Best Public School Systems

[mum1day]

I am trying to find a comprehensive list of the top school systems in the US. Does anyone know how I might find this?

TIA!

[maestramommy]

A friend has referred me to greatschools.net, but I haven't had a chance to check it out.

[JulieL]

I've been on it a lot recently and it has a good breakdown of test scores and such. I'm still trying to figure out how to navigate through the public school system as a whole, as test scores definately don't tell the whole story. A mom told me nothing tells the story totally, that a visit is definately necessary.

If I remember correctly parents can review a school as well on this website, but few are.

[MarisaSF]

Every year, several magazines publish "best public high schools in America" -- Newsweek is a major visible one. "Best" is hard to rate, of course, and criteria for "best" can be controversial. For example, some (Newswek included, I believe) use "number of AP courses offered" or "number/% of students taking AP courses." This number/% is a statement often of how much money and resources the school has. The number that doesn't get published is how many kids do well on the tests. It's a good starting point though. IMO, these lists do give you some idea of how much public education is valued in the area and that's important too.

Like Melinda mentioned, you can also check greatschools. I've found that more details can be found if you focus on areas you want and then read the local papers. Good luck. It's a PITA, honestly. :)

[jd11365]

Well I can tell you they're not in Florida. ;)

[mum1day]

Thank you for leading me there.

It's so frustrating. DH says school system does not matter because we have smart children, but I say IT DOES matter and it will determine where to end up living.

[almostamom]

Well, we know for sure there's at least one FABULOUS teacher in Florida! :)

~Linda~
http://lilypie.com/pic/060427/fDdc.jpg http://b2.lilypie.com/qW3mm7.png

[jd11365]

Awwww, shucks!

[jesseandgrace]

I'm not sure if this will help or not, but we moved from MA to CA a few years ago to take care of my MIL. We ended up in one of the best school districts in CA sort of by default because my MIL lived here. I don't think I would have chosen to actively look for an amazing school district, but I would have looked for a good one. Well, the amazing one is amazing. It is basically the equivilant of the best private schools where I was from (that you pay 20 grand a year for). The teachers are great, every day a parent volunteers, the fundraising is shockingly good so there is money for all kinds of things, basically it is all you could want in a school. It is a California Distinguished school. I am happy, and my son is happy, although I think he would have liked school in MA just as much, he probably wouldn't be learning at such an advanced level (which is good and bad, sometimes there seems to be alot of pressure), absolutely all of the children in his Kindergarten class were reading by the end of the year.

My suggestion to you is to decide where you want to live, and then look for the best school districts near there. People are constantly talking about how bad California school are, and being such a huge state I would guess overall the schools are bad but within CA, and I am sure this is true for most states, there are school districts like mine that are unbelievably good, I would guess if there were a ranking that worked for the whole country it would be hard to find a better school, but I have no idea how you would compare a school here with a school in Nebraska. I would look individually at places you like, and then look at how that state ranks schools. For instance, to get the California Distinguished School award the schools have to jump through some pretty big hoops (there are plenty of amazing CA schools without this distinction) so if a school can earn it, I would be 100% comfortable sending my child there - so if we ever move in CA I would look for another school with that distinction. I don't know how many states do that, but I'm sure there are many. Unfortunately a wealthy community also often means a better school, but thankfully not always. Good luck, I hope you find what you are looking for! For what it is worth I think I would be fine back in my decent school in MA, instead of in my outstanding school here, but I guess I can't really know that for sure.

[buddyleebaby]

nak
my hs was featured as one of the top ten in the us while i attended. we were at the same time on the list of nyc's most dangerous highschools. go figure. ; )

[maestramommy]

Wow! I would love to know your district. I live in Southern Cal, but both Dh and I are from East coast and midwest, and in general we feel like California schools are terrible. Of course, we live close to L.A unified, so maybe that colors our perception. But we have some friends who checked out California schools on a website once (I have to find out which one!) and we ranked 3rd from the bottom in terms of class size, money spent on each student, and one more qualifier that escapes me for the moment (not test scores). Also, I do find that a wealthier community doesn't always mean better schools here because it means they get less dollars from the state for things like music programs. Our district just canned music for all elementary schools 2 years ago, and we're not even considered wealthy. In fact, the local middle school is a California Distinguished school. I really don't know where all the money is going because the houses in our town are so expensive we'd never be able to afford one without me going back to work and us taking on a mortgage that would choke a walrus. When you combine that with the feeling that the school's aren't great, it's enough to make you want to move when you have kids. That's what our friends did. They moved to Colorado, where the houses are cheaper, and the schools generally decent.

[cmdunn1972]

Tell your DH that it matters even if you would send your children to private schools. I have been told that owning a house in a highly-rated school district, no matter how dubious the ratings, can affect property values.