Birdneck (Virginia Beach, Salem, Forest: apartment complexes, house, purchase)

[jillybean720]

I'm relatively familiar with Virginia Beach in general, but I'm not familiar specifically with the Birdneck area. In looking at homes, can anyone shine some light on why Birdneck Elementary might be so poorly rated compared to others nearby? There are some nice (and expensive!) homes that pull into Birdneck Elementary, which is a bit surprising as most folks who have half a million + for a house want to be in a good school district.

[Statz2k10]

I'm not familiar with that area much but a lot of those people who own the "rich expensive homes" could be sending there children to private school/home school which means it has no effect in the scoring.

[randomlikeme]

It all depends on what your feelings about school ratings are. Greatschools is reported by state standardized test scores, which can be attributed to a lot of things. I don't know a lot about the exact drawing of the school district down there, in particular where it divides between Birdneck and Seatack Elementary; however, in the Birdneck area, there are also some impoverished areas down there as well as a large homeless population. There are also many apartment complexes that these areas draw from as well which might include a higher population of single parent families.

I do not take this to mean Birdneck Elementary is a bad school, but that it hasn't performed as well on standardized tests. As a graduate of VBCPS as one of the last of the guinea pig years before SOLs were a requirement of graduation, I have to state that I don't think that they're an accurate reflection of how good a school/teacher is. Sometimes a school can have great teachers, but if parents aren't doing their parts at home to instill that passion for learning (which is something that many single parent families cannot always do since there is a finite amount of time in the day!) then SOL scores can reflect that and then cause a low rating on Greatschools. Heck, even something like having a school where there are entry level teachers teaching an SOL grade can reflect on Greatschools considering that I am sure teachers with more experience at teaching towards the SOL tests can do better than those where it is their first year.

I would always listen more to parent ratings than greatschools and I would always read every review with the realization that most people will only post if their experience has been exceptionally poor or positive and that the school is probably somewhere in the middle. I feel as though school ratings are important, but they're not the most important thing about your child's education.

[jillybean720]

Originally Posted by randomlikeme

I would always listen more to parent ratings than greatschools and I would always read every review with the realization that most people will only post if their experience has been exceptionally poor or positive and that the school is probably somewhere in the middle. I feel as though school ratings are important, but they're not the most important thing about your child's education.

I agree that both test scores and, subsequently, GreatSchools ratings (based solely on test scores) aren't the best factor in determining the quality of a school. I do/did read parent comments (which is actually how I decided I was okay with Rosemont Forest Elementary - all good parent feedback despite a lower rating than many others we considered), but the comments for Birdneck Elementary were disparate, so I do think there's some merit to a lower rating. I wasn't aware that there were more lower income areas/homelessness within that district, so that information is helpful.

I think our purchase of a home in Salem Woods is going to go through (finally - the sellers are certainly draaaaagging out the process), so we won't end up in Birdneck territory, but thank you for the information!

[Serenity2019]

It's simple, Birdneck has some very, very beautiful homes (some on the water too). But, also has some of the most run down , poorest areas in Va. Beach.

[CrazyTed]

You'll find many of the kids from the nicer homes are going to Cape Henry Collegiate School.....