If you have highly motivated kids how much does the school really matter?

[Anonymous]

My experience with a GS4 (later upgraded to GS6) elementary school was pretty good. The school is 70% Latino and - you guessed it- 70% farms.
But- we had lucked out with the principal, who is very good and his kids are at the same school and my kid was in the same classroom with his kid.
My child was able to benefit from several programs originally targeting disadvantaged kids but since the school is considered disadvantaged overall, he could be part of it. And he was able to take full advantage of those, coming from a middle class educated family. And no, he didn't take up anybidy's spot, it was either for the whole school or there were openings as many parents couldn't be bothered to enroll their kids.
I am also able to stand out as one of the most active parents at school (again, since so many parents simply can't be bothered). At the same time, school requests for donations were very reasonable- and it didn't really compromise the quality of facilities or instruction as title 1 money came in.
There is a small number of motivated students in my son's grade so that taken care of so to speak. And there is a number of mc and umc families at the school, mostly people who care about equality and oppose self segregation, the dreamers, so to speak.

[Anonymous]

Pp here. But then again, of course I would prefer the school to be comprised of smart kids of educated parents. I just can't afford to attend such a school right now.

[Anonymous]

We're at a similarly ranked school to 20:31 but one thing we've noticed that isn't visible from the rankings or the At a Glance is that many/most of the parents ARE educated. They are just educated in places where their credentials didn't transfer easily to the United States. They might be doctors back home, but working as heath aides here. Or engineers back home but driving Ubers here.

That they are poor doesn't mean they are uneducated, or that they don't have high hopes for their kids.

[Anonymous]

Don't drink the public school kool aid. Go private!

[Anonymous]

I've seen valedictorians at good not great high schools go to good colleges and get their ass kicked because they lacked the polish and aggressiveness after spending so many years in a small pond.

That said, nobody is doomed based on attending a non-premier school—crafty families thrive in any situation. I know families in crap districts that got free two years of college paid for via state-funded dual enrollment programs.

[Anonymous]

I have a TJ kid and it has always mattered a lot that we could put him in schools that could differentiate for him, track him through very good AAP programs, etc. If he had been in a school struggling to get kids up to average, instead of offereing him extra challenges, he would have been miserable. (So would his teachers, BTW. Not a kid who is great with boredom). And TJ can obviously give him things that even a great base school can't. So, flame away, but yes it mattered a lot for us. That said, I would call my kid brilliant (and so says the IQ test). And that's not always the same thing as motivated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're at a similarly ranked school to 20:31 but one thing we've noticed that isn't visible from the rankings or the At a Glance is that many/most of the parents ARE educated. They are just educated in places where their credentials didn't transfer easily to the United States. They might be doctors back home, but working as heath aides here. Or engineers back home but driving Ubers here.

That they are poor doesn't mean they are uneducated, or that they don't have high hopes for their kids.

Then why such low rankings (i.e. test results)? I am 20:31. In our grade, out of 50 kids, we have maybe 8 definitely middle class educated white/Asian household kids; about 10-15 hispanic/Filipino educated middle class household kids; the rest are a mixed bag and seems like they are not college educated and don't have strong language skills.