Is Parkside, PA a good place to live?

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by rainrock

True but arguably you can't do a whole lot better than Penn Delco when taking into account OP's current housing budget. Unless you want to live out in the sticks.

That's fair for reasonably close SFHs (which I'm sure the OP wants).

[betterlife1976]

Originally Posted by jtp8903

Prospect park, Ridley, Norwood, are all in a decent school district.

I'm confused because GreatSchools.org rates Ridley and Interboro lower than Penn Delco.

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by HeavenWood

Penn Delco is 175 out of just under 500. Rose Tree Media and Garnet Valley are 15 and 23. I'm not one for splitting hairs between school rankings, but that's a sizeable disparity.

I never said Penn Delco wason par with Rose Tree and Garnet Valley, however I checked multiple sources and found Penn Delco at around the 90-100 mark out of the 500 or so districts in the state. And out of the top 100 high schools in the are Sun Valley ranks 84-86, depending on the site. I would consider that a fair ranking overall, but of course below the top districts.

My point was that Penn Delco is by no means "not a good school district" it is perfectly fine and safe for children to excel there just as well as they could at Rose Tree Media or Garnet Valley. If you were grouping school districts Penn Delco is far more similar to the upper group than the lower group, just at a more middle class pace. I wanted to any confusion about Penn Delco being a suffering district like some others near by.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by cpomp

I never said Penn Delco wason par with Rose Tree and Garnet Valley, however I checked multiple sources and found Penn Delco at around the 90-100 mark out of the 500 or so districts in the state. And out of the top 100 high schools in the are Sun Valley ranks 84-86, depending on the site. I would consider that a fair ranking overall, but of course below the top districts.

My point was that Penn Delco is by no means "not a good school district" it is perfectly fine and safe for children to excel there just as well as they could at Rose Tree Media or Garnet Valley. If you were grouping school districts Penn Delco is far more similar to the upper group than the lower group, just at a more middle class pace. I wanted to any confusion about Penn Delco being a suffering district like some others near by.

You called it a "small step down." That's clearly incorrect. The rankings I prefer are issued by the Pittsburgh Business Times, as they are based solely on the objective measurement of test scores. Test scores are obviously not the be-all/end-all (which is why I don't split hairs between closely ranked schools).

I also like the fact that they have an "Overachievers Ranking" (ie, performance relative to socioeconomic expectations), anything above the median of ~250 being "outperforming expectations." Rose Tree and Garnet score 111 and 259; Penn-Delco is 408. I stand by my assessment that it's a mediocre district, though certainly far from the worst. You're more than welcome to disagree.

Here are the links if you're curious:
http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburg...trank2013.html
http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburg...erank2013.html