Originally Posted by
SEAtoSummit
I'm always curious about how folks quantify "good schools". Having been sent all over the US with the military, I still haven't cracked the code with three kids, aged 10-15. The only school we feel that was "bad" for our oldest was a middle school in Florida. He struggled and ultimately repeated 7th grade due to a number of reasons. Ironically, the elementary school in the same district was fantastic for our younger two. What metrics are you using to pick a school district? Word of mouth? Test scores? Ivy League acceptance rate? Class sizes? Greatschools.org rating? All of those could be arguably inaccurate. Am I missing something?
Everything you mentioned as well as the percentage of “free and reduced lunches”.
I think greatschools.org does a pretty good job of compiling a lot of data into a 1-10 scale. It’s not perfect but definitely a pause for concern if you’re sending your kids off to a “4” rated school vs. an “8” or “9”...
Some counties in Florida have traditionally had failing schools...The creation of magnet and fundamental programs as well as class size restrictions have made for vast improvements but the downside is the schools without those programs are not conducive to learning because all of the behavior issues end up there...
Of course the student, teachers, parents and administration all work into the mix as well so it’s not always one size fits all at a highly rated school.