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(I'm sure you can find a few exceptions but it's almost always like this)
When you go on greatschools.org and look at the ratings of any school district, they are generally rated very good on the Elementary level (even the poorer performing schools) but when you start to approach the Middle School and High School level, they gradually decline in ratings.
Even in daily conversations when people are discussing a given town, it is common for someone to say, "------- is good on the elementary level but the high schools aren't good".
Why is this the case?
Why do school district tend to decrease in quality as the grade levels rise?
In many states the standardized tests are not tied to grades or graduation requirements. Students have little motive to do well other then Principals and teachers requests. If they are in their Junior year they are already bombarded with PSAT's, SAT's, AP's and probably some state mandated graduation project. BTW, Great schools is not that great a website. Try SchoolDigger.com - School Rankings, Reviews and More - Public and Private Elementary, Middle, High Schools
Elementary schools are very easy going, Sure the children might think it is unreasonable to ask them to learn the 7 times table but the parents usually agree. In High School children must deal with advanced content and peer pressure etc, for example a student may fail to understand logarithms and the parents would blame the teacher, also immaturity & peer pressure would cause vandalism and such.
#1 - In high school kids are starting to be in charge of their own education. High schools tend to allow the kids that don't care to fail. You either get the credit or you don't. In elementary and middle school the teachers and school are more often charged with giving that struggling student more attention academically. In high school parents also become less involved because the kids are getting older.
#2 - In many cases the demographics at the high school change. Many parents will send their kids to a public school for elementary school and middle school, but they send them to a private school for high school. So the socioeconomic numbers at the high school is often much different than the corresponding elementary schools that feed into it.
This shouldn't be a mystery. Some reasons cited above. But remember that a high school is typically larger, sometimes much larger than the elementary and middle schools that feed it. The HS draws from a larger base of kids, often more diverse economically than the lower schools.
Teens are inherently more difficult to keep focused. They have a lot going on emotionally, physically, and the result may be poorer performance in school.
The schools don't get worse. The students get worse or more difficult to teach.
^^Agreed. Plus, the parents just start getting more fed up, not just with the schools, but also with their kids poor performances. And kids in high school are doing things that ele kids don't do, like drugs, weapons, and the like.
Greatschools.org scores are based on personal reviews, and parents have much more vested in the high school experience because this generation has been raised with so much pressure placed on GETTING INTO COLLEGE.
So if something doesn't go the way they think it should, they are going to let someone know about it.
I also have seen a lot of current students and recent grads posting reviews on that site.
Parents, i.e. those writing the reviews that make up the greatschools scores, are more forgiving toward elementary schools because they still "have time left," while the clock is ticking in the high school years. It's basically do or die at that point.
Greatschools.org scores are based on personal reviews, and parents have much more vested in the high school experience because this generation has been raised with so much pressure placed on GETTING INTO COLLEGE.
So if something doesn't go the way they think it should, they are going to let someone know about it.
I also have seen a lot of current students and recent grads posting reviews on that site.
Parents, i.e. those writing the reviews that make up the greatschools scores, are more forgiving toward elementary schools because they still "have time left," while the clock is ticking in the high school years. It's basically do or die at that point.
True, but my own school districts surveys show the same thing, a decrease in parental satisfaction by high school.
Because elementary learning is very wrote and concrete. Around 4th grade or so, that learning evolves into more abstract learning and kids start to separate out. If you ask any 1-3rd grade teacher, there isn't a huge difference between 90% of the kids in their class. There will be outliers at the top and the bottom but most kids are pretty much on the same page. In 4th grade, that changes because of how the material is taught and the change in how the students are more responsible for their learning, homework, etc. Look at how many posts here of parents of 4th and 5th grade kids think something is wrong with their child because previously they were getting top marks and now they are not.
In high school that curve of kids spreads out more and the difference between the top kids and the lower end kids is HUGE and moves from a bell of the top 30% or so of kids being about the same, the middle 40% being on a different plane and the bottom 30% being farther out yet.
All of that and most kids through about 3rd grade LIKE school usually .
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