US News rated 2 city of Richmond high schools in top 10 in Virginia (school district, college)

[VA Yankee]

Originally Posted by Charlesaf3

Albert hill if it's good enough for me, which it might be in 5 years but no guarantees. A bunch of people are trying to get everyone from Mumford and Fox to go there, at which point it will be basically like those schools. If not St. Catherine's for middle school. Maggie Walker for high school.

Fair enough, your at least leaving the possibility of a public school option at it gets closer, but you have the means to pay a tuition cost equivalent to a year at college for middle school which most people don't. That's why I argue that when you remove the magnet school the city schools stinks forcing the average middle class parent to relocate or sacrifice their child education.

[sarchivist98]

Originally Posted by richmondpics

Is it really the instruction in the schools that is making the performance poor? I think the answer is no. Kids born into significant poverty and violence with undereducated parents is not exactly a recipe for academic success. The city bears the a disproportionate share of he region's poor so of course the academic performance will lag compared to upper middle class suburbs where crime is low, poverty is low, and the educational attainment of parents is high. Schools in areas of the counties that have higher poverty and crime deliver lower academic performance.

Sls - how much time have you spent in city schools ? When I had more time I volunteered to mentor kids at a school where over 90% were in the free lunch program and many lives in housing projects. The school performance on paper was poor. The teachers were very interested in making their kids succeed, the technology was good, the support from mentors and tutors was impressive and the kids seemed eager to learn. Most had broken homes and my mentee told me he saw someone murdered in his housing project over the weekend. His mom went to jail. No one made sure he did his homework or read to him at night. He was surrounded by awful male role models and no one around him had a successful career or college degree. How well would he do at Deep Run? I don't think the outcome would be too different.

I'm blessed to have been born to a middle class family in the burbs that cared. I can't imagine how hard it would be to succeed in his situation. So let's not be so snobby about it.

This sounds like the school my kids go to now. Are there any middle class kids in the Richmond schools? My kids current schools are all free lunch because of a high level of poverty, but in reality it is probably 20% middle class. I want my kids to got to a socioeconomically diverse school, but I actually mean diverse - I don't want them to be the only middle class kids there.

Honestly, I don't care about rankings. I have been deeply involved in educational policy long enough to know that the rankings are merely a proxy for parents' earnings, and that sometimes the best teaching goes on in the lower ranked schools, but it sounds like there isn't even a cadre of middle class "pioneers" who are sending their kids to regular Richmond high schools?

Outside of the city schools, which school would be the most socioeconomically diverse yet still close to Richmond? We have had some dealings with Deep Run, and though the location is convenient, it seems way over the top and too much of a culture shock for my kid coming from a poor school.

[VA Yankee]

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What grade level are your kids currently at?

[Charlesaf3]

Originally Posted by sarchivist98

This sounds like the school my kids go to now. Are there any middle class kids in the Richmond schools? My kids current schools are all free lunch because of a high level of poverty, but in reality it is probably 20% middle class. I want my kids to got to a socioeconomically diverse school, but I actually mean diverse - I don't want them to be the only middle class kids there.

Honestly, I don't care about rankings. I have been deeply involved in educational policy long enough to know that the rankings are merely a proxy for parents' earnings, and that sometimes the best teaching goes on in the lower ranked schools, but it sounds like there isn't even a cadre of middle class "pioneers" who are sending their kids to regular Richmond high schools?

Outside of the city schools, which school would be the most socioeconomically diverse yet still close to Richmond? We have had some dealings with Deep Run, and though the location is convenient, it seems way over the top and too much of a culture shock for my kid coming from a poor school.

How do you define middle class? And are you including the magnet schools that I mentioned?

Some middle class parents send their kids to Thomas Jefferson. I wouldn't myself, but it might work for you. I'm sure they would be happy to talk to you. It looks, somewhat to my surprise, that 20% of TJ is white. Sadly, the white population will be a pretty good proxy for the percentage of middle class students.

[sarchivist98]

Thanks everyone. My youngest kid will be entering high school. He went to visit Freeman yesterday and said it was like a box of saltines - shaped like a box and filled with white people. He went to 4 classes and said in all those classes put together there were 2 Asians and 1 black kid. This surprised me given the demographics on paper. I think the student he shadowed was high achieving. Are perhaps the honors classes much more white than the overall school?

Now on to look at Tucker. . . . My worry with Tucker is that there are 3 centers there, so am wondering what's left for the "regular" school. Because we don't even have an address in VA yet, my son cannot attend one of the centers.

And we attempted to visit Deep Run, but they said we they didn't allow visitors because of "security reasons." I'm guessing they just don't do visits because they are overrun with requests, and wish they had just been upfront with us. Or maybe the parents are that school really are that neurotic??? We said we had no problem being wanded before entering, to no avail. There are lots of rentals available in that area, but think we have crossed it off our list.

[sarchivist98]

Originally Posted by VA All Day

If Freeman is too white for you, you're probably not going to like Deep Run anyway.

Tucker isn't that great but it's less white, if that's your thing.

My understanding from folks in the Deep Run district is that there are a lot of Southeast Asians there. Is that not true? It's not a huge deal for me - it is more so for my kid.

What do you mean when you say "isn't that great?" The school's stats look pretty good, especially control for the low-income percentage. The unofficial graduation rate I've found is 85% Does that seem about right? I haven't been able to dig up verified rates yet. Do you think if you remove the students who are in the centers that the scores and grad rate will go way down?

[VA Yankee]

Tucker was a good experience for my kids, its the United Nations and the kids couldn't care less. The Specialty Center kids just become part of the student body as they do in every high school in the county.

[gladhands]

Originally Posted by Charlesaf3

How do you define middle class? And are you including the magnet schools that I mentioned?

Some middle class parents send their kids to Thomas Jefferson. I wouldn't myself, but it might work for you. I'm sure they would be happy to talk to you. It looks, somewhat to my surprise, that 20% of TJ is white. Sadly, the white population will be a pretty good proxy for the percentage of middle class students.

Oregon Hill, one of the only parts of the city with poor white people, is a TJ feeder neighborhood.

[Charlesaf3]

Originally Posted by gladhands

Oregon Hill, one of the only parts of the city with poor white people, is a TJ feeder neighborhood.

I don't think there have been poor white people in Oregon hill for 20 years or so. Its now almost purely VCU rentals and holdover gay guys.

[jkang]

How awesome! It's been decades since I finished left RPS, but I went to RCHS for 3 years, and Open for the last. That, after going to Binford when it drew from Gilpen Court, Creighton Court, and the other crime centers at the time. In my personal experience, and in keeping up with classmates from the time, family environment played a greater role than school conditions in determining academic and future career success.

Now, obviously, times have changed. Binford has gone from crappy to model back to bad again. RPS as a whole faces some serious financial challenges which impact the learning environment. As is the case every several years, there is now talk about merging RCHS with another school. All that said, I teach martial arts two blocks from Binford. My students from there are good kids who work hard and get decent to awesome grades. Several have gone on to MWS, RCHS, and Open. I have high hopes for them, because a friend in college admissions says that kids in the top of the class at a bad school stand out more than middling students at awesome schools.

Now without a doubt, they face peer pressure-- but then, so do my Far West End students, who talk of alcohol and meth in the schools. The biggest indicator on how well these kids persevere-- it all goes back to home environment and parenting.