Louisville:what Schools Are Considered The Best ? (Jeffersontown, Elizabethtown: middle-class, daycares)

[noland123]

What local high schools are considered the best in Louisville? I would have considered Trinity (private school) and Waggener High School (public) back in the early 1970's, but I'm sure thats changed drastically in the last 3 decades.

[DoubleBRanch]

You might want to consider Breckinridge county schools as people move here from everywhere to get their children in there. You can visit the school online and it is only an hour SW of Louisville.

[tomocox]

If you are lucky enough to get your child into a Traditional school, you will like it. Male and Butler are the only two "official" traditional schools accepting students from the entire county (transportation provided). Manual is ruputed for its liberal arts program, while Shawnee has aero-dynamics, and the list will go on. Both my wife and my daughter graduated from Waggner, my wife of course when Waggner was a county school, and my daughter was in the first class to enter as a freshman when Waggner adopted the Traditional curriculum. I have two step-sons who are grads of Trinity. One is in Iraq with the 82nd Airbourne, and the oldest is working on a degree from IUPU-SE after a few years of struggling to find his bearings. I am partial to the Oldham County public schools for a parochial/private quality education from a public system. So... if you are considering only Jefferson County public/parochial schools, I think the data will show that Male & Manual lead in academic results while there is absolutely no doubt that the Catholic schools are excellent alternatives. And they best not look back as Christian Academy is leaping. Kentucky Country Day & Collegiate have excellent academics, but weak athletic programs (we do know which is most important). Oh, yeah, don't forget there are at least 4 Catholic girls schools that must be mentioned in the highest of quality conversations. So, who gets the nod? I will only say, that if looking for a great school, look at the quality and involvement of the parents. The chemistry requires excellence in every ingredient that makes a top school tops.

[noland123]

Originally Posted by tomocox

If you are lucky enough to get your child into a Traditional school, you will like it. Male and Butler are the only two "official" traditional schools accepting students from the entire county (transportation provided). Manual is ruputed for its liberal arts program, while Shawnee has aero-dynamics, and the list will go on. Both my wife and my daughter graduated from Waggner, my wife of course when Waggner was a county school, and my daughter was in the first class to enter as a freshman when Waggner adopted the Traditional curriculum. I have two step-sons who are grads of Trinity. One is in Iraq with the 82nd Airbourne, and the oldest is working on a degree from IUPU-SE after a few years of struggling to find his bearings. I am partial to the Oldham County public schools for a parochial/private quality education from a public system. So... if you are considering only Jefferson County public/parochial schools, I think the data will show that Male & Manual lead in academic results while there is absolutely no doubt that the Catholic schools are excellent alternatives. And they best not look back as Christian Academy is leaping. Kentucky Country Day & Collegiate have excellent academics, but weak athletic programs (we do know which is most important). Oh, yeah, don't forget there are at least 4 Catholic girls schools that must be mentioned in the highest of quality conversations. So, who gets the nod? I will only say, that if looking for a great school, look at the quality and involvement of the parents. The chemistry requires excellence in every ingredient that makes a top school tops.

Thank you for the information. I too am a graduate of Waggener High School(1974)and didn't realize that it was now a Traditional high school. rep1+

[missymomof3]

My kids are all in the traditional program and it is the best as far as public schools go!

[Jopers]

Oldham County Schools Web

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by tomocox

If you are lucky enough to get your child into a Traditional school, you will like it. Male and Butler are the only two "official" traditional schools accepting students from the entire county (transportation provided). Manual is ruputed for its liberal arts program, while Shawnee has aero-dynamics, and the list will go on. Both my wife and my daughter graduated from Waggner, my wife of course when Waggner was a county school, and my daughter was in the first class to enter as a freshman when Waggner adopted the Traditional curriculum. I have two step-sons who are grads of Trinity. One is in Iraq with the 82nd Airbourne, and the oldest is working on a degree from IUPU-SE after a few years of struggling to find his bearings. I am partial to the Oldham County public schools for a parochial/private quality education from a public system. So... if you are considering only Jefferson County public/parochial schools, I think the data will show that Male & Manual lead in academic results while there is absolutely no doubt that the Catholic schools are excellent alternatives. And they best not look back as Christian Academy is leaping. Kentucky Country Day & Collegiate have excellent academics, but weak athletic programs (we do know which is most important). Oh, yeah, don't forget there are at least 4 Catholic girls schools that must be mentioned in the highest of quality conversations. So, who gets the nod? I will only say, that if looking for a great school, look at the quality and involvement of the parents. The chemistry requires excellence in every ingredient that makes a top school tops.

According to US News National Ranking of high schools, only 5 Louisville metro high schools made the top 1200 list. In Louisville they were Manual, Eastern, and Ballard. South Oldham and Oldham made the list at the low end. The list only contains public schools.

Here is an example for Manual, which is actually one of the best high schools for math/science in the country. It ranked 112 on this years US News overall list:

duPont Manual Magnet High School - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That said I would rank Male and North Oldham right behind those top 5.
In reality, the private schools like St. Xavier and Trinity are probably the top high schools in the metro area, and Sacred Heart, Assumption, KCD, and Collegiate are not far behind. If I had high scool kids, they would go to one of those schools, preferably Manual for a public school, which blows away any other school in teh metro area with the possible exceptions of St. Xavier and Trinity. All three of these schools have top AP scores, SAT scores, and their graduates receive millions in scholarships from the top universities in the country, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Duke.

[srawden]

Ok so I am not familiar with the difference between traditional schools and just a school! Relocating and need help on high schools and daycares!

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by srawden

Ok so I am not familiar with the difference between traditional schools and just a school! Relocating and need help on high schools and daycares!

For the schools I'll quote a forum regular here (note not my post.)

Ecletic Ears

I'm a Kentucky native now living in California, actually--the San Francisco Bay Area. If I were moving back to the Southeast, I'd consider North Carolina and parts of Virginia and the Carolinas first.

Having said that, Louisville will provide the slower lifestyle and "real" people you and hubby are looking for. (To be honest, the people can be "real" rude, alright.) Anyway, given your priorities, look into:

Eastern Jefferson County, or "East End": arc from Bardstown Road to US 42 outside the Watterson Expressway. This is all part of Jefferson County Public Schools which have nearly 100,000 students, so there are a lot of schools to consider.

Fern Creek, Buechel, and Jeffersontown are real hit and miss in the quality of their neighborhood schools. You might want to stick to the part of this arc north of I-64 for the best access to the best schools on the East End and in all of JCPS.
Oldham County, the best county school system in Kentucky
Hardin County, but try to stick to the Elizabethtown area considering the quality of the schools
New Albany-Floyd County, (probably) one of the best systems in Indiana
Oldham and Hardin would provide the best opportunities to buy a spacious house with some land. You can accomplish buying a 3BR/2BA in an established middle-class neighborhood on 1.5 acres and close to an interstate for under $250K. Add a few extra rooms and or acres and this can still be accomplished for $400K. Property taxes are usually much cheaper on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River rather than Indiana.

I'll take it a step further and strongly advise you to stick to ONLY the three areas I recommended; Kentucky public schools are, for the most part, total crap while Indiana's are usually somewhat an improvement.

[Dayton Sux]

My niece graduated from Sacred Heart and she had an excellent foundation. She is now attending a private college up in Maine. No problem getting in.

Nephew will be attending Manual in their math & science program. He's pretty much went through JCPS via this program (was at Myzeek), and seems to be way, way ahead of where I was his age, academically. So I figure this is a very advanced program if he is doing what he is doing.

Other niece is attending KCD, but will be switching to Louisville Collegiate next year (elementary school age kid). So I'm kind of curious to hear about Collegiate and how it differs from KCD.