Reply to Choosing a 5 school over a 9 school

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Which elementary school in Alexandria? There are some decent schools in the area.[/quote]

But if it's a 5, how could it be decent?  We all know anything less than 8 is very risky.  I'd be very nervous about a 6 or 7, let alone a 5.  
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Sigh.  The GoodSchools rating is not the be-all, end-all assessment of school quality.  It primarily reflects school demographics.  There is so much more that goes into evaluating a school.  Our zoned school is a "9" in GoodSchools and we do like it but I strongly considered a "6" school in the area with a magnet program I really liked.  Everyone I know at that school loves it but it's a "6" because it does have a high proportion of lower-income kids.  Ultimately, we decided to stick with the neighborhood school because it was important to us that DD/DS built relationships with neighborhood kids (and our school also has good income/racial diversity).  In general, I'd prefer a good school with a mix of income/race even if that drags down its Good Schools rating vs. a 10 school that is all rich, white kids.   [b]FWIW, I went to rich, white public schools from ES - HS and I don't want that environment for my kids[/b].[/quote]

white guilt? You're an idiot if you think good test scores is racist.[/quote]

Uh, no.  Lots of snobs and overly focused on image and materialism.  You were a loser if you didn't get a luxury car for your 16th birthday or had an after-school job.  Drugs and partying were rampant because the norm was that kids had lots of access to money and their parents thought they could do no wrong.  My family was definitely not in the norm and while they could have afforded a nice car for me they (rightly IMO now) didn't think that was appropriate.

Sure, I haven't been in every rich, white school here to see if a similar environment dominates but I definitely got a taste of it from some of the much more affluent families at my kids' preschool and it's certainly supported by comments here!  No thank you.

"Good test scores" are meaningless without digging deeper into the stats.  Greatschools just looks at them in aggregate.  It is a fact that schools with more white, affluent kids do better on total test scores.  Thus, if the only thing important to you is the overall test score ranking then, yes, you will automatically be prioritizing rich, white schools.  It's important to consider what else comes along with that.  [/quote]

Well I assume you won't be one of those snobs that is overly focused on image & materialism. Your kids will be the "minority" in the "good" school, right? So that's adding diversity to the school, right? What are you worried about. Or you can go to the "bad" school and have your kids be the advantaged kids.[/quote]

Minority percentage:
30% of Madison 
39% of McLean high 
40% of Woodson high
42.2% of Marshall 
42% of West Springfield

How come they get a great schools rating of a 9? I thought that it had to be all white?
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