IR,

Apart from Irvine which city will you recommend for a family with elementary school going kids?
I am looking at best value city with good schools.

Thanks

Oracle

Head over to the schools thread under lifestyle (I think your post will be moved there anyway). There are a lot of discussions about schools there, just use the “search” button in the top right hand corner to see if there’s any discussions about the schools and/or districts you are interested in.

Oracle - 25 May 2009 08:49 AM

IR,

Apart from Irvine which city will you recommend for a family with elementary school going kids?
I am looking at best value city with good schools.

Thanks

Oracle

I think the whole “Irvine has good schools” thing is way overrated.

How do you define good schools?  My opinion is that the most important thing in a school is high parent involvement.  You find that in most middle/upper middle class neighborhoods.  If you mean API scores or other measures like that you can find that info on greatschools.net.  But I wouldn’t use that for anything more than a datapoint.  Plenty of high api schools are nothing special and in fact lack the qualitative factors that make a school good.

In the end, find an area you like.  Chances are if you like the area, you’ll be able to find a school you like.  And unless the school is horribly low in scores, etc. you’re far more important to you kid’s education than the school anyway.

not a realtor - 25 May 2009 08:57 AM

Oracle - 25 May 2009 08:49 AM

IR,

Apart from Irvine which city will you recommend for a family with elementary school going kids?
I am looking at best value city with good schools.

Thanks

Oracle

I think the whole “Irvine has good schools” thing is way overrated.

How do you define good schools?  My opinion is that the most important thing in a school is high parent involvement.  You find that in most middle/upper middle class neighborhoods.  If you mean API scores or other measures like that you can find that info on greatschools.net.  But I wouldn’t use that for anything more than a datapoint.  Plenty of high api schools are nothing special and in fact lack the qualitative factors that make a school good.

In the end, find an area you like.  Chances are if you like the area, you’ll be able to find a school you like.  And unless the school is horribly low in scores, etc. you’re far more important to you kid’s education than the school anyway.

So you would buy a home where the elementary, middle and high school get in the low marks on greatschools.net?  I wouldn’t for three reasons:

1.  The school is probably shitty if it only got a 3 or a 4 out of 10.

2.  I can solve this problem by just buying a home where the schools are rated high.

3.  Any potential buyers, when I am ready to sell, also won’t want their kid going to a shitty school.

When I am looking for an area where I want to live - the first and utmost thing I look at is the school quality - where are the best schools?  Once you find the best schools, everything else just falls into place.

Oracle,

Here’s a list that hs_teacher posted recently about the various OC high schools:
http://www.irvinehousingblog.com/forums/viewreply/110744/

It should help get you started on researching alternatives to Irvine with good schools.

gypsyuma - 25 May 2009 01:11 PM

not a realtor - 25 May 2009 08:57 AM

Oracle - 25 May 2009 08:49 AM

IR,

Apart from Irvine which city will you recommend for a family with elementary school going kids?
I am looking at best value city with good schools.

Thanks

Oracle

I think the whole “Irvine has good schools” thing is way overrated.

How do you define good schools?  My opinion is that the most important thing in a school is high parent involvement.  You find that in most middle/upper middle class neighborhoods.  If you mean API scores or other measures like that you can find that info on greatschools.net.  But I wouldn’t use that for anything more than a datapoint.  Plenty of high api schools are nothing special and in fact lack the qualitative factors that make a school good.

In the end, find an area you like.  Chances are if you like the area, you’ll be able to find a school you like.  And unless the school is horribly low in scores, etc. you’re far more important to you kid’s education than the school anyway.

So you would buy a home where the elementary, middle and high school get in the low marks on greatschools.net?  I wouldn’t for three reasons:

1.  The school is probably shitty if it only got a 3 or a 4 out of 10.

2.  I can solve this problem by just buying a home where the schools are rated high.

3.  Any potential buyers, when I am ready to sell, also won’t want their kid going to a shitty school.

When I am looking for an area where I want to live - the first and utmost thing I look at is the school quality - where are the best schools?  Once you find the best schools, everything else just falls into place.

I wouldn’t buy a home where the schools are bad.  But if a school gets a 7 or 8 on greatschools that doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t as good as one that gets a 9.  My point is that API scores are but one datapoint.

I would buy where there is an 8, but I would also use other means to determine the reputation of the schools in that area.  The last home I bought the elementary was only a 9, but was considered one of the best in the city and with extensive parent involvement.  I only use greatschools.net as a starting point in my research - mostly I go by reputation.  All cities have certain areas where the schools are considered the best for that city.  I just determine those areas and go from there.  Because wherever the best schools are, you can pretty much find all the other things on your wishlist.