OT: API scores

[all]

[quote=outtamojo]

Here’s an elementary with 80% free lunch, 58% English language learners, API of 953.
http://www.greatschools.org/modperl/achievement/ca/230#api

I went to that school many moons ago btw : )[/quote]

And that is apparently unusual enough to qualify the school for ‘Distinguished Schools award for its success in closing the “achievement gap” between rich and poor students.’

[bearishgurl]

[quote=grepper][quote=bearishgurl]
No, it isn’t simple, grepper because in the “Gage Elementary attendance area,[/quote]

bg, calm down! i said it wasnt that simple. my main point is that when the parents care (guardians too) you will likely have good students. i was also speculating that parents that care are more likely to be educated. i picked 2 schools (for everyone mre is miramar ranch in scripps ranch and gage is in mira mesa) that i knew have differing demographics w/ differing schools…i also said my example proved nothing.

the teachers are important too. i just think in general the parents caring is more important. obviously a horrible teacher can be hurtful. however, i’m talking about in general or on the average.

bg why is the api lower at gage? i wasnt picking on gage for any particular reason. i think many of the kids there will do fine. why might those two schools be different teachers? parents? students(ie esol)?

i agree that parents shouldnt get bent out of shape w/ the api scores. parents just are crazy and do the stupidest stuff for their kids. they need to calm down and think rationally. 🙂 you live where you live, and it is what it is. if you dont like the score you can move or try to play a bigger role in your kid’s education. that, is that simple.[/quote]

grepper, Gage is in San Carlos, within the Henry High attendance area. The particular area it is located in is stable, occupied by many retirees.

I was agreeing with you, grepper. I’m about the calmest parent you could ever find when it comes to API scores, considering I only first saw them two days ago when prompted by this thread. My kids are grown except for one who’s almost grown and not once in my life did I ever buy a property based upon a “school test score” within its attendance area.

The reason I posted the HS API scores for GUHSD and SUHSD is because the vast majority of Piggs I have read about in the last few months who either were hoping to purchase RE to live in or had purchased it recently were just so emphatic that school API scores were the absolute holy grail as to whether they would make an offer on a particular property or not and if the school API scores weren’t absolutely “top notch” then the area must be a ghetto and therefore not worth making an offer in. It seemed to me that following the API scoring seemed almost like a religion to some Piggs. Except for Santee (whose HS’s did very well BTW), I didn’t read about any Piggs who were looking to buy in South or East County.

There are many older areas in SD such as San Carlos, College Area, Pt. Loma, Ocean Beach, Kensington, Allied Gardens, Del Cerro, etc where many of the homeowners are eligible for Prop 13 tax treatment, thus are over the age of 55 or so (not counting slightly younger heirs occupying these homes). Many of these communities have few to zero multi-family units. IMO, the only reason some elementary schools in these areas are able to keep their doors open is because children this age are using their grandparents or other older relative’s address in order to attend them. There hasn’t been enough younger families buying in these areas in recent years because either the area is too expensive to purchase into, the bulk of the area’s housing stock is “unattractive” to a younger buyer, there is never very much inventory to pick from or a combination of these reasons.

Grandparents or aunts/uncles are legal guardians for school purposes for a number of reasons and this is a VERY COMMONPLACE PRACTICE IN SD:

1. The actual parent is a single parent and is working two jobs or one job and going to school while their parent (the child’s grandparent) is retired;

2. the actual parent is a new younger divorcee who had to split their meager assets with an ex-spouse and now cannot afford rent/mortgage on their own so has moved back in with their parent(s) to get their feet back on the ground;

3. the actual parent has lost custody of their children through the domestic or dependency court system and a grandparent petitioned for the children to be placed with them or they were offered the first right by government officials to raise their grandchildren before they were fostered out;

3. the actual parent(s) is currently incarcerated;

4. the actual parent(s) may live and work in MX and come back to SD on the weekends;

5. the actual parent(s) were laid off their jobs in SD and accepted jobs in another county/state and have not passed their probations there and thus do not have proper living quarters in the new locale for their kid(s) to reside;

6. one of the grandparents is partially or totally incapacitated so the actual parent is living with their parents to help their other parent out with their care;

7. the actual parent is too physically or mentally ill to care for their children;

8. the actual parent(s) is/are deceased and/or the other parent has disappeared;

9. and the most common, a grandparent has agreed to care for their elementary school age child from when school is dismissed in the afternoon until the parent(s) arrival to pick them up after work.

So, grepper, there’s nothing wrong with the 811 API score for Gage. There’s nothing really wrong with a score lower than that. Grandparents and other older relatives can help kids with schoolwork to the best of their ability. There’s nothing wrong with the fact that these children’s guardian’s education may have been limited. IMO, none of this has anything to do with how motivated kids are to do well in school. I would have to study the report card more to be able to come to a conclusion as to why the API score at Gage was 811 (not exactly shabby, btw).

I agree with everything you’re saying. I think young parents worrying about where their four-year-old is going to go to high school is insane. We have NO IDEA how these high schools will score 10+ years from now or even 2 years from now! Student populations are fluid from year to year as is the teacher bidding-pool. As a parent, you can’t plan your kid’s life that far in advance. It is what it is today in the school your kid is currently attending . . . that’s it.

Ask yourself this? How did Hoover High know in advance that they would be hit in the early nineties with attendance applications for hundreds of resettled Somali refugee children? The short answer is . . . they didn’t. These foreign students came and the school adapted to them. That’s what happens everywhere. In outlying areas, a developer comes in and the next year there are 400 more children in a particular school. The school is overcrowded until a new school can be built, but that “overcrowded period” ate up the bulk of your kid’s “elementary career” there. A new school is now built to alleviate the congestion but your kid is not there anymore so it doesn’t matter. There are so many things beyond a parent’s control, even if they pay exorbitant MR and plotted and planned before purchase to reside in particular attendance areas. A parent doesn’t have any control over a public school district’s decisions. They will have to live with them and bend and sway with them for the life of their kids’ public school “career.” No matter what happens, their kids will generally graduate and go on to college, whether their HS’s API is 710, 795, 830 or 940.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=grepper][quote=bearishgurl]
No, it isn’t simple, grepper because in the “Gage Elementary attendance area,[/quote]

bg, calm down! i said it wasnt that simple. my main point is that when the parents care (guardians too) you will likely have good students. i was also speculating that parents that care are more likely to be educated. i picked 2 schools (for everyone mre is miramar ranch in scripps ranch and gage is in mira mesa) that i knew have differing demographics w/ differing schools…i also said my example proved nothing.

the teachers are important too. i just think in general the parents caring is more important. obviously a horrible teacher can be hurtful. however, i’m talking about in general or on the average.

bg why is the api lower at gage? i wasnt picking on gage for any particular reason. i think many of the kids there will do fine. why might those two schools be different teachers? parents? students(ie esol)?

i agree that parents shouldnt get bent out of shape w/ the api scores. parents just are crazy and do the stupidest stuff for their kids. they need to calm down and think rationally. 🙂 you live where you live, and it is what it is. if you dont like the score you can move or try to play a bigger role in your kid’s education. that, is that simple.[/quote]

grepper, Gage is in San Carlos, within the Henry High attendance area. The particular area it is located in is stable, occupied by many retirees.

I was agreeing with you, grepper. I’m about the calmest parent you could ever find when it comes to API scores, considering I only first saw them two days ago when prompted by this thread. My kids are grown except for one who’s almost grown and not once in my life did I ever buy a property based upon a “school test score” within its attendance area.

The reason I posted the HS API scores for GUHSD and SUHSD is because the vast majority of Piggs I have read about in the last few months who either were hoping to purchase RE to live in or had purchased it recently were just so emphatic that school API scores were the absolute holy grail as to whether they would make an offer on a particular property or not and if the school API scores weren’t absolutely “top notch” then the area must be a ghetto and therefore not worth making an offer in. It seemed to me that following the API scoring seemed almost like a religion to some Piggs. Except for Santee (whose HS’s did very well BTW), I didn’t read about any Piggs who were looking to buy in South or East County.

There are many older areas in SD such as San Carlos, College Area, Pt. Loma, Ocean Beach, Kensington, Allied Gardens, Del Cerro, etc where many of the homeowners are eligible for Prop 13 tax treatment, thus are over the age of 55 or so (not counting slightly younger heirs occupying these homes). Many of these communities have few to zero multi-family units. IMO, the only reason some elementary schools in these areas are able to keep their doors open is because children this age are using their grandparents or other older relative’s address in order to attend them. There hasn’t been enough younger families buying in these areas in recent years because either the area is too expensive to purchase into, the bulk of the area’s housing stock is “unattractive” to a younger buyer, there is never very much inventory to pick from or a combination of these reasons.

Grandparents or aunts/uncles are legal guardians for school purposes for a number of reasons and this is a VERY COMMONPLACE PRACTICE IN SD:

1. The actual parent is a single parent and is working two jobs or one job and going to school while their parent (the child’s grandparent) is retired;

2. the actual parent is a new younger divorcee who had to split their meager assets with an ex-spouse and now cannot afford rent/mortgage on their own so has moved back in with their parent(s) to get their feet back on the ground;

3. the actual parent has lost custody of their children through the domestic or dependency court system and a grandparent petitioned for the children to be placed with them or they were offered the first right by government officials to raise their grandchildren before they were fostered out;

3. the actual parent(s) is currently incarcerated;

4. the actual parent(s) may live and work in MX and come back to SD on the weekends;

5. the actual parent(s) were laid off their jobs in SD and accepted jobs in another county/state and have not passed their probations there and thus do not have proper living quarters in the new locale for their kid(s) to reside;

6. one of the grandparents is partially or totally incapacitated so the actual parent is living with their parents to help their other parent out with their care;

7. the actual parent is too physically or mentally ill to care for their children;

8. the actual parent(s) is/are deceased and/or the other parent has disappeared;

9. and the most common, a grandparent has agreed to care for their elementary school age child from when school is dismissed in the afternoon until the parent(s) arrival to pick them up after work.

So, grepper, there’s nothing wrong with the 811 API score for Gage. There’s nothing really wrong with a score lower than that. Grandparents and other older relatives can help kids with schoolwork to the best of their ability. There’s nothing wrong with the fact that these children’s guardian’s education may have been limited. IMO, none of this has anything to do with how motivated kids are to do well in school. I would have to study the report card more to be able to come to a conclusion as to why the API score at Gage was 811 (not exactly shabby, btw).

I agree with everything you’re saying. I think young parents worrying about where their four-year-old is going to go to high school is insane. We have NO IDEA how these high schools will score 10+ years from now or even 2 years from now! Student populations are fluid from year to year as is the teacher bidding-pool. As a parent, you can’t plan your kid’s life that far in advance. It is what it is today in the school your kid is currently attending . . . that’s it.

Ask yourself this? How did Hoover High know in advance that they would be hit in the early nineties with attendance applications for hundreds of resettled Somali refugee children? The short answer is . . . they didn’t. These foreign students came and the school adapted to them. That’s what happens everywhere. In outlying areas, a developer comes in and the next year there are 400 more children in a particular school. The school is overcrowded until a new school can be built, but that “overcrowded period” ate up the bulk of your kid’s “elementary career” there. A new school is now built to alleviate the congestion but your kid is not there anymore so it doesn’t matter. There are so many things beyond a parent’s control, even if they pay exorbitant MR and plotted and planned before purchase to reside in particular attendance areas. A parent doesn’t have any control over a public school district’s decisions. They will have to live with them and bend and sway with them for the life of their kids’ public school “career.” No matter what happens, their kids will generally graduate and go on to college, whether their HS’s API is 710, 795, 830 or 940.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=grepper][quote=bearishgurl]
No, it isn’t simple, grepper because in the “Gage Elementary attendance area,[/quote]

bg, calm down! i said it wasnt that simple. my main point is that when the parents care (guardians too) you will likely have good students. i was also speculating that parents that care are more likely to be educated. i picked 2 schools (for everyone mre is miramar ranch in scripps ranch and gage is in mira mesa) that i knew have differing demographics w/ differing schools…i also said my example proved nothing.

the teachers are important too. i just think in general the parents caring is more important. obviously a horrible teacher can be hurtful. however, i’m talking about in general or on the average.

bg why is the api lower at gage? i wasnt picking on gage for any particular reason. i think many of the kids there will do fine. why might those two schools be different teachers? parents? students(ie esol)?

i agree that parents shouldnt get bent out of shape w/ the api scores. parents just are crazy and do the stupidest stuff for their kids. they need to calm down and think rationally. 🙂 you live where you live, and it is what it is. if you dont like the score you can move or try to play a bigger role in your kid’s education. that, is that simple.[/quote]

grepper, Gage is in San Carlos, within the Henry High attendance area. The particular area it is located in is stable, occupied by many retirees.

I was agreeing with you, grepper. I’m about the calmest parent you could ever find when it comes to API scores, considering I only first saw them two days ago when prompted by this thread. My kids are grown except for one who’s almost grown and not once in my life did I ever buy a property based upon a “school test score” within its attendance area.

The reason I posted the HS API scores for GUHSD and SUHSD is because the vast majority of Piggs I have read about in the last few months who either were hoping to purchase RE to live in or had purchased it recently were just so emphatic that school API scores were the absolute holy grail as to whether they would make an offer on a particular property or not and if the school API scores weren’t absolutely “top notch” then the area must be a ghetto and therefore not worth making an offer in. It seemed to me that following the API scoring seemed almost like a religion to some Piggs. Except for Santee (whose HS’s did very well BTW), I didn’t read about any Piggs who were looking to buy in South or East County.

There are many older areas in SD such as San Carlos, College Area, Pt. Loma, Ocean Beach, Kensington, Allied Gardens, Del Cerro, etc where many of the homeowners are eligible for Prop 13 tax treatment, thus are over the age of 55 or so (not counting slightly younger heirs occupying these homes). Many of these communities have few to zero multi-family units. IMO, the only reason some elementary schools in these areas are able to keep their doors open is because children this age are using their grandparents or other older relative’s address in order to attend them. There hasn’t been enough younger families buying in these areas in recent years because either the area is too expensive to purchase into, the bulk of the area’s housing stock is “unattractive” to a younger buyer, there is never very much inventory to pick from or a combination of these reasons.

Grandparents or aunts/uncles are legal guardians for school purposes for a number of reasons and this is a VERY COMMONPLACE PRACTICE IN SD:

1. The actual parent is a single parent and is working two jobs or one job and going to school while their parent (the child’s grandparent) is retired;

2. the actual parent is a new younger divorcee who had to split their meager assets with an ex-spouse and now cannot afford rent/mortgage on their own so has moved back in with their parent(s) to get their feet back on the ground;

3. the actual parent has lost custody of their children through the domestic or dependency court system and a grandparent petitioned for the children to be placed with them or they were offered the first right by government officials to raise their grandchildren before they were fostered out;

3. the actual parent(s) is currently incarcerated;

4. the actual parent(s) may live and work in MX and come back to SD on the weekends;

5. the actual parent(s) were laid off their jobs in SD and accepted jobs in another county/state and have not passed their probations there and thus do not have proper living quarters in the new locale for their kid(s) to reside;

6. one of the grandparents is partially or totally incapacitated so the actual parent is living with their parents to help their other parent out with their care;

7. the actual parent is too physically or mentally ill to care for their children;

8. the actual parent(s) is/are deceased and/or the other parent has disappeared;

9. and the most common, a grandparent has agreed to care for their elementary school age child from when school is dismissed in the afternoon until the parent(s) arrival to pick them up after work.

So, grepper, there’s nothing wrong with the 811 API score for Gage. There’s nothing really wrong with a score lower than that. Grandparents and other older relatives can help kids with schoolwork to the best of their ability. There’s nothing wrong with the fact that these children’s guardian’s education may have been limited. IMO, none of this has anything to do with how motivated kids are to do well in school. I would have to study the report card more to be able to come to a conclusion as to why the API score at Gage was 811 (not exactly shabby, btw).

I agree with everything you’re saying. I think young parents worrying about where their four-year-old is going to go to high school is insane. We have NO IDEA how these high schools will score 10+ years from now or even 2 years from now! Student populations are fluid from year to year as is the teacher bidding-pool. As a parent, you can’t plan your kid’s life that far in advance. It is what it is today in the school your kid is currently attending . . . that’s it.

Ask yourself this? How did Hoover High know in advance that they would be hit in the early nineties with attendance applications for hundreds of resettled Somali refugee children? The short answer is . . . they didn’t. These foreign students came and the school adapted to them. That’s what happens everywhere. In outlying areas, a developer comes in and the next year there are 400 more children in a particular school. The school is overcrowded until a new school can be built, but that “overcrowded period” ate up the bulk of your kid’s “elementary career” there. A new school is now built to alleviate the congestion but your kid is not there anymore so it doesn’t matter. There are so many things beyond a parent’s control, even if they pay exorbitant MR and plotted and planned before purchase to reside in particular attendance areas. A parent doesn’t have any control over a public school district’s decisions. They will have to live with them and bend and sway with them for the life of their kids’ public school “career.” No matter what happens, their kids will generally graduate and go on to college, whether their HS’s API is 710, 795, 830 or 940.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=grepper][quote=bearishgurl]
No, it isn’t simple, grepper because in the “Gage Elementary attendance area,[/quote]

bg, calm down! i said it wasnt that simple. my main point is that when the parents care (guardians too) you will likely have good students. i was also speculating that parents that care are more likely to be educated. i picked 2 schools (for everyone mre is miramar ranch in scripps ranch and gage is in mira mesa) that i knew have differing demographics w/ differing schools…i also said my example proved nothing.

the teachers are important too. i just think in general the parents caring is more important. obviously a horrible teacher can be hurtful. however, i’m talking about in general or on the average.

bg why is the api lower at gage? i wasnt picking on gage for any particular reason. i think many of the kids there will do fine. why might those two schools be different teachers? parents? students(ie esol)?

i agree that parents shouldnt get bent out of shape w/ the api scores. parents just are crazy and do the stupidest stuff for their kids. they need to calm down and think rationally. 🙂 you live where you live, and it is what it is. if you dont like the score you can move or try to play a bigger role in your kid’s education. that, is that simple.[/quote]

grepper, Gage is in San Carlos, within the Henry High attendance area. The particular area it is located in is stable, occupied by many retirees.

I was agreeing with you, grepper. I’m about the calmest parent you could ever find when it comes to API scores, considering I only first saw them two days ago when prompted by this thread. My kids are grown except for one who’s almost grown and not once in my life did I ever buy a property based upon a “school test score” within its attendance area.

The reason I posted the HS API scores for GUHSD and SUHSD is because the vast majority of Piggs I have read about in the last few months who either were hoping to purchase RE to live in or had purchased it recently were just so emphatic that school API scores were the absolute holy grail as to whether they would make an offer on a particular property or not and if the school API scores weren’t absolutely “top notch” then the area must be a ghetto and therefore not worth making an offer in. It seemed to me that following the API scoring seemed almost like a religion to some Piggs. Except for Santee (whose HS’s did very well BTW), I didn’t read about any Piggs who were looking to buy in South or East County.

There are many older areas in SD such as San Carlos, College Area, Pt. Loma, Ocean Beach, Kensington, Allied Gardens, Del Cerro, etc where many of the homeowners are eligible for Prop 13 tax treatment, thus are over the age of 55 or so (not counting slightly younger heirs occupying these homes). Many of these communities have few to zero multi-family units. IMO, the only reason some elementary schools in these areas are able to keep their doors open is because children this age are using their grandparents or other older relative’s address in order to attend them. There hasn’t been enough younger families buying in these areas in recent years because either the area is too expensive to purchase into, the bulk of the area’s housing stock is “unattractive” to a younger buyer, there is never very much inventory to pick from or a combination of these reasons.

Grandparents or aunts/uncles are legal guardians for school purposes for a number of reasons and this is a VERY COMMONPLACE PRACTICE IN SD:

1. The actual parent is a single parent and is working two jobs or one job and going to school while their parent (the child’s grandparent) is retired;

2. the actual parent is a new younger divorcee who had to split their meager assets with an ex-spouse and now cannot afford rent/mortgage on their own so has moved back in with their parent(s) to get their feet back on the ground;

3. the actual parent has lost custody of their children through the domestic or dependency court system and a grandparent petitioned for the children to be placed with them or they were offered the first right by government officials to raise their grandchildren before they were fostered out;

3. the actual parent(s) is currently incarcerated;

4. the actual parent(s) may live and work in MX and come back to SD on the weekends;

5. the actual parent(s) were laid off their jobs in SD and accepted jobs in another county/state and have not passed their probations there and thus do not have proper living quarters in the new locale for their kid(s) to reside;

6. one of the grandparents is partially or totally incapacitated so the actual parent is living with their parents to help their other parent out with their care;

7. the actual parent is too physically or mentally ill to care for their children;

8. the actual parent(s) is/are deceased and/or the other parent has disappeared;

9. and the most common, a grandparent has agreed to care for their elementary school age child from when school is dismissed in the afternoon until the parent(s) arrival to pick them up after work.

So, grepper, there’s nothing wrong with the 811 API score for Gage. There’s nothing really wrong with a score lower than that. Grandparents and other older relatives can help kids with schoolwork to the best of their ability. There’s nothing wrong with the fact that these children’s guardian’s education may have been limited. IMO, none of this has anything to do with how motivated kids are to do well in school. I would have to study the report card more to be able to come to a conclusion as to why the API score at Gage was 811 (not exactly shabby, btw).

I agree with everything you’re saying. I think young parents worrying about where their four-year-old is going to go to high school is insane. We have NO IDEA how these high schools will score 10+ years from now or even 2 years from now! Student populations are fluid from year to year as is the teacher bidding-pool. As a parent, you can’t plan your kid’s life that far in advance. It is what it is today in the school your kid is currently attending . . . that’s it.

Ask yourself this? How did Hoover High know in advance that they would be hit in the early nineties with attendance applications for hundreds of resettled Somali refugee children? The short answer is . . . they didn’t. These foreign students came and the school adapted to them. That’s what happens everywhere. In outlying areas, a developer comes in and the next year there are 400 more children in a particular school. The school is overcrowded until a new school can be built, but that “overcrowded period” ate up the bulk of your kid’s “elementary career” there. A new school is now built to alleviate the congestion but your kid is not there anymore so it doesn’t matter. There are so many things beyond a parent’s control, even if they pay exorbitant MR and plotted and planned before purchase to reside in particular attendance areas. A parent doesn’t have any control over a public school district’s decisions. They will have to live with them and bend and sway with them for the life of their kids’ public school “career.” No matter what happens, their kids will generally graduate and go on to college, whether their HS’s API is 710, 795, 830 or 940.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=grepper][quote=bearishgurl]
No, it isn’t simple, grepper because in the “Gage Elementary attendance area,[/quote]

bg, calm down! i said it wasnt that simple. my main point is that when the parents care (guardians too) you will likely have good students. i was also speculating that parents that care are more likely to be educated. i picked 2 schools (for everyone mre is miramar ranch in scripps ranch and gage is in mira mesa) that i knew have differing demographics w/ differing schools…i also said my example proved nothing.

the teachers are important too. i just think in general the parents caring is more important. obviously a horrible teacher can be hurtful. however, i’m talking about in general or on the average.

bg why is the api lower at gage? i wasnt picking on gage for any particular reason. i think many of the kids there will do fine. why might those two schools be different teachers? parents? students(ie esol)?

i agree that parents shouldnt get bent out of shape w/ the api scores. parents just are crazy and do the stupidest stuff for their kids. they need to calm down and think rationally. 🙂 you live where you live, and it is what it is. if you dont like the score you can move or try to play a bigger role in your kid’s education. that, is that simple.[/quote]

grepper, Gage is in San Carlos, within the Henry High attendance area. The particular area it is located in is stable, occupied by many retirees.

I was agreeing with you, grepper. I’m about the calmest parent you could ever find when it comes to API scores, considering I only first saw them two days ago when prompted by this thread. My kids are grown except for one who’s almost grown and not once in my life did I ever buy a property based upon a “school test score” within its attendance area.

The reason I posted the HS API scores for GUHSD and SUHSD is because the vast majority of Piggs I have read about in the last few months who either were hoping to purchase RE to live in or had purchased it recently were just so emphatic that school API scores were the absolute holy grail as to whether they would make an offer on a particular property or not and if the school API scores weren’t absolutely “top notch” then the area must be a ghetto and therefore not worth making an offer in. It seemed to me that following the API scoring seemed almost like a religion to some Piggs. Except for Santee (whose HS’s did very well BTW), I didn’t read about any Piggs who were looking to buy in South or East County.

There are many older areas in SD such as San Carlos, College Area, Pt. Loma, Ocean Beach, Kensington, Allied Gardens, Del Cerro, etc where many of the homeowners are eligible for Prop 13 tax treatment, thus are over the age of 55 or so (not counting slightly younger heirs occupying these homes). Many of these communities have few to zero multi-family units. IMO, the only reason some elementary schools in these areas are able to keep their doors open is because children this age are using their grandparents or other older relative’s address in order to attend them. There hasn’t been enough younger families buying in these areas in recent years because either the area is too expensive to purchase into, the bulk of the area’s housing stock is “unattractive” to a younger buyer, there is never very much inventory to pick from or a combination of these reasons.

Grandparents or aunts/uncles are legal guardians for school purposes for a number of reasons and this is a VERY COMMONPLACE PRACTICE IN SD:

1. The actual parent is a single parent and is working two jobs or one job and going to school while their parent (the child’s grandparent) is retired;

2. the actual parent is a new younger divorcee who had to split their meager assets with an ex-spouse and now cannot afford rent/mortgage on their own so has moved back in with their parent(s) to get their feet back on the ground;

3. the actual parent has lost custody of their children through the domestic or dependency court system and a grandparent petitioned for the children to be placed with them or they were offered the first right by government officials to raise their grandchildren before they were fostered out;

3. the actual parent(s) is currently incarcerated;

4. the actual parent(s) may live and work in MX and come back to SD on the weekends;

5. the actual parent(s) were laid off their jobs in SD and accepted jobs in another county/state and have not passed their probations there and thus do not have proper living quarters in the new locale for their kid(s) to reside;

6. one of the grandparents is partially or totally incapacitated so the actual parent is living with their parents to help their other parent out with their care;

7. the actual parent is too physically or mentally ill to care for their children;

8. the actual parent(s) is/are deceased and/or the other parent has disappeared;

9. and the most common, a grandparent has agreed to care for their elementary school age child from when school is dismissed in the afternoon until the parent(s) arrival to pick them up after work.

So, grepper, there’s nothing wrong with the 811 API score for Gage. There’s nothing really wrong with a score lower than that. Grandparents and other older relatives can help kids with schoolwork to the best of their ability. There’s nothing wrong with the fact that these children’s guardian’s education may have been limited. IMO, none of this has anything to do with how motivated kids are to do well in school. I would have to study the report card more to be able to come to a conclusion as to why the API score at Gage was 811 (not exactly shabby, btw).

I agree with everything you’re saying. I think young parents worrying about where their four-year-old is going to go to high school is insane. We have NO IDEA how these high schools will score 10+ years from now or even 2 years from now! Student populations are fluid from year to year as is the teacher bidding-pool. As a parent, you can’t plan your kid’s life that far in advance. It is what it is today in the school your kid is currently attending . . . that’s it.

Ask yourself this? How did Hoover High know in advance that they would be hit in the early nineties with attendance applications for hundreds of resettled Somali refugee children? The short answer is . . . they didn’t. These foreign students came and the school adapted to them. That’s what happens everywhere. In outlying areas, a developer comes in and the next year there are 400 more children in a particular school. The school is overcrowded until a new school can be built, but that “overcrowded period” ate up the bulk of your kid’s “elementary career” there. A new school is now built to alleviate the congestion but your kid is not there anymore so it doesn’t matter. There are so many things beyond a parent’s control, even if they pay exorbitant MR and plotted and planned before purchase to reside in particular attendance areas. A parent doesn’t have any control over a public school district’s decisions. They will have to live with them and bend and sway with them for the life of their kids’ public school “career.” No matter what happens, their kids will generally graduate and go on to college, whether their HS’s API is 710, 795, 830 or 940.

[Anonymous]

[quote=bearishgurl]
grepper, Gage is in San Carlos, within the Henry
[/quote]

whoops you’re right, i was thinking about hage elementary!

as for agreeing, I see what you are saying. there were lots of CAPS so i wasnt sure.

[quote=bearishgurl]
We have NO IDEA how these high schools will score 10+ years from now or even 2 years from now!
[/quote]

and who knows where we will be living in 10yrs. in 10yrs lots of things change. schools, jobs, etc.

parents need to relax and really think thru whats best for their kids.

[Anonymous]

[quote=bearishgurl]
grepper, Gage is in San Carlos, within the Henry
[/quote]

whoops you’re right, i was thinking about hage elementary!

as for agreeing, I see what you are saying. there were lots of CAPS so i wasnt sure.

[quote=bearishgurl]
We have NO IDEA how these high schools will score 10+ years from now or even 2 years from now!
[/quote]

and who knows where we will be living in 10yrs. in 10yrs lots of things change. schools, jobs, etc.

parents need to relax and really think thru whats best for their kids.

[Anonymous]

[quote=bearishgurl]
grepper, Gage is in San Carlos, within the Henry
[/quote]

whoops you’re right, i was thinking about hage elementary!

as for agreeing, I see what you are saying. there were lots of CAPS so i wasnt sure.

[quote=bearishgurl]
We have NO IDEA how these high schools will score 10+ years from now or even 2 years from now!
[/quote]

and who knows where we will be living in 10yrs. in 10yrs lots of things change. schools, jobs, etc.

parents need to relax and really think thru whats best for their kids.

[Anonymous]

[quote=bearishgurl]
grepper, Gage is in San Carlos, within the Henry
[/quote]

whoops you’re right, i was thinking about hage elementary!

as for agreeing, I see what you are saying. there were lots of CAPS so i wasnt sure.

[quote=bearishgurl]
We have NO IDEA how these high schools will score 10+ years from now or even 2 years from now!
[/quote]

and who knows where we will be living in 10yrs. in 10yrs lots of things change. schools, jobs, etc.

parents need to relax and really think thru whats best for their kids.

[Anonymous]

[quote=bearishgurl]
grepper, Gage is in San Carlos, within the Henry
[/quote]

whoops you’re right, i was thinking about hage elementary!

as for agreeing, I see what you are saying. there were lots of CAPS so i wasnt sure.

[quote=bearishgurl]
We have NO IDEA how these high schools will score 10+ years from now or even 2 years from now!
[/quote]

and who knows where we will be living in 10yrs. in 10yrs lots of things change. schools, jobs, etc.

parents need to relax and really think thru whats best for their kids.

[Author]

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