Re: What does a "good school district" mean? - Edited

BUMP for the person inquiring about school districts.

Re: What does a "good school district" mean? - Edited

Thanks for all the responses. I get the fact that certain districts offer more services/activities than others but I also think that you don't need to be in the best school district to be successful. I personally went to one of the top school districts on LI and it's true, when it came time to apply to college, even though I was top of my class, everyone applied to all the same top schools so obviously they couldn't take everybody and I always felt like it would have served me better to not be in that district!

Re: What does a "good school district" mean? - Edited

I don't agree with your initial post honestly. There are not gangs everywhere in LI. We live in what has been ranked as a good school district. I can say with 100% certainty there are no gangs here - none. There are no school closings etc. as well. Additionally, teachers still matter - even within the common core - what is taught in the classroom, how it is taught and how much differentiation there is depends very very much on the individual teacher.

That said, I don't think you can necessarily judge how good a school district is by the rankings with respect to AP classes and scores, college admissions, SAT scores etc - the fact of the matter is and I see this first hand that these directly result in many cases from the tutoring etc. that goes on OUTSIDE of the school. And, yes, as another poster said - how involved the parents are were their children and how much $$ they throw at their children's education and enrichment activities (instruments, sports etc). is what determines the scores, admissions etc. So - what does a good school district mean on paper - it means the majority of people in the district have $$$. Sad, but true.

For me though - now that my DS is in the public school district - what makes a school district good is other things...class size is very important to me, how many students per teacher, as is the things the school can provide for my child - what enrichment activities they have - how much do they differentiate - do they pull out only the kids behind or those ahead too...are there gifted programs etc. To me, these things are what make a good school district - the resources they can provide for my child's individual needs...