WWYD Schools vs Price

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would choose (and did choose) better schools as the primary factor (since you say commute is irrelevant - really?). But I would NEVER base my assessment of the schools on some random website like greatschools.whatever. Do your due diligence: research the stats, and ideally reach out to the schools themselves or the parent communities. If this is MCPS, the school-at-a-glance has a ton of info: test scores, socioeconomic and ethnic/racial info, student-teacher ratios, etc. Fwiw, we are in a top-rated school district, but not THE richest or THE whitest. If you post the specific schools here, then you may get feedback, albeit not scientific.

greatschools is not a random site it's the truth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Everyone says to find out what the parents in the neighborhood think of their school, but how do you find that out if you don't like in the neighborhood? Do you just walk up to people at a playground or on the street and asking them about schools? Would they really given an honest opinion to a stranger? And how do you really get a large enough sample of people to know that you're getting good advice? I get calling the PTA but they woudl only tell you good things too. I'm not sure how else to evaluate a school other than the available testing and demographic data.

PP makes an excellent point - especially around here where everyone talks up their neighborhood and school so much. It's hard to imagine anyone giving an honest assessment ("great school, but class sizes are too big"), particularly to someone they don't know well. All we ever hear is how everyone's school/neighborhood etc is "the best"

[Anonymous]

Schools. Schools. Schools.

[Anonymous]

Would you mind naming the competing schools/neighborhoods? Not to start a flame war or anything but that information would be helpful in answering your query.

[Anonymous]

As someone who worked in public education in under-resourced schools her entire career, my husband and I are only looking at 9/10 schools on greatschools. Yes, it's a snapshot. I also know how to delve deeper and find out about schools. But what I do know is...some students will do amazing at whatever school they attend. Some students will do poorly at whatever school they attend. But MOST students will do better at schools where the bar is the highest and the resources are the greatest.

In under-resourced schools, there are many great teachers, great students, great parents. There are simply too many issues at play to do anything than "teach to the middle" at best. At best. Your bright child will not be pushed beyond the middle. Your struggling child will not be pushed beyond a low-bar just to let him slide by. Who wants that for their children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As someone who worked in public education in under-resourced schools her entire career, my husband and I are only looking at 9/10 schools on greatschools. Yes, it's a snapshot. I also know how to delve deeper and find out about schools. But what I do know is...some students will do amazing at whatever school they attend. Some students will do poorly at whatever school they attend. But MOST students will do better at schools where the bar is the highest and the resources are the greatest.

In under-resourced schools, there are many great teachers, great students, great parents. There are simply too many issues at play to do anything than "teach to the middle" at best. At best. Your bright child will not be pushed beyond the middle. Your struggling child will not be pushed beyond a low-bar just to let him slide by. Who wants that for their children?

Do you find this to be the same for ES, MS and HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As someone who worked in public education in under-resourced schools her entire career, my husband and I are only looking at 9/10 schools on greatschools. Yes, it's a snapshot. I also know how to delve deeper and find out about schools. But what I do know is...some students will do amazing at whatever school they attend. Some students will do poorly at whatever school they attend. But MOST students will do better at schools where the bar is the highest and the resources are the greatest.

In under-resourced schools, there are many great teachers, great students, great parents. There are simply too many issues at play to do anything than "teach to the middle" at best. At best. Your bright child will not be pushed beyond the middle. Your struggling child will not be pushed beyond a low-bar just to let him slide by. Who wants that for their children?

do you feel that a 7 or 8 school falls in the "under-resourced" category?

[Anonymous]

greatschools is not a random site it's the truth

Really? Does anyone take this site so seriously? I find this bizarre.

[Anonymous]

All 9s or higher wins, also check out us news rankings and washington post challenge.

[Anonymous]

This is OP. As I said before, these schools are not in the DC area, so it's not necessary to divulge the specifics. I was really just curious whether people thought that such a drastic (for my price range) difference in price could really be attributed to the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As someone who worked in public education in under-resourced schools her entire career, my husband and I are only looking at 9/10 schools on greatschools. Yes, it's a snapshot. I also know how to delve deeper and find out about schools. But what I do know is...some students will do amazing at whatever school they attend. Some students will do poorly at whatever school they attend. But MOST students will do better at schools where the bar is the highest and the resources are the greatest.

In under-resourced schools, there are many great teachers, great students, great parents. There are simply too many issues at play to do anything than "teach to the middle" at best. At best. Your bright child will not be pushed beyond the middle. Your struggling child will not be pushed beyond a low-bar just to let him slide by. Who wants that for their children?

I think these are good points but why would you assume a school is under-resourced just because it doesn't rate as highly on great schools? Just as an example, could you really say there are any under-resourced schools in a wealthy county like Fairfax? This doesn't make sense to me unless I'm just not understanding your definition of the term "under-resourced"?

[Anonymous]

I just looked, Greatschools.net ranks BCC HS as an 8. Would DCUMs really steer clear of BCC for that reason? It is one of the best HS in the region.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just looked, Greatschools.net ranks BCC HS as an 8. Would DCUMs really steer clear of BCC for that reason? It is one of the best HS in the region.

8-10s are good

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:#1 schools all the way. Better schools also reflect a higher quality of people in the neighborhood.

#2, because higher-rated schools reflect more people like this in the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Frankly, I guess I'm a little astonished that the schools could be worth $100K -- but maybe they are.

I believe it because schools are definitely worth $100K in Kensington. Same house in BCC or WJ cluster easily goes for $100K more than one a couple of blocks away in the Einstein cluster.

It's true. There is a special tax in Kensington on living near all white people.