I know that greatschools.org and other rankings are a great resource but how seriously do you factor them in when choosing a school/area to live. Clearly there is going to be a major difference between a school ranked 10 and a school marked 2. But would you go the extra mile to get your child into a school ranked a 10 over a 9, is a school ranked an 8 out of the question?
I base a lot on test scores, while not perfect, they are a good indicator of how the school is performing so I see definite value in rankings. I am just wondering how highly everyone values these rankings? 
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They are important to me, but not the be all end all. Not everyone can be #1 so being #2 doesn't mean that there is something wrong or bad with a school. #3,475 out of 3,475 would be a no go though.
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I think rankings are misleading. For instance, a local elementary school where we live is ranked low because so many of the children are ESL students, so their test scores aren't that high, etc. But that is an accurate representation of the demographics of the school and neighborhood and it doesn't mean its a bad school. The most important thing that school can be doing right now is teaching those kids English so they can catch up and read and write well so they can grow up and succeed in America (and hopefully keep their native language too!) And I'm sure they are doing a great job of it, with the added benefit of bilingual teachers. So if you're a family where English isn't your first language, this might be a good school for your kid right now. Is it the right fit for everyone? No, but I don't think that school should be ranked lower because of it.
I just have a problem in general with the one-size-fits-all criteria for schools. What if you have a kid who needs more support in learning, while you have a kid who is super gifted? I know parents who have kids with very wide differences in learning abilities who are SUPER frustrated with the top-notch school district near us because everything is geared towards those gifted students and not enough support is being given to average or special ed kids. The district is in a bind because the tiger parents get really resentful about resources going to special ed or even non-honors/GATE style classes because their gifted children are being "left behind" and not challenged enough at the expense of the "slower" kids, but the non-gifted kids have just as much of a right to a great education too. Its just tough.
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I look at them, but as long as the school isn't at the bottom I'm okay with it. I think because I come from a small town where we didn't have a choice on what school to go to (3 elementary schools, 2 middle schools and 1 high school, you went based on where you lived and that was that) that mentality has stayed with me now that I live in a large metro area with many school options.
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Student test scores strongly correlate with family income, and I don't put much stock in them. I attended inner city public schools that have an average greatschools.org score of 3, and I still had a good education with a few great teachers. I graduated summa cum laude from undergrad and have a terminal degree from a new Ivy, so my K-12 school "rankings" didn't impede my lifelong learning or future earning potential in any way.
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I haven't looked at the actual ranking. We wanted to live in a decent school district, we actually wanted to avoid the top districts as I grew up in one and it can def become very competitive/stressful (not to mention expensive). We are happy with where we are!
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The school district was our biggest deciding factor when purchasing a home but we weren't set on being in the best school district ever. So we didn't go the extra mile to get into a school with a 10 ranking. I think the ones we're zoned to are all ranked an 8 which I'm happy with.
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Where I live, the difference in the price of a house in a 10 town and the house in the neighboring 5 town is about $1 million. So, while I would love to get my son into the 10 town, I just and can not afford to spend $1.5 million on a house (and that gets you a fixer upper 2 bed/1 bath). And frankly, no one should have to do that. The reason why those schools have the rankings they do is because they deliberately price people out of the market and I find that the rankings reflect that (lower income kids tend to have varied backgrounds/support at home, etc).
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Important since we pay so much in property taxes. The schools need to be (and are) 10's!
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We moved to an area that has an "excellent school district" (based on word of mouth...really, everyone we talked to said "great schools"). However, once we moved, I looked into the ratings and the high school is a SIX. The primary schools are 7 and 8's. The intermediate and junior high are the only schools that are highly rated. We really don't want our kids to attend a school that's a 6 especially before college so we will most likely try to move before then.
To me, 7-9's are fine so that's what we'll be aiming for when we move.
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Very much important. Other factors are harder to control and change easily (like principals, teachers, curriculum, etc). So for long term decisions about buying real estate I look heavily on long term trends with the school.
However, I would look up to see if your state has a system of evaluating schools. A lot of those other sites don't always accurately reflect all factors. Or can be based on bias information like parent surveys.
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VERY important to me. I had a terrible education and don't want that for DD. So, I definitely researched those things! We live in an expensive part of town, but worth it for the schools.
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Not that important because I don't think the rankings are accurate. Just looked up the best schools in my state, and they were both 8. A nearby elementary school that I know isn't great is ranked 9. I can judge for myself if a school has the resources available for my child to do well and succeed.
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@snowjewelz: This is how my DH and I feel.
We live in an area with really good public schools and some districts are "best in the nation" type public schools. I actively avoided that district because I know it can be hyper-competitive academically to the point where other areas of life (sports, plays, music) must be put on the back-burner so they can keep up in academics. I want my kids to be well-rounded and have a positive school experience and am fine if he doesn't want to / have the capability to attend an Ivy and instead goes into a trade or attends a lower ranked university.
We bought in a school district that is good (our schools are 8, 9, 8 according to great schools) but has a higher low income population and therefore more diversity. The people I talk to rave about the teachers and principal. I'm excited to learn more about the schools as J gets older.
We do plan to move once before J starts HS (to a larger house) so we can re-evaluate the school-ranking subject then.
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@Ms.Badger: Also one college won't pick even 10 kids from the same high school, so I feel like DD has a better chance doing well at a less competitive one! My sister was kinda shafted that way; and we were able to pretty much chalk it up to that b/c she was applying to something pretty specific and one girl got in and she didn't even though their credentials were very similar.
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It's important, but I realize how fickle the rankings can be. For the past few years, our local elementary school was a 9. This year it dropped to a 7. According to our neighbors who have kids in the school, there haven't been any major changes in teachers/admin so maybe they just had a bad year on test scores? I'm not too worried because the overall quality of the school did not change from year to year, even though it dropped 2 grades.
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Semi important, but only because I don't want my kiddos in a "pressure cooker" type school, where the kids are over-the-top stressed and competitive about grades. I work in public education, and I agree that scores are not necessarily indicative of how "good" the schooling is at a school--it doesn't reflect what's happening there on a daily basis, how good the Teachers are, etc. It really just reflects income level and diversity/lack of diversity.
For me, I would rather have a "lower" but still decent school system that is a little more diverse over a "top" school district that is all upper class socioeconomically. But I'm working on my husband-- he has coworkers that will tell him a school district is "bad" and I look at actual test scores and they aren't bad at all, but the student population is a lot more diverse. Honestly, to me it seems like thinly veiled racism and a desire to keep out The Poors more than anything else. And I'm not a fan of that.
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One example is that I worked in a very, very low income school in a suburb of Dallas for a few years. 98% economically disadvantaged, and the school qualified for both free breakfast and lunch for the entire school. The teachers were some of the most dedicated I have ever seen--and I've now worked in 2 states and 4 schools. Much more dedicated and innovative than the teachers where I work now, in a more upper class area. The school in Texas was actually rated well by the state testing scores--but because the students are mostly ESL/bilingual and almost 100%minority students, the great school rankings are terrible and on forums like CityData, that suburb has a terrible reputation. Which is completely unfounded, after having worked in those schools myself.
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@Anagram: This.
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I also think about the general reputation of the school district as a whole. Thinking about their whole K-12 education and not just elementary, middle or high school.
It's definitely a top consideration when buying a forever home. But not the only since a lot can change in 18+ years!
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@Anagram: You said what I was trying to get to, in a much more eloquent way.
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we went more on word of mouth reputation as opposed to rankings. the area we chose has good schools--we looked for a house in a neighboring area with schools that have an even better reputation, but it was going to cost $100K more to get a comparable house. it wasn't worth it to us to go that extra mile.
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If we were sending our kids to public school, it would be somewhat important, but standardized test scores aren't the most reliable metric, and there's more to it as far as what makes a school exceptional.
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The school rankings aren't particularly important to us - we have great schools nearby (our elementary school is a magnet school, for example) that don't have the best rankings/test scores because of a very diverse student population. I feel some sense of obligation to support schools like that with my child(ren)'s attendance and my time rather than to use my time and resources to apply out to "better-performing" schools that are more segregated by SES/relative economic advantage and, as a result, often race/ethnicity.
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Sending our LOs to very good schools is really important to me. They don't have to be the number one school ever, but I do want them in really good schools, especially as they get older. However, rankings are only part of that, as others have said. So when we are evaluating new towns, we will have to look at the various rankings to start but we will look at more than just the number.
Our current plan is to move to a rental for a couple of years and spend the time really researching what town we want to move to long term, with the goal of moving before C is in first grade.
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Rankings are important to me, though I don't worry too much about whether a school is a 8 or a 10 (but I probably wouldn't want my child to attend a school ranked in the low numbers). Right now we live in a city where the individual schools are assigned by lottery, and the schools themselves vary pretty wildly in terms of rankings and test scores. We will probably move soon to another city that has a reputation for more consistently excellent schools. It's a tough call for me, because our whole state has excellent public schools, and even though DH and I both attended school systems that are considered mediocre, we have done extremely well in terms of colleges and grad school. That being said, we were both super bored basically the whole time from K-12 and weren't challenged at all until college. So a major reason I'd like LO to attend schools with a better reputation than the ones I attended is so that she is more challenged than I was.
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@catlady: yes to all of this!
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I’m actually kind of weary of “great” school scores. I don’t know if it’s just me and I have anecdotal evidence but a lot of people I talked to that went or had kids my age that went to the “great” school in my area about half of them burnt out.
I went to a middle of the road high school also in the area and I did fairly okay. I actually don’t think I’m that smart but in my school I shined and that encouraged me to go to college. I wonder if I went to a “great” school… I probably wouldn’t have shined and been discouraged and ended up like a lot of stories I hear.
Though I will say my parents had no time or resources to help me if I fell behind. I’m sure everyone here would help their kids do well in a “great” school if they feel behind by tutoring them personally or getting them tutors.
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@Anagram: this!
I prefer to look at the teacher working conditions survey in our state. if the teachers are happy and supported then they can do their job, and if I do my job and make sure my kid is healthy, rested, and we'll fed it's very unlikely that my child won't do well. I really hate those school rankings.
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Honestly I don't think I would ever consider them unless I was moving into an unfamiliar area. But I have a lot of very strong feelings about pressure cooker schools. And I agree with what others have said about the socio-economic makeup of an area. I personally believe that what kind of support you get at home is more important than what school you go to.
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dh is a principal at a low ranked, low income school. while him and his colleagues are hardworking and dedicated, he says the main influence on how well a student does is from the parents. many of the parents in his school district don't motivate or encourage their kids in school and don't view education as a priority. school for them is like free child care. not saying all parents are like that, but many. we def believe a child can do well at any school if they have the support at home. BUT we do think that peers do have an influence as well. i have a colleague who went through the LA unified school district. hes one of the brightest, smartest people i know, and he said it was so so hard for him to do well at school. He had to self-motivate himself because of the lack of support and motivation around him from peers and teachers and parents. alot of the parents in these areas work so hard to survive and put food on the table that they just don't have time to help their kids in school. he said it was so easy to be drawn into gangs, violence, etc. so we picked our school district more for the area and community than the actual rank. most people in this area view education as a priority so we want to make sure our kids are surrounded by as many positive influences as possible.
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I went to a pressure cooker public high school and have an Ivy League undergraduate degree.
I really, really hated my high school experience for a variety of reasons. But, I really appreciate the quality of my education. The whole issue is very confusing and I have no idea how I will choose an education strategy for my son. I think I need to wait until he's older so that I have a better idea of his needs.
My husband LOVED his Waldorf high school, but I don't know if I can go quite that crunchy. His high school friends are all very self aware, articulate and comfortable with themselves. But some of them, uh, lack direction.
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They are very important to me. The school does not need to be at 10, but it needs to be highly ranked for sure (probably at least an eight at a minimum).
Growing up, my parents had to switch me to private school because the public schools could not provide me with any sort of a challenge or the educational opportunities that I needed. I want to make sure that we minimize our chances of a similar situation happening for our kids (because I saw how ridiculously expensive private schools were!).
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I weigh in all of the factors described on this thread, and don't put too much emphasis on the importance of test scores. So a 10 vs an 8 would not make a difference to me. But I still would be wary of sending LO to a school with a really low score, like 4 or lower.
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LO is going to a currently rated 7 school next year. It's known to be the best in the area. The area itself is in the 'lower half' rated schools in the state. So we are settling with the best of the worst.
Ah well, I teach at the school and LO is very eager to come to work with me, so I guess that's where the big intangible bonus weighs in. There are a lot of great things that just aren't measured into the school's ratings so I hold the rankings loosely.
Ah well, I teach at the school and LO is very eager to come to work with me, so I guess that's where the big intangible bonus weighs in. There are a lot of great things that just aren't measured into the school's ratings so I hold the rankings loosely.
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