have been hard for him NOT to get straight A's. At his private school, every single piece of work gets graded- and more importantly kids learn the correction, its not just homework for homework's sake. I also think the language arts curriculum is better. Most importantly, it is just a better environment for him to learn in- more interaction with his peers and teachers, he is happy and confident. The public school was like 2000 cattle being herded around a building created for 1080. Sadly, so many of us here have turned to private schools simply due to overcrowding and terrible leadership at the public schools. Lots of fights, bullying, smoking and drugs (and yes this is 6th graders I'm talking about, not just the older kids).
My son is only in middle school- so while I don't have first hand high school experience yet, we've been exposed to the course offerings catalogs and the experiences of friends and neighbors here. There is definitely a lot of AP courses available. For example, Dr Phillips HS has 27 AP course offerings. Also, IB programs seem to be very popular here- I never heard of these up north.
As for private vs public- I thought my son's teachers at the public school were great. However, he works a lot harder in private school. For example, just turning in homework earned him 100% on an assignment in the public school. I felt it would have been hard for him NOT to get straight A's. At his private school, every single piece of work gets graded- and more importantly kids learn the correction, its not just homework for homework's sake. I also think the language arts curriculum is better. Most importantly, it is just a better environment for him to learn in- more interaction with his peers and teachers, he is happy and confident. The public school was like 2000 cattle being herded around a building created for 1080. Sadly, so many of us here have turned to private schools simply due to overcrowding and terrible leadership at the public schools. Lots of fights, bullying, smoking and drugs (and yes this is 6th graders I'm talking about, not just the older kids).
Why aren't parents fighting this overcrowding?
Demand laws that fine the school district if they are blatantly not addressing the crowding issue in schools.
Attend board meetings and let the school boards know they stand no chance at reelection if these issues aren't handled.
Demand laws that fine the school district if they are blatantly not addressing the crowding issue in schools.
Attend board meetings and let the school boards know they stand no chance at reelection if these issues aren't handled.
The problem is that people in Florida want first-class government amenities but they don't want to pay for it. "I don't have kids in the system, so why do I need to pay school taxes??" says the retiree who came from a state where taxes were a lot more.
It seems like Texans brag about their large high schools. Why is that is a problem here?
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