Average SAT Scores by High School (Boston, Worcester: renting, credit, home)

[wolfgang239]

Originally Posted by tysmith95

Somerville/Cambridge/Boston have more subsidized family housing (or projects) then places like Lexington. Average scores are going to be lower because kids from "the projects" represent a large portion of the student body.

You also have the fact that many middle and upper middle class families can't afford to raise a family in a place like Somerville.

You bring up a good point. I'm 30, so I guess I just don't have as many peers with children (just family) or who are professors. But most everyone I know getting married, buying property or starting a family that aren't in semiubanites self described bubble of privilege and elitism end up being forced out due to cost of living. The rest as you say are in the many subsidized housing properties as in most cities. I'm expecting my first in the next month and will be keeping a very close eye on the schools as the years go by. If Somerville High hasn't improved I will probably end up leaving.

And despite all this, Lexington High and Acton-Boxborough are surprisingly diverse. Must be all those non white racists moving to the suburbs to misinterpret the educational system. So horrific that they are depriving students of all the enlightenment, je ne sais quoi and anecdotes/generalities that semiurbanite talks about in our humble community.

[00na]

Originally Posted by mwj119

I think ehe post is confusing racism with classicism/elitism. I'm from the Acton area. We can, at the very least, agree that much exists though right?

Sure. Ive experienced classism/elitism. For example, there's this person from Somerville that judges people's choices for moving to the suburbs. Obviously, those suburb people are all racists and don't know better. His college professor friends said so.

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by mwj119

I think ehe post is confusing racism with classicism/elitism. I'm from the Acton area. We can, at the very least, agree that much exists though right?

Yes, I've gotten in many debates with locals as to whether a town like Acton is as diverse as a town like Shrewsbury or Westborough - it is not. True diversity captures not only ethnicity, but also socioeconomic backgrounds.

I expect Acton to rank well as the town largely consists of highly educated white-collar workers, C-suites, PHds, etc.

[StuartGotts]

I was surprised to see Sturgis not in the top three. It gets rated as one of the top high schools in the country.
I'm not for charter schools and I think this shows public schools can meet the needs of advanced students.

[semiurbanite]

Originally Posted by 00na

Way to make assumptions. I live in Acton, the district at the top of this list. Our school system is 45% non-white. Racism? Really? By the way, I attended an urban school district and absolutely see the difference in education quality between what I received and what my children are receiving.

And what % are lower income minorities - specifically black and hispanic? Go check the numbers and let me know. I'm not saying everyone who moves to the suburbs is necessarily driven by race, but when you hear the families moving away before grade K because of "those kids", it's sort of apparent.

[semiurbanite]

Originally Posted by edwardsyzzurphands

I have two friends who are professors and live in Somerville. Both send their kids to public and the bilingual program. Everyone I know who lives in Somerville seems happy with their experience so far.

They're everywhere, we are straddled by major universities, and professors really like to live close to campus. I forgot to mention lots of teachers too, ironically many of them tend to teach at private schools yet put their kids in public schools. Makes sense i guess, the people who understand education the best are able to filter through the BS data and come to sensible conclusions.

[Idontwanttocheckmymessage]

Originally Posted by StuartGotts

I was surprised to see Sturgis not in the top three. It gets rated as one of the top high schools in the country.
I'm not for charter schools and I think this shows public schools can meet the needs of advanced students.

My kids grew up in Acton, went through the public schools there from K-12 and my daughter graduated from the high school in 2017. Yes, she and almost all of her friends scored very, very well on the SAT. It's not unusual for students who are considered "average" in Acton to score in the top percentiles on the SAT. Why? In my opinion, these high SAT scores are as much an equal reflection of the extraordinary extra curricular enrichment programs available in Acton as they are of the Acton public schools themselves. I am not aware of any students in Acton who sat for the SAT without having had the advantage of private SAT prep courses or tutoring. Every kind of SAT prep company under the sun does swift business in Acton because parents are willing to spend the $$. This is very much a part of the culture of education in Acton.

For some, SAT prep in Acton begins as early as kindergarten. It is the norm for Asian and Indian students in town to attend private after-school enrichment programs such as Russian Math, Kumon, Mathnasium etc. The elementary school busses from every elementary school in town stop daily at these programs and kids of all ages attend, continuing through high school. There is additional classwork, homework and testing on top of what is being taught in the public schools.

For other students, SAT prep begins during high school. There are many excellent SAT prep operations in town ranging from group classes to one on one tutoring: Open Door, Huntington, Kaplan, etc. These programs market themselves constantly through direct mailing, promotions etc. If you have kids in town, you are receiving these flyers on a daily basis.

Private SAT tutoring is extremely popular during sophomore and junior year and summers. For instance, weekly one on one tutoring at Open Door is $110+ per hour and this includes weekend practice exams administered under test-taking conditions. There are also a number of excellent all-inclusive college admissions coaches in town who not only tutor for the SAT, but will also help with college applications and essays.

In sum, the public school system in Acton -- though excellent -- is only part of the equation when it comes to high SAT scores. There is a lot more to this puzzle than some parents might imagine.

[tysmith95]

Hate to get into general race assumptions, but much of the "diversity" in places like Acton or Lexington is from persons of Asian origin or from Jewish origin (well they're classified white but still a cultural minority in some sense). Children classified as Asian or Jewish origin actually have higher test scores and economic status then average. Acton itself is only 1% african american.

I think as a whole the Boston area is more classist (aka judges based on soci-economic status) then it is racist. I mean this is an issue across the US, although in Boston the dividing line seems to be on education attainment and place of residence more then ostentatious displays of wealth (like Miami or LA).

[chicagoliz]

Originally Posted by Idontwanttocheckmymessage

My kids grew up in Acton, went through the public schools there from K-12 and my daughter graduated from the high school in 2017. Yes, she and almost all of her friends scored very, very well on the SAT. It's not unusual for students who are considered "average" in Acton to score in the top percentiles on the SAT. Why? In my opinion, these high SAT scores are as much an equal reflection of the extraordinary extra curricular enrichment programs available in Acton as they are of the Acton public schools themselves. I am not aware of any students in Acton who sat for the SAT without having had the advantage of private SAT prep courses or tutoring. Every kind of SAT prep company under the sun does swift business in Acton because parents are willing to spend the $$. This is very much a part of the culture of education in Acton.

For some, SAT prep in Acton begins as early as kindergarten. It is the norm for Asian and Indian students in town to attend private after-school enrichment programs such as Russian Math, Kumon, Mathnasium etc. The elementary school busses from every elementary school in town stop daily at these programs and kids of all ages attend, continuing through high school. There is additional classwork, homework and testing on top of what is being taught in the public schools.

For other students, SAT prep begins during high school. There are many excellent SAT prep operations in town ranging from group classes to one on one tutoring: Open Door, Huntington, Kaplan, etc. These programs market themselves constantly through direct mailing, promotions etc. If you have kids in town, you are receiving these flyers on a daily basis.

Private SAT tutoring is extremely popular during sophomore and junior year and summers. For instance, weekly one on one tutoring at Open Door is $110+ per hour and this includes weekend practice exams administered under test-taking conditions. There are also a number of excellent all-inclusive college admissions coaches in town who not only tutor for the SAT, but will also help with college applications and essays.

In sum, the public school system in Acton -- though excellent -- is only part of the equation when it comes to high SAT scores. There is a lot more to this puzzle than some parents might imagine.

This is a big part of it, too. If a kid in one of the lowest-scoring districts went to RSM from preschool through high school and had SAT tutors for two years, they'd likely score the same as they would if they went to the a school in the highest-scoring districts.

The other piece of it, as mentioned by another poster, is whether the social atmosphere at the school and the students' peers make it important to score well on the SAT and get into a top rated college. That aspect might make a kid go to the SAT prep classes, whereas they might refuse if they were in a district where all the other kids couldn't care less how well they scored on the SATs, and certainly wouldn't care at all what anyone else scored on them. Yes, the parents can force the kids to go, but there's only so much you can force, and if it's not reinforced by what the kids experience in school every day, the effect isn't quite the same.

[rethcir]

Are there really high schools where SAT score is a status symbol? I'd think they're mostly concerned with number of instagram followers or youtube subscribers, these days. (For me it was quality of your car back when I was in high school)