Raleigh is rated #1 for public schools in a large city (Columbia: home, unemployment rate)

[*Sixy*]

According to this article:

Top Public Schools: Large U.S. Cities

"Great Schools' study of 18,000 U.S. cities identifies the top places nationwide with the best public school districts by population and median home price"

[annesg]

Funny. They don't seem to know that the "diversity" and "choice" that make the system so desirable are about to come to an end.

[*Sixy*]

That's what I was thinking too! This will all be a moot point if/when the changes go through. I wonder how that will effect our ratings then?

[mdp_az]

Given that recent data shows little-to-no improvement in the lower socio-economic demographic in WCPSS, I think its premature to assume that changing the diversity policy will create a system that's worse. It seems to me this population is underserved in the current (i.e. - old) system or else the scores would show differently. Maybe spending less time on a bus and having parents closer to school will actually help some of the kids in this demographic.

I believe WCPSS has been a good school system and will continue to be, regardless of changes to the diversity policy. However, I think the kids will be even better served going forward by going to school closer to home and having some sense of security in what school they'll be attending from one year to the next.

[Beermat]

the methodology used is interesting in that cities with an unemployment rate higher than 9.3% were eliminated - not sure of the impact of that factor on the schools but it could well exclude a number of cities that were badly hit during the recession


Top Cities 2010 methodology
The number-crunching details behind our top cities lists.

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By GreatSchools Staff Print Email
We analyzed 17,377 cities from 49 states* and the District of Columbia, using a combination of the most recent K-12 public school student enrollment and test score data, along with 2009 median home price and population data. We narrowed the list by eliminating cities with insufficient data for analysis — for example, small towns with populations under 10,000 or fewer than five K-12 public schools. For all but the largest cities in the country, we also eliminated towns with unemployment rates higher than 9.3%.

The remaining cities were divided into three population and six median home price categories and then ranked based on state standardized test scores and the most recent data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (the only test given to a randomly selected group of students in every state). NAEP data offers a good way to compare cities across states — even though standards differ.

[PDXmom]

When I saw Portland show up in the top 10 I questioned the research's methodology. Portland Public Schools has MAJOR funding issues. They are cutting ALL PE this year in K-12. And it's been a norm for quite some time to have 40 plus kids in a high school class (even when the economy was good). We had some EXCELLENT teachers there and the parents were INCREDIBLY committed to propping up their schools. But when it becomes necessary for parents of a 300 student elementary school to raise $75,000 a year to maintain part time art and music programs, not to mention the school year was only 172 days when we left and is fewer days now, I really question how the district made the top 10. And don't even get me started on the VAST INEQUALITIES of the system. We loved being about to walk to our neighborhood school and thrived in it's sense of community, but there were HUGE disparities based on where a child lived.

Given my shock of them listing Portland, I don't put much stock in the "Raleigh being #1".