Hellobee Boards

I've always wondered about what people mean when they talk about good school district vs a bad one as I see a lot of mention about it on HB, but it's not really on my radar in real life. Does it have to do with differences in funding?

In my province, each school, regardless of what neighbourhood it is in, receives the same amount of funding per student. So there aren't big discrepancies from school to school or district to district. There are slight differences between schools but it's more of personal preference stuff (tech focus , new playgrounds, languages offered, etc)

I'm curious to see the answers because I never really understood what people meant when they said they bought a house to be in a good district, etc

Diverse socioeconomic populations and mismanagement of funds in the school district

@looch: how do they decide which towns get more funding?

@Charm54: I also wonder this, because there are trade offs my husband and I wouldn't want to make for "better" schools, such as lack of diversity. Our city is something like 50% white, and our public schools suffer from lack of funds. I worked on the 2010 census in one of our wealthy suburbs and it was something like 98% white. Those schools perform better, but we don't want our child in those schools either and it's a tough decision.

@Charm54: Our schools are funded in part by property taxes. So if you live in an area with higher home values, there is more money to go towards funding the schools. In the US school rankings are largely a reflection of the socioeconomic status of the people who live in the district.

There is a huge disparity in terms of socioeconomic status in our area. Those that can afford private schools go that route. There isn't a lot of in between, and the younger "gentrifying" population finds various creative solutions or leaves.

@looch: Nope, no state income tax here. Just property taxes and sales tax.

Each school has its own climate. And there are even microclimates between each grade level so there is no way you can look this up, except perhaps ask a teacher or parents at this school..or just give it a try. An ideal school, imho, is one where the teachers genuinely care about the parents, have strong competencies to deliver updated high quality, research based curriculum, low turnover, great staff teamwork to solve problems and innovate, and teachers who see their current student's strengths and needs and meet each child, individually and compassionately, where they are at.
This does not always or only happen at the richest schools. You can find this in the least likely places. Full disclosure: I'm a teacher at a middle of the road elementary school that had done very well in the past, but had poor test scores during the past year as we switched over to new math curriculum and new common core testing.

We live in a city, so it's a combination of diverse socioeconomic status and the fact that many higher income families tend to move to the suburbs when kids reach elementary school age. The schools closest to us have a high population of students coming from housing projects, and the test scores are noticeably lower than in other parts of the city. Our city tries to combat this by making school selection a lottery system and by having quotas for low vs high income students at the more popular schools, but it only sort of works. Basically the system as a whole is mediocre (for our state), some schools are pretty good and some are below average. They are super well funded though, at least. Our city has tons of money for schools.

The system here is arranged in clusters to increase diversity. The city itself is pretty segregated as far as housing. Most blacks and other minorities are crowded in the west and south ends of town, with the east end being the most affluent, white, and sought after areas to live. The west/south ends are considered dangerous and do have a high crime rate, but poverty is endemic and it's a food/hospital desert. If you are zoned for a school in the west/south ends, most people who can afford to pull their kids out and either put them in private schools or try to get them in an east end school cluster.

My cluster isn't terrible, but we aren't guaranteed to get into our resides school (that is, the school closest to us that we are actually zoned for) and the other schools are kind of far away. They are all in the south/east side of the county though. I'd prefer to move to a suburb where there aren't clusters, but diversity goes way down the farther you move from the city. So do we want our kids to go to a less diverse school possibly and have a longer commute (the parents) or do we want to deal with them being bussed all over creation because of the clusters?

I *think* mostly it's #3.

Adding to what @catlady: said, our city schools are a lottery so you don't know whether you will get a "good" school or a low performing, sad looking school. And frankly, the wealthy families will enter the lottery and if they get a good school, they stay, if they only get a "bad" school, the go to private school or leave the city for better suburban schools.

We are one of those families looking to leave to city now so I'm currently looking at the suburb schools and trying to figure out what's good.

Even the good schools in my area suffer from over crowding. Green space on the school grounds are littered with the trailers- these temporary classrooms are permanent fixtures.

Another difference between a good and bad school are the facilities, school resources and activities. Just looking at the websites of what's available at my A rated neighborhood school vs poorer rated school in another city clearly shows why one school is stronger. Heck a stronger PTA in a A rated school vs a weaker PTA in a A rated school makes a difference too.

Children from poorer neighborhoods/ families have challenges that other children from middle income neighborhoods/ families just simply don't have. Part of that goes back to what does the school offer in terms of #2. One of my friends worked at a magnet middle school located in a poor neighborhood. Most of the student body was from the neighborhood. He explained it's hard to pay attention in class when you are the primary caregiver for your younger siblings and you hear loud noises all night long- people out on the street, ambulances etc.

I live in a community where English is often something children pick up at school because their parents make a conscious effort to speak their Native language at home. We live in a diverse community- different languages, socioeconomic due to affordable apartments etc. You can get the best of both worlds if you pick the right community.