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Location: An Island off the coast of North America
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Hi.
I posted this here before, but it got deleted because I didn't know W***e T***h was an offensive term. So I've cleaned it up.
Before that, I posted this in the education forum, but I decided to post it here, as well, since school district is heavily prioritized when people re-locate on Long island.
It seems to me that that's the most common way to judge a school district. However, I don't think it is the best way to do so. For most of my life, I went to school in a rich, mostly white neighborhood-Massapequa, N.Y. I did fine in elementary school, but middle school was problematic, since I was a minority within the white race-red haired, so I got bullied a lot. Polish and people from New Jersey got bullied, too. Then they started bullying me because I wasn't rich (I was illegal-apt dwelling)! So, along with the expense of the studio apt ($1300), I moved to a slightly poorer and more diverse community-Lindenhurst, N.Y. I'm doing much better in school here (96 Avg.!), even though the test scores are lower, and making more friends. I'm not bullied at all-the bullying is towards more obvious minorities (I.e. Black, Mexican). Another thing-Lindenhurst's school population includes a lot of teens who don't want to learn and dress like they are just out of prison, so it's one of my main motives for being more successful, since I don't want to be like any of those slobs. In Massapequa, there was still some of those people but not a lot, so I didn't worry about trying to be better than everyone else. So here's my list of what defines how good a child will do good at school:
1. MOTIVATION (especislly at Home)-without my relatives accusing me for any grade below 90, who knows how I would be in school. It's also from how I do not want to be like my seperated parents living in illegal apts. Without motivation, there can easily be kids who fail miserabley in the best schools in the country, or those with motivation can succeed in the worst school districts.
2. ETHNICITY-it's pathetic, but it's true. A child will avoid racial bullying if s/he is either of the most populous ethnicity or the least (if they are extremely unique, they might be very interesting to other kids and could become very popular). However, if they are of an ethnicity that's uncommon but not extremely rare, it might get problematic.
3. SAFETY-this should be obvious.
4. VARIETY-where there's a lot of different clubs, there's a lot more individuality and it is easier to make friends.
5. ECONOMIC STATUS-again, pathetic but true. If there's more people of the child's economic status, it's easier to make friends.
I understand that test scores are a factor, but what I'm trying to say is that taking a glance at the rating for a school on greatschools.com isn't the best way to see how good a school district is. It really all depends on the child him/herself and how s/he was raised. Agree or disagree?
Sorry if I came off a bit snooty when talking about my grades!
Hi.
I posted this here before, but it got deleted because I didn't know W***e T***h was an offensive term. So I've cleaned it up.
Before that, I posted this in the education forum, but I decided to post it here, as well, since school district is heavily prioritized when people re-locate on Long island.
It seems to me that that's the most common way to judge a school district. However, I don't think it is the best way to do so. For most of my life, I went to school in a rich, mostly white neighborhood-Massapequa, N.Y. I did fine in elementary school, but middle school was problematic, since I was a minority within the white race-red haired, so I got bullied a lot. Polish and people from New Jersey got bullied, too. Then they started bullying me because I wasn't rich (I was illegal-apt dwelling)! So, along with the expense of the studio apt ($1300), I moved to a slightly poorer and more diverse community-Lindenhurst, N.Y. I'm doing much better in school here (96 Avg.!), even though the test scores are lower, and making more friends. I'm not bullied at all-the bullying is towards more obvious minorities (I.e. Black, Mexican). Another thing-Lindenhurst's school population includes a lot of teens who don't want to learn and dress like they are just out of prison, so it's one of my main motives for being more successful, since I don't want to be like any of those slobs. In Massapequa, there was still some of those people but not a lot, so I didn't worry about trying to be better than everyone else. So here's my list of what defines how good a child will do good at school:
1. MOTIVATION (especislly at Home)-without my relatives accusing me for any grade below 90, who knows how I would be in school. It's also from how I do not want to be like my seperated parents living in illegal apts. Without motivation, there can easily be kids who fail miserabley in the best schools in the country, or those with motivation can succeed in the worst school districts.
2. ETHNICITY-it's pathetic, but it's true. A child will avoid racial bullying if s/he is either of the most populous ethnicity or the least (if they are extremely unique, they might be very interesting to other kids and could become very popular). However, if they are of an ethnicity that's uncommon but not extremely rare, it might get problematic.
3. SAFETY-this should be obvious.
4. VARIETY-where there's a lot of different clubs, there's a lot more individuality and it is easier to make friends.
5. ECONOMIC STATUS-again, pathetic but true. If there's more people of the child's economic status, it's easier to make friends.
I understand that test scores are a factor, but what I'm trying to say is that taking a glance at the rating for a school on greatschools.com isn't the best way to see how good a school district is. It really all depends on the child him/herself and how s/he was raised. Agree or disagree?
Sorry if I came off a bit snooty when talking about my grades!
Here is my post from the previous thread. (Thank goodness I didn't "x" out my window.)
I personally consider graduation rates to be just as important as test scores (actually even more important). Honestly, if a school has a graduation rate of only 70% then obviously there is a huge segment of the student body who don't have their priorities straight and a lot of kids are easily influenced by others and are likely to follow other kids.
1. A good way to measure motivation is by academic performance b/c if your truly motivated then obviously you would deidicate a lot of time towards studying. The more you study, the better you perform (unless you have some kind of severe disability).
2. Yeah, bullying is a big issue but race is only one out of 1,000+ things that bullies can make fun of you for. And Bullying happens in EVERY high school.
3. Ok, true. But it's hard to accurately measure the safety of a school. Plus, a lot of schools would try hard to hide the number of incidents they face.
4. True. But greatschools measures this and factors that into their rating.
Test scores correlate heavily with parental income usually. So I agree it doesn't tell you everything.
I do think graduation rates are important.
I also think fitting the school's academic approach to the kid's learning style is important.
If you want you child to go to college, you also need to look at how many of the graduates go on to 4 year colleges vs community colleges or something else.
They are part of what define how good a district is. What it means when you see a district having higher test scores than another is that your kids would be surrounded by other kids who are more driven..who would provide a more competitive environment.
From my experience in a pretty working class school district, especially in "regular" classes as opposed to honors or AP, kids who perform well can take a lot of flak from the knukleheads and dopes who don't.
"yo, I'm gonna take ova my dads pizza place when I getz olda..I don't need ta learn dis stuff, you tink youz smarter den me?"
Now, it can go to the other extreme like in Great Neck with the cheating..where the ends justifies the means.
They are part of what define how good a district is. What it means when you see a district having higher test scores than another is that your kids would be surrounded by other kids who are more driven..who would provide a more competitive environment.
From my experience in a pretty working class school district, especially in "regular" classes as opposed to honors or AP, kids who perform well can take a lot of flak from the knukleheads and dopes who don't.
"yo, I'm gonna take ova my dads pizza place when I getz olda..I don't need ta learn dis stuff, you tink youz smarter den me?"
Now, it can go to the other extreme like in Great Neck with the cheating..where the ends justifies the means.
I'll take working class area anyday.
In the wealthier areas many (most?) parents want their children to look good on paper, but could care less if they actually learn, because everyone's child is a genius.
Cheating is a part of the culture because the SAT scores have to match the inflated grades that the teachers are pressured to give by the administrators and the parents. Because you're never allowed to say--even gently---that someone is anything less than above average.
One reason why we need teacher tenure: can you imagine how bad grade inflation would be without it?
Razor, how were you bullied (Physically or some other way)? Bullying goes on in every school, I don't think it has ever been any other way. As far as test scores, they definitely are a major indicator of how good a school district is. There's thousands of kids and YMMV, but generally the better the scores, the better the district. I think you should worry about this later on down the road when you're about to start a family.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigMike50
Better scores = better SAT cheaters not necessary a better school district
Better regents scores too? 99% grad rates? I don't think they are cheating on those too. SATs though can easily be raised to their max through PSATs/coaching and taking the test as many times as the student can bear.
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