[quote=AN]…To those who say API scores mean nothing, have you guys/gals gone/or know someone who have gone to a school that have an API score of 1? My wife did and she can tell you endless stories of bad teachers, classmates who drop out due to pregnancies, gang activities. She and some of her friend survived and end up going to various top rated Universities and are successful today. Others didn’t fare so well. However, I wouldn’t want to take the risk and put my kids in that environment. API score is nothing more than a number that summarize the student body’s average academic performance. So, it means something, but it’s not going to make your dumb kid smart or make your smart kid dumb, would you? Take it for what it is.[/quote]
Actually, I have known MANY successful people who graduated from HS’s all over the city and county, AN, including Morse, Crawford, Hoover, Lincoln, Southwest, Montgomery, Castle Park, Sweetwater, Mt Miguel, El Cajon Valley, Helix, etc.
Is your spouse successful now, AN? Does she have a successful career? Was she able to get into college and get a degree? You seem to be fairly intelligent so it stands to reason that you wouldn’t marry someone who was “dumb,” would you?
It sounds as if your spouse’s HS was rated a “1” that the tests either weren’t administered at her school or only administered to a handful of students. Did you ever think that perhaps there might be a math or procedural error there?
I agree that API “means something” but what it means for HS is that 10th grade English, Math and History teachers are teaching students using rote memorization techniques to the test and nothing more. The grilling is so intense and concentrated in the weeks before the tests are administered that it is almost akin to the CACI’s being “open-book” exams, lol! The outcome of these tests has literally represented schools’ “bread and butter” for the last dozen years or so, economically speaking. And these teachers all KNOW which side of their bread is buttered on. They didn’t fall off of an onion truck yesterday.
It is what it is. The fundamental point I was trying to make on this thread is, how much $$ (over and above a same or similar property in a different-but-not-worse area) are these “scores” worth to a family? How much cash outlay every month and year should a family put towards chasing these scores? And is an area really a “worse” area just because its area school(s) score lower than others??
Why would a “well-connected” neighbor or friend of your child be necessarily “qualified” to help your child with schoolwork just by virtue of residing in a particular zip code? Has anyone ever considered that there might be top-notch tutoring/mentoring programs available for children residing in lower-income areas who actually ARE qualified to tutor and help with homework?? For instance:
Since this is a RE-oriented blog, the points I brought up here were intended to be thought-provoking, but I now see they garnered some juvenile “wtf” defensive ramble about the perceived “quality” of a student/child’s classmates and the need for 4th graders to become “well-connected” at the age of nine (to adults??) in order to become successful in life. Considering the source, I don’t take it seriously, lol…
