Boston Magazine 2020 High School rankings (Lynn, Somerville: best towns, university, to live in)

[simplexsimon]

Originally Posted by id77

I'm a transplant from the midwest who attended some of the worst public schools in the nation and still succeeded enough to land a good job in MA.

BPS would have been a privilege compared to some of the podunk horse-trailer schools I attended.

EDIT: I just looked up the HS I graduated from on GoodSchools. 1/10.

Where do you live? Would you send your kids to the school you went to?

I think what you're suggesting is great, but does not reflect reality. If you live in a wealthier town you're more likely to know or even be friends with people that are not only successful but you or your child can leverage that success through networking. I agree that this shouldn't be how things are but at the moment this is the easiest way to win the game.

How many of your high school classmates are as successful or more successful than you?

I also had adverse life circumstances growing up and consider myself successful despite those factors, but I'm not going to try to replicate that for my children.

[bohemka]

Originally Posted by simplexsimon

Where do you live? Would you send your kids to the school you went to?

I think what you're suggesting is great, but does not reflect reality. If you live in a wealthier town you're more likely to know or even be friends with people that are not only successful but you or your child can leverage that success through networking. I agree that this shouldn't be how things are but at the moment this is the easiest way to win the game.

How many of your high school classmates are as successful or more successful than you?

I also had adverse life circumstances growing up and consider myself successful despite those factors, but I'm not going to try to replicate that for my children.

But you're talking about adult/family wealth and professional/financial success. That shouldn't be a measure of the school district. Teachers, administrators, and other staff are professionals who can be evaluated, facilities can be evaluated, but I don't think you can look at what happens outside the school setting or even who goes to the school to evaluate how good it is.

That's one of the reasons why I think these rankings are meaningless.

[Urban Peasant]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

The bottom 6 are all in Boston. 8 of the 10 worst are in Boston.

Chelsea is 7th worst and Lynn English is 8th worse.

Clearly isnt all tied to real estate values.

Boston has long been an exception to the trend and to longtime residents familiar with the system, we know why.

[simplexsimon]

Originally Posted by bohemka

But you're talking about adult/family wealth and professional/financial success. That shouldn't be a measure of the school district. Teachers, administrators, and other staff are professionals who can be evaluated, facilities can be evaluated, but I don't think you can look at what happens outside the school setting or even who goes to the school to evaluate how good it is.

That's one of the reasons why I think these rankings are meaningless.

Right - that was the debate was in post #17.

[id77]

Originally Posted by simplexsimon

Where do you live? Would you send your kids to the school you went to?

I think what you're suggesting is great, but does not reflect reality. If you live in a wealthier town you're more likely to know or even be friends with people that are not only successful but you or your child can leverage that success through networking. I agree that this shouldn't be how things are but at the moment this is the easiest way to win the game.

How many of your high school classmates are as successful or more successful than you?

I also had adverse life circumstances growing up and consider myself successful despite those factors, but I'm not going to try to replicate that for my children.

I'm actually pushing this issue in my own family, with limited success. I'm fine with BPS for our child, though my SO would have preferred somewhere higher ranked. In the end, we stayed in the city and plan to send our child to BPS, despite having had the choice and opportunity to have lived in Brookline, Newton, Lexington, or several other towns. I don't want my child working the spoils system and continuing the vicious cycle of pedigree mattering; I would love to see that system burned to the ground and a true meritocracy put in its place. More importantly, I don't want my child growing up in an environment where wealth and affluence is equated with status, but unfortunately the wealthy suburbs try to reinforce exactly that. I'd frankly rather my child grow up in a mix of poor and rich friends than only wealthy WASPs.

My school prioritized athletics more than academics, so measuring success is subjective. I had two classmates from my graduating class who went on to professional sports (one went NBA, another NFL) -- financially, their signing bonuses were probably more than I've made in any single year. Are they more successful than I? I don't know. One played 5-6 years, so may have saved enough to retire comfortably, or maybe he blew it all and is working as a PE coach somewhere.

[bohemka]

Originally Posted by simplexsimon

Right - that was the debate was in post #17.

Sorry, I tuned in late. Same page with you (even if delayed).

[civis]

Originally Posted by MassTech

Some surprises...

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/educa...on-2020-chart/

This is more likely the rating of quality of students, rather than quality of schools.

[id77]

Originally Posted by civis

This is more likely the rating of quality of students, rather than quality of schools.

That's a good way of putting it.

[bostonguy1960]

Hmmm....I thought Scituate and Rockport are supposed to be desirable. ..but their rankings here are somewhat ordinary?

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by id77

I'm actually pushing this issue in my own family, with limited success. I'm fine with BPS for our child, though my SO would have preferred somewhere higher ranked. In the end, we stayed in the city and plan to send our child to BPS, despite having had the choice and opportunity to have lived in Brookline, Newton, Lexington, or several other towns. I don't want my child working the spoils system and continuing the vicious cycle of pedigree mattering; I would love to see that system burned to the ground and a true meritocracy put in its place. More importantly, I don't want my child growing up in an environment where wealth and affluence is equated with status, but unfortunately the wealthy suburbs try to reinforce exactly that. I'd frankly rather my child grow up in a mix of poor and rich friends than only wealthy WASPs.

I'm sure the bold makes sense to you, but it makes no sense to me. The "spoils system" is the practice of giving lucrative jobs to political supporters. There may be a few IB jobs where 'pedigree matters' at the high school level, but the only sort of high school pedigree that matters is from places like Phillips and Lawrenceville, not Brookline and Newton.

As someone who also attended bad to mediocre public schools and then top-notch universities, it's pretty clear that choosing a good public school district doesn't significantly enhance the ceiling. The brightest of the bright are going to shine through any system. I'd say a top 1% to 0.1% academic talent might be better served in a large urban district which has a genuine meritocracy (BLS being a great example) and programs to funnel the very brightest toward advanced programs.

As a parent, you choose good public districts to give yourself a higher floor. And whether that is important depends a lot more on your kids than anything. Some kids are going to perform in school independent of their peers, but a lot of kids are going to be influenced by their friends. If every other parent forces their kids to work hard and learn it's just that much easier to force your kid to work hard and learn. Not every kids needs to be cajoled into working hard, not every kid is going to deal with competitive peers by working harder, and not every kid needs to be pushed to do well in school.

Also, there just aren't that many WASPs hanging around. I don't know many and the ones I do know tend to send their kids to private schools.

Originally Posted by id77

My school prioritized athletics more than academics, so measuring success is subjective. I had two classmates from my graduating class who went on to professional sports (one went NBA, another NFL) -- financially, their signing bonuses were probably more than I've made in any single year. Are they more successful than I? I don't know. One played 5-6 years, so may have saved enough to retire comfortably, or maybe he blew it all and is working as a PE coach somewhere.

I'd venture to guess he was more successful as an athlete than he would have been had he tried for whatever field you're in and you're almost certainly more successful in your field than you would have been as an athlete.