San Diego School Ratings (San Carlos, Kensington: middle-class, best neighborhood, apartments)

[MovingAloha]

As I get closer to my house hunting trip, I'm trying to narrow the focus of my search. I would love to live in North Park, Normal Heights, University Heights, etc., but the school ratings tend to be poor. Am I missing something? Why, with the gentrification of these areas, the schools still reflect such poor ratings on Great School's website?
Has the rating mechanism not caught up with the true level of performance of the neighborhood schools? Its disappointing to hear and read about the vibrancy and positive changes to these "hoods" yet one of the most important, IMHO, aspects of a good to great neighborhood, which is the quality of the schools and education is lagging behind.
Can someone straighten me out on this point? I hope you can and I'm missing some interesting and good data.

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by MovingAloha

As I get closer to my house hunting trip, I'm trying to narrow the focus of my search. I would love to live in North Park, Normal Heights, University Heights, etc., but the school ratings tend to be poor. Am I missing something? Why, with the gentrification of these areas, the schools still reflect such poor ratings on Great School's website?
Has the rating mechanism not caught up with the true level of performance of the neighborhood schools? Its disappointing to hear and read about the vibrancy and positive changes to these "hoods" yet one of the most important, IMHO, aspects of a good to great neighborhood, which is the quality of the schools and education is lagging behind.
Can someone straighten me out on this point? I hope you can and I'm missing some interesting and good data.

It's all demographics. Many of these inner areas have only recently seen an influx of upper middle class residents. Those residents have a tendency to be childless by choice, or gay couples, or late-bloomer yuppie parents with no kids or one small child. On the flipside, there are tons of dump apartments all over these areas and they are chock-full of low-income, mostly immigrant families with small children. The low-income families fill the schools and the upper middle-class parents send their kids to private or outside of the area into the suburban schools. The only real exception to this is Mission Hills, which has been a stable inner-urban area for over 100 yrs. Kensington also has a lot of familes but almost all of them go to school in San Carlos or Private. North Park on the other hand, was essentially abandoned by much of the middle class in the 80's. My brother, has a young daughter, lives in Normal Heights. She goes to public school in Clairemont. All her friends in the neighborhood, go to private school. There are really not that many upper-middle-class families with kids in these areas. In fact I would say that there are way more middle class kids in the neighborhood I live in now, which is a much less desirable area.

[applejack726]

I'm having the same issue -- I want to move to these areas but am concerned about the schools. I have heard the McKinley Elementary in North Park is OK, and that Birney in University Heights is also OK. The Normal Heights Schools have terrible test scores. Grant Elementary in Mission Hills looks really great. I guess that even though these areas are "up and coming", they are still really mixed and diverse areas. I am assuming that a greater proportion of students in these areas will have english as a second language and less family support than in the "good" school districts, which will affect the test scores.

There are some charter school options that sound really cool IMO: Museum School and Einstein Academy. Unfortunately, these are lottery-based so there is no guarantee! I have also heard rumors of a French Immersion program at on of the elementary schools but I have not been able to find out more information about that.

Another thing to thing about -- I saw that a new law was passed in 2011 that if you live in a residential area with a very low performing school, you are allowed to choose any other school in the district. I don't have any details on that though. In terms of the urban neighborhoods, everything is pretty close together so it wouldn't be much of a hardship to drive to a better school. For instance, if you lived in Normal Heights, a drive over to Grant Elementary would not take very long.

Regarding high school -- I have heard very good things about the San Diego High School of International Studies. They are located in the San Diego Education Complex near Balboa Park. If you are in the residential area that goes to Hoover, you automatically have the option of going there. It was rated one of the best 100 high schools in the US and their test scores are over 800.

If anyone has any more information about these schools, I would love to hear it also! Please post!

[MovingAloha]

Mahalo Sassberto, I do see that Mission Hills is the exception and I will look in that area. I'll also look in your stomping grounds of Allied Gardens and Del Cerro, where school ratings are fair to good.

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by applejack726

I have heard the McKinley Elementary in North Park is OK, and that Birney in University Heights is also OK.

North Park elementary is terrible. Birney is slightly better. Most kids are bussed in.

Originally Posted by applejack726

There are some charter school options that sound really cool IMO: Museum School and Einstein Academy. Unfortunately, these are lottery-based so there is no guarantee! I have also heard rumors of a French Immersion program at on of the elementary schools but I have not been able to find out more information about that.

Einstein academy is great.

Originally Posted by applejack726

Regarding high school -- I have heard very good things about the San Diego High School of International Studies. They are located in the San Diego Education Complex near Balboa Park.

A great program inside a terrible, prison-like school

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by MovingAloha

Mahalo Sassberto, I do see that Mission Hills is the exception and I will look in that area. I'll also look in your stomping grounds of Allied Gardens and Del Cerro, where school ratings are fair to good.

San Carlos and Del Cerro. Would avoid Allied G. Aging population = bussing.

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Sass, as always, great info.

Is it fair to say that for some of the San Diego zip codes/schools mentioned in the thread, that school ratings are difficult to truly quantify over the past few years because of the change in residential makeup?

It seems that way from a 20,000 foot overhead perspective.

[applejack726]

I didn't mean North Park Elementary, I meant McKinley Elementary. Sassberto, what do you mean by saying that San Diego Education Complex is a terrible, prison-like school? Are you talking about the looks of the building or the way they discipline?

[moved]

He means the San Diego High School Complex.

[MovingAloha]

Originally Posted by Sassberto

San Carlos and Del Cerro. Would avoid Allied G. Aging population = bussing.

Mahalo for the warning! I would love to live closer in this time. When we last lived in the SD area, we were in Rancho Penasquitos, and I don't care to live that far north this time. Of course the schools are great up there.
The elementary schools of Dewey and Florence in Mission Hills are also good, but I'm not sure if you will automatically go to Grant Middle or if you're sent elsewhere. Mission Hills is ideal, except housing prices are a bit too high; we want to stay under $2500 a month.
My grandson attends private school here in Hawaii, but once we relocate, I would prefer he go public purely for economic reasons. If or when my spouse goes to work, then we might consider private.
With that in mind, obviously we must find the best neighborhood we can afford with the best schools. The furthest north I think I will want to go is Scripps (which I really think is further north than I want to be) and UTC, again further north than I want to be.
I like Del Cerro, but my fear is the demographics of the neighborhood. Although my husband and I are older (in age not in mind), we want to be in a neighborhood with younger children because of our grandson, he's 10 yo. Not so sure how Del Cerro is in that regard, though the schools look very promising.