I'm just gonna ask.... (San Jose, Richmond: home, school districts, place to live)

[maaci]

After my visit to Stanford this past week, I discover that there are so many different communities to live in that would be a reasonable commute. My strategy for deciding on a place to live is to find a community with great schools. I have found many. The problem that I am having is that many have less than a 1% African American population. I don't want my child to be the only African American in the class. Are there any school districts that are still considered great that have several African American kids in each class. The move itself is going to be major for him, I don't want him to in total culture shock. The school he currently attends doesn't have a large population of African American kids but there are several in each class.

I am also going to post this in the San Jose forum, as I realize the two are so close.

[hsw]

Would guess PA schools are about as "diverse" as any in SV....and prob have more education/achievement-oriented/accomplished parents than any public school dt in SF region....

Would observe that, if one examines top 10% of Stanford CS grads or Wharton finance grads...or top 10% of wealthiest SV tech guys...or top 10% of hedge fund earners....one would struggle to identify who is the majority and who is a minority....

At rarified levels, it's indeed a diverse group of backgrounds that produce high achievers....trust fund kids (e.g., Mr. Gates); many from middle/working-class backgrounds.....white kids; Jewish kids; Indian kids (e.g., India's IIT alums have dominated Stanford PhD pgms in Engg for some ?30+yrs); kids who are of Asian descent, etc etc....

The notable social advantage of SV region is, it's dominated by the tech industry (just as NYC is dominated by the finance industry)....these industries are arguably more meritocratic than any others....one is judged by one's intelligence and ability to create wealth for investors, not much else....I suspect the better schools reflect this ethos....

But kids will be kids...generations of trust fund kids have been beaten up in high-priced, elite prep schools by the school bullies that exist even there.....

[sonarrat]

Menlo-Atherton High has a 7.4% AA enrollment. Good enough? The schools you're going to see with the highest API scores will also be the most whitewashed and have the fewest number of minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged kids. That's the great scam with API scores. MA is a fabulous, nationally recognized school, ranked by the USDE as one of the top secondary schools in the nation. Newsweek ranked it 259th in the USA. Its API scores don't hit 800, but your child will be much more at home there than in, say, Cupertino schools which might look better on paper.

[ripley44mag]

Richmond, Potrtero Hill Ripley