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It means they are looking for a upper middle class or wealthy area with low crime and demographic breakdown they'd be willing to live with. I think any more would be over explaining it.
Speaking for us, we wanted to families and administration that shared our values of hard work, good education, tolerance, flexibility and the expectation of college or trade after graduation. We also wanted a safe school. We would have loved to have more diversity of backgrounds as that tends to teach more about life than anything, but that's hard to find with all the other priorities too. We did not want to live in a city either.
But truth be told, it really wasn't that great a school. They just admitted only the most motivated students and let them compete among each other. It was entirely self-selecting.
I quickly got burnt out from competing with kids who studied 24/7 for the top of the grading curves, so I ended up being just an average B student. That and I was working maximum hours allowed since age 14.
Had I gone to a less cutthroat school, I'd probably not only have gotten better grades, I'd achieve a higher class rank, which means I'd probably have a shot at the more prestigious colleges. I went to USF and managed to get into one particularly good school, but they didn't want me enough to offer me financial aid lol.
Majority white schools in wealthy areas, duh. But, seriously I hate it when people ask that, it doesn't matter what school your kid goes to. If you actually watch who your child hangs out with, and stay involved with the school the child will do good.
Majority white schools in wealthy areas, duh. But, seriously I hate it when people ask that, it doesn't matter what school your kid goes to. If you actually watch who your child hangs out with, and stay involved with the school the child will do good.
Exactly. People seem to think that certain schools have magical brainboosting fairy pollen circulating around the classrooms.
But truth be told, it really wasn't that great a school. They just admitted only the most motivated students and let them compete among each other. It was entirely self-selecting.
I quickly got burnt out from competing with kids who studied 24/7 for the top of the grading curves, so I ended up being just an average B student. That and I was working maximum hours allowed since age 14.
Had I gone to a less cutthroat school, I'd probably not only have gotten better grades, I'd achieve a higher class rank, which means I'd probably have a shot at the more prestigious colleges. I went to USF and managed to get into one particularly good school, but they didn't want me enough to offer me financial aid lol.
Same with me. The schools reputation was entirely based off college placement of their top students, but it had very little to do with the teachers or education style there. Not only were these kids super motivated, but they had been groomed for academic performance since they were toddlers and had private tutors and additional support. The kids who didn't get that support from their parents were left to fend for themselves and most just gave up and adopted an apathetic attitude towards education.
Seriously folks, what people really mean and the answers they receive when they ask if there are "good schools" in a neighborhood comes down to statistics such as standardized NCLB test scores, SAT/ACT scores, number of AP courses offered, number of students taking AP exams and their scores, number of National Merit Scholarships and finalists, percentage of students who graduate, percentage of students who go on to college, etc. The reason is simple, these are things that can be measured. There is no measurement for number of students with average or below IQs who end up graduating from college, or percentage of students who stay out of prison for 10 years after graduating from high school.
I've subbed for several years in seven different school districts. My three children graduated from one of these districts. I would have difficulty ranking these districts from best to worst. I see good teachers and bad teachers in every school, but I don't see these teachers everyday. I don't know what they accomplish in a year of teaching. I see schools where the discipline is lacking and some of the teachers don't seem to do much lesson planning. In other words, it is very difficult to rank teacher quality from one district to the next. It is, however, much easier to rank the ability of students and this ends up being the major determination of which schools are considered the best.
It means they are looking for a upper middle class or wealthy area with low crime and demographic breakdown they'd be willing to live with. I think any more would be over explaining it.
This is definitely what many people mean by "good schools" I think, especially for suburbia.
But when you live in a big city I think it's different. It means a "selective" school, where kids are screened for intellectual or artistic ability and the school isn't open to anyone just because they live near it. Such schools tend to be safe and calm, the students tend to be more serious, the teachers and academics are stronger, and at the high school level, the kids are more college-oriented. For most such schools, which are highly sought after in big cities, people generally don't care what type of neighborhood they're in or what the demographic mix is.
But the socio-economics of a neighborhood can be a factor where attendance is zoned. The ones in middle-class and wealthy neighborhoods are typically better than ones in poor areas. No surprise there.
People who request "good" schools are usually requesting schools that draw from educated, wealthy, and (usually) white areas.
Generally, there is little difference in teaching quality, values, curriculum, etc. across public school districts. The difference is in the students and their families, and it's always kind of irked me when people ask where the good schools are. Especially if you live in suburbia, you're not looking for good schools, you're looking for schools where the families are like yours.
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