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Old 10-09-2022, 05:00 PM
 
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There's a potential job I may or may not get that's in Center City. Would be moving from Minnesota. Salary range- 80-90k. So I'm excited about that. The problem is there's no perfect area to live in.
South Jersey- Lacks diversity and also black professionals.
Philadelphia- bad public schools. Have to pay for private. Mostly row homes
Pa Suburbs- I know about Cheltenham and Abington.
Delaware- Too Boring and I would hate driving to center city every day.

Looking for diversity, black families (more than 2-3). Not asking for all black but I don't want to walk in the store and be the only black person there or have my kids be the only black person in the classroom, good schools (public, charter, magnet.) Open to private if financial aid is available and you don't have to be dirt poor to qualify. Nice sized yard and affordable. I'd rather rent first then buy.

This old thread is the best I could find. But it's from 2011 so I'm sure there have been many changes since then. - https://www.city-data.com/forum/phil...delphia-3.html

Last edited by daboywonder2002; 10-09-2022 at 05:18 PM..
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Old 10-09-2022, 05:43 PM
 
Location: Germantown, Philadelphia
13,945 posts, read 8,793,611 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by daboywonder2002 View Post
There's a potential job I may or may not get that's in Center City. Would be moving from Minnesota. Salary range- 80-90k. So I'm excited about that. The problem is there's no perfect area to live in.
South Jersey- Lacks diversity and also black professionals.
Philadelphia- bad public schools. Have to pay for private. Mostly row homes
Pa Suburbs- I know about Cheltenham and Abington.
Delaware- Too Boring and I would hate driving to center city every day.

Looking for other black families, good schools (public, charter, magnet.) Open to private I'd rather rent first then buy.

This old thread is the best I could find. But it's from 2011 so I'm sure there have been many changes since then. - https://www.city-data.com/forum/phil...delphia-3.html
Two things you may be missing about the bolded part:

1) At the grade school level, those "bad" public schools may not be so bad after all. Two (white) women who live on Germantown's west side, where I also live, and had their kids enrolled in Anna Lingelbach Elementary, on the Germantown-West Mt.Airy border, buttonholed me one Sunday after services at First Presbyterian Church in Germantown to tell me what a good education their kids were getting there (Anna Lingelbach's score on GreatSchools: 3/10; Niche grade: C+).

By the time I wrote this feature for Phillymag's 2020 Schools Issue, inspired by what they told me and partly autobiographical, one of them had gotten her son into Masterman — an academic public high school in the SDP that is the top high school in the state and usually among the 50 best in the country on the U.S. News rankings. I quoted her in that story. (There's a lot of research that has found that the single biggest factor affecting student performance in school is the annual income of the student's household.)

2) And there are several very good public charter schools in the city that you won't have to pay for. Many of them accept a common application developed by Great Philly Schools and available at applyphillycharter.org. One of the largest charter operators in the city, Mastery Schools, has an educational model that stresses achievement and is very popular with Black parents. Other charter schools like those run by KIPP (Knowledge is Power Principle) or the independent schools like Wissahickon Charter, Russell Byers or String Theory have curricula that emphasize certain aspects of the educational experience (e.g., working with nature at Wissahickon or using the city as a laboratory at Russell Byers).

Many of the neighborhoods where you will find affluent Black families in the city aren't rowhouse neighborhoods. Both East Mt. Airy (the neighborhood's Blacker side) and East Oak Lane (a pocket of Black affluence at the top of North Philadelphia that I've called "the city's best-kept secret) have many twins and freestanding SFRs. I wouldn't rule out living in either once you've decided where to buy. (Also, Mt. Airy — east and west — has several nice apartment buildings where you can give the neighborhood a test drive.). The same goes for Wynnefield, another affluent Black neighborhood that surrounds St. Joseph's University.
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Old 10-09-2022, 05:53 PM
 
Location: Philadelphia, PA
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Are you planning to buy right away, or start by renting?

I wouldn't write off public schools in Philadelphia so quickly. For elementary schools, there are tons of great catchment areas and public charter schools. For middle and high school, there are magnet schools like Masterman and Central that are very well regarded. I think some public charters are good for MS/HS as well, but not quite as many as elementary. By MS, you are betting on your child's admission/lottery chances, but there are options. It's true, there are many middle and high schools that I would never put my own (theoretical) kid in, but there are plenty I most certainly would.

You say you know about Cheltenham and Abington. Does that mean you aren't interested? One of my former colleagues has her child in Cheltenham School District and totally loves it. It sounds like the student body and faculty are quite diverse, and her child's school experience is consistently positive. There is rail right into Center City from that area. Based off your criteria, it would definitely be a good area to check out.
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Old 10-09-2022, 07:13 PM
 
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Abington and Cheltenham about as good as it gets when it comes to encountering a nexus of Black professional households. Cheltenham offers the most if this the highest priority. However, the tradeoff is high property taxes - although Abington isn't that much lower - and a perception that there are "better" suburban school districts in the area. Some of that perception, however, may be coming from the increasing presence of Black residents.

Abington itself is very diverse by regional standards. If considering there, I would generally recommend looking east of Easton Road/Rt. 63 to maximize your odds of meeting friendly neighbors.

Drexel Hill, from my understanding, is also starting to gain more Black professional households. Housing is also a good value. However, property taxes are even higher for a school district that is middling at best.

I respect MSE's promotion of city locations to consider. However, if you're envisioning staying in Philadelphia until your children graduate high school, you may want to weigh whether the all-but-necessary navigation and investment into charter or private education starting in middle-school - that is, if your kids don't qualify for any of the magnets - is worth the convenience and amenities of living in the city.
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Old 10-10-2022, 07:00 AM
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
7,730 posts, read 5,442,428 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FindingZen View Post
Abington and Cheltenham about as good as it gets when it comes to encountering a nexus of Black professional households. Cheltenham offers the most if this the highest priority. However, the tradeoff is high property taxes - although Abington isn't that much lower - and a perception that there are "better" suburban school districts in the area. Some of that perception, however, may be coming from the increasing presence of Black residents.

Abington itself is very diverse by regional standards. If considering there, I would generally recommend looking east of Easton Road/Rt. 63 to maximize your odds of meeting friendly neighbors.

Drexel Hill, from my understanding, is also starting to gain more Black professional households. Housing is also a good value. However, property taxes are even higher for a school district that is middling at best.

I respect MSE's promotion of city locations to consider. However, if you're envisioning staying in Philadelphia until your children graduate high school, you may want to weigh whether the all-but-necessary navigation and investment into charter or private education starting in middle-school - that is, if your kids don't qualify for any of the magnets - is worth the convenience and amenities of living in the city.

These are good suggestions imo
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Old 10-10-2022, 09:45 AM
 
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Originally Posted by thedirtypirate View Post
These are good suggestions imo
Thanks! I think I mostly echoed Muinteoir's sentiments as I hadn't read their post before writing my own.
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Old 10-10-2022, 11:01 AM
 
Location: Johns Island
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Listen to MarketStEL when it comes to the best neighborhood options for you.

We don't know the ages of your kids, so I'm not sure if kids who are past a certain age can just move to Philly and walk into masterman, central, or Girls high. The easiest way into masterman is to test in at 5th grade.
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Old 10-10-2022, 01:15 PM
 
Location: Montgomery County, PA
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Abington and Cheltenham are certainly good suggestions. However, there are other districts with higher academic reputations that have reasonably large black populations as well. For example, Upper Merion is 14% black, Lower Merion HS is 12%, Wissahickon is 12%, and North Penn is 10%. But those don't compare to Abington at 20% or Cheltnham at >50%. I would say that Cheltenham is definitely a notch (or two) lower than any of the other schools listed reputation-wise, however.
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Old 10-10-2022, 02:05 PM
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
7,730 posts, read 5,442,428 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Angus215 View Post
Abington and Cheltenham are certainly good suggestions. However, there are other districts with higher academic reputations that have reasonably large black populations as well. For example, Upper Merion is 14% black, Lower Merion HS is 12%, Wissahickon is 12%, and North Penn is 10%. But those don't compare to Abington at 20% or Cheltnham at >50%. I would say that Cheltenham is definitely a notch (or two) lower than any of the other schools listed reputation-wise, however.

Also good suggestions, you can find a few school districts that meet the criteria on all sides of Philadelphia.
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Old 10-10-2022, 10:54 PM
 
Location: Germantown, Philadelphia
13,945 posts, read 8,793,611 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JacksonPanther View Post
Listen to MarketStEL when it comes to the best neighborhood options for you.

We don't know the ages of your kids, so I'm not sure if kids who are past a certain age can just move to Philly and walk into masterman, central, or Girls high. The easiest way into masterman is to test in at 5th grade.
This is true. You can apply for admission at 9th grade, but generally speaking, if you don't get in at grade 6, you're not going to get in.

Central High, however, is strictly a high school — the oldest in the city (and the state). It ranks in the top 10 of high schools statewide, and it has the most diverse student body of any high school in Pennsylvania. It's also not as hard to get into as Masterman is.

And several of the magnet high schools — CAPA (High School for the Creative and Performing Arts), Academy at Palumbo, Bodine (international affairs) and most of the others — also do well academically.

One I'd especially want to call your attention to is W.B. Saul High School — the only high school I know of in a big-city school district that focuses on agriculture. It's located on Henry Avenue in Roxborough, across from the Wissahickon Valley Park, where most of the school's fields and pastures are located. The students also grow produce for a CSA (community-supported agriculture) program run by the Mt. Airy-based Weavers Way food co-op called Henry Got Crops. One of the smarter landscape architects I know is a Saul graduate. Another friend of mine is a Bodine grad who really should have gone to the college I attended (and could have gotten in had he applied himself), but he told me he was more interested in being popular in high school (sigh).
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