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Well I believe 3 of the Durham public high schools were rated top notch by some "list", not sure which one. I'd steer clear of 2 of the high schools, and one middle school, but Jordan, Riverside, DSA, and even Northern are schools that I'd send my kids to with no problem. My oldest will start Kdg next year and we just bought in Durham. I didn't want to be part of the whole Wake County thing. Chapel Hill is too far out for us, so Durham it is, and we are happy with our choice. On a side note, my niece is a product of CHC schools, and to be honest, I am not entirely impressed with her education. I think it's a great school district because of the exclusivity of it. The kids are smart because the parents are smart (maybe an overstatement, but I call it like I see it).
Well I believe 3 of the Durham public high schools were rated top notch by some "list", not sure which one.
Sandy, are you thinking of Newsweek's 2007 list of the top 5% of high schools in the country? Quite a few high schools in the area were featured on that list, including four in Durham.
NCHomeSomeday, I don't know of anyone on these forums who have kids in any of Durham's high schools.
Riverside was one. I'm guessing the fourth was Durham School of the Arts.
I believe the unofficial ranking of the top 3 traditional high schools is: Jordan, Riverside, Northern. Hillside is at the bottom of all the HS rankings.
Sneezecake, the 4 Durham high schools on that list are Jordan, Riverside, Northern, and Durham School of the Arts. There was a thread about this when the list came out, so if you use the search feature you can find the full list of Triangle schools that made it to Newsweek's list.
The more I hear about the school districts in the area, the more I see how little difference there is from one to the other. For instance, just the other day I saw a story on the news about how black students in Chapel Hill are performing poorly. I think they said only about 40% of their black students pass their grade's annual reading & math tests. However, 95% of white students are passing those tests. This fascinated me because the same statistic can be found at practically any school in Durham county, Wake county, and the other school districts in the Triangle. So why is there this assumption that Chapel Hill schools are fabulous and Durham schools are not? Well, it seems obvious to me that one of the only real differences is that Durham has many more black students than the other school districts, so those lower test scores bring down the average more than in other districts.
Sadly, this divide amongst the races is nationwide. I agree that it's a truly terrible thing & I hope those people who are studying the problem find some solutions soon. But when it comes down to you and your family, you just need to decide for yourself. It seems foolish to automatically assume that every child in any school district is destined to succeed or fail based simply on their zip code - especially in the Triangle.
True, but some districts and schools don't offer equal opportunity for success for all students. For example, the breadth and number of AP, arts and other enrichment, and even test taking courses available to students can differ from place to place. If we had children, I would shop very hard for the individual school that offered exactly what my child needed to succeed, rather than merely look at district and school performance on standardized tests that evaluate the bare minimum.
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Originally Posted by MrsSteel
It seems foolish to automatically assume that every child in any school district is destined to succeed or fail based simply on their zip code - especially in the Triangle.
If we had children, I would shop very hard for the individual school that offered exactly what my child needed to succeed, rather than merely look at district and school performance on standardized tests that evaluate the bare minimum.
I don't know that I'd say schools don't offer equal opportunity for "success", but I would say they don't all offer equal educational opportunities. Obviously they all offer the core curriculum required by the state, but electives vary widely.
I say this with first-hand experience. I went to Broughton HS in Raleigh, one of the best in the state with a large student body and many course offerings. I did OK in school barely finishing in the top 1/3 of my class, got a partial academic scholarship, and went to NCSU to earn a BS degree with average grades. My father is a college grad and my mom a HS grad.
My wife went to a small rural NC high school that did not offer nearly as many AP or elective courses. She was the salutatorian of her class and earned a full academic scholarship to a well-regarded private university in NC. She graduted magna *** laude with a doctorage degree. Her mom was a HS grad and her dad was a HS dropout.
Bottom line...she knew what she wanted and went for it. It did not matter than half the student body at her school was a different color than her, that her dad was a dropout, or that her school didn't offer electives A, B & C. She had that drive and the support of her mother and that was what she needed to succeed. The education she received simply provided the structure and core of her education.
Do we see the landscape in public schools in Durham changing in the next 10 years? With the gentrification of downtown and more and more people moving into South Durham (and prices going up) does the influx of money necessarily mean that the quality of students will get better?
Schools' relative merit is not solely based on the educators and the curriculum, it's also based on the students who attend.
Do we see the landscape in public schools in Durham changing in the next 10 years? With the gentrification of downtown and more and more people moving into South Durham (and prices going up) does the influx of money necessarily mean that the quality of students will get better?
Schools' relative merit is not solely based on the educators and the curriculum, it's also based on the students who attend.
I expect DPS will change, not only based on the trends you referenced, but also due to folks like me who are fed up with WCPSS and looking for an alternative. As long as they keep the neighborhood schools philosiphy, DPS will always have some tough schools, mostly in the central areas. But even those should become better with the improvements to the downtown area. I expect we'll see some new schools popping up in the eastern, southern, and northern parts of the county and I imagine they'll all be quite good.
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