How important is the teacher in a top public district?

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why this question is narrowed to "in a top public district".

1. Teacher is super important, and it has as much to do with their particular relationship with your child as it does any measure of quality, but yes some teachers are more consistently able to provide positive learning experiences for a greater percentage of their students than others.

2. A "top" district usually speaks more to the readiness and academic support at home for students (tightly correlated to SES) than it does to the teachers, you'll find a healthy mix of both awesome and terrible teachers at a "top public district". Also at a top private. Also at a mid public district. Also at a mid private. Also at a low-test-scores public district.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why this question is narrowed to "in a top public district".

1. Teacher is super important, and it has as much to do with their particular relationship with your child as it does any measure of quality, but yes some teachers are more consistently able to provide positive learning experiences for a greater percentage of their students than others.

2. A "top" district usually speaks more to the readiness and academic support at home for students (tightly correlated to SES) than it does to the teachers, you'll find a healthy mix of both awesome and terrible teachers at a "top public district". Also at a top private. Also at a mid public district. Also at a mid private. Also at a low-test-scores public district.

People who live in districts that are considered better than the neighboring ones are often surprised at how many of their children's teachers suck. Then they go online to ask other people's experiences so they can make sense of it all. And then they realize that so-called good districts just have a lot of parents who supplement the academics to make up for the poor quality teaching.

[Anonymous]

What's better A) stressed out good teachers jumping through all the administrative demands or B) a non stressed veteran teacher who has been frauding and covering up crime for decades to appease the admin and attain job security and support.

It's a catch 22 bc if you report you get fired and if you data fraud you get support. A lot of teachers have to get fired a couple of times before they understand the unwritten rules they don't teach in grad school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why this question is narrowed to "in a top public district".

1. Teacher is super important, and it has as much to do with their particular relationship with your child as it does any measure of quality, but yes some teachers are more consistently able to provide positive learning experiences for a greater percentage of their students than others.

2. A "top" district usually speaks more to the readiness and academic support at home for students (tightly correlated to SES) than it does to the teachers, you'll find a healthy mix of both awesome and terrible teachers at a "top public district". Also at a top private. Also at a mid public district. Also at a mid private. Also at a low-test-scores public district.

People who live in districts that are considered better than the neighboring ones are often surprised at how many of their children's teachers suck. Then they go online to ask other people's experiences so they can make sense of it all. And then they realize that so-called good districts just have a lot of parents who supplement the academics to make up for the poor quality teaching.

I wish I knew this before. We would have lived in a cheaper area with more diversity and just supplemented at home or centers like we do now. But I guess there are fewer centers in those areas, so we would have ended up driving around more.

[Anonymous]

Teachers want to teach in good schools because the job is easier. There are more applicants. The hiring committee has no idea which teacher knows their stuff and will be able to connect with kids. All they know is who was charming and extroverted at their interview.
Good school districts often end up with a lot of ex sorority girl teachers who fit in with each other and are well liked by their colleagues but don’t necessarily communicate the material they are supposedly teaching to the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personally, I feel like the individual teacher is super important. But on the other hand maybe I need to trust in our district that everyone says is great. So far we have been 1 in 4 for good to great teachers. 2 were duds (one was crazy and the other was extremely lazy and dismissive). Is this good enough?

Not so important since you still get to tell people you are in a top public school district

[Anonymous]

What a “good” school district gets you is the ability to advocate your student be changed to the class of the other, non screaming, teacher. You will have to work for it and they will fight you tooth and nail about it (prepare to file police or ADA reports level of fighting). But in a truly bad district there**isn’t** a good-to-great option to ask to switch your student to.

Other than that its all about your real estate values.