Our elementary school, middle school and high school are all considered excellent.
At one point the middle school was rated low performing.. Unfortunately immediately the parents from our elementary school started sending their children to private schools or transferring to other middles schools.
The reason the ratings dropped? Because our middle school that year was sent a large group of students from another part of the district to help this other low performing middle school get them back on track.. To give you an idea.. most of these new middle school students did not even know how to use a ruler!
The campus did a great job but once the scores came back, they did not meet the percentage in one group of kids and were rated low performing.
We tried to explain to parents "YOUR" children are accelerated learners. They will always be accelerated. They will have the studies, the courses and the teachers they need to continue to learn at THEIR pace.
Other students will also have the teachers, the studies and the courses THEY need.
It is so hard to get parents to understand this.. Instead we would hear. They were worried about their children being with THOSE students. Like it was catching to be poor, and undereducated. Drove me crazy..
The middle school is still trying to recover from this.. This is the middle school our daughter and her friends all attended and these students are at some of the best colleges and Universities around the country.. The few that have stuck through it with this middle school are finding we were not lying. This is a dedicated school to ALL types of students. The kicker is that at our neighborhood high school, The Valedictorian is always also a graduate of this "low performing" middle school.
I never listen to labels of a school. You need to go in and see what it is all about.
I believe in supporting the neighborhood schools. They need our help. They can fail and be closed because of a lack of students from the neighborhood. Then property values go down. Parents end up having to travel to another part of town out of their own neighborhoods. It splits communities.
also believe as parents we need to do what is best for our own children, but you need to make sure you have all of the facts. The best way to find out is to go in yourself and find out what the facts are.