Bay Area exodus: Residents still want out, new poll finds. Here’s who is most anxious to leave (Los Angeles: foreclosures, neighborhood)

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by artillery77

Ok, CA schools lead the nation except for Pathrunner, whom they failed miserably. Also, CA was apparently the only school system in the nation that treated groups of children differently based upon race and gender.



For what the times were, CA was doing it imperfectly, but the best. Now they fail a lot more people on a more equal basis. Success?

When did CA schools lead the nation? Are you referring to its university system? That's the only part of the CA education system that was ever highly rated, AFAIK. If you have statistics of some sort to support your claim, I'd be interested to see them. How far back would we have to go, to find such evidence of excellence--1910? Seriously, I'm interested to see what the criteria were for that rating, and when the high rating was achieved.

[2020's YouTube Vlog]

From it's initial modern settlement (post 1800) this has been a boom and bust area.

Whatever people may leave, a new generation will come back sometime in the future.

There is something about this area that draws people seeking fortune.

[Hemlock140]

I still have a sibling there, and they had talked about retiring to Oregon. Though retired now, they remained in the Bay Area, because they need the big house with two adult children having moved back in with them.

[MechAndy]

We have a lot of family in Ca.
Those that still work are in the Bay Area even though most wfh.
Some have retired/moved to the Auburn/Folsom/Granite Bay area’s.
I don’t know why they want to live in an oven but they do .

All of us that moved have kept our main (or old) house due to prop 13 and because it’s a good investment.
Sometimes prop 13 can be an anchor but it’s a good problem to have I guess.

[vunderbar]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

When did CA schools lead the nation?

I don't know the answer to that question... but I'll tell you: when I moved to Colorado in the mid-80s I was shocked to discover that my public HIGH SCHOOL in Silicon Valley offered more foreign languages than any COLLEGE in Denver, and that included the Denver branch of the University of Colorado and the $60,000/year University of Denver.

[SFBayBoomer]

Originally Posted by vunderbar

I don't know the answer to that question... but I'll tell you: when I moved to Colorado in the mid-80s I was shocked to discover that my public HIGH SCHOOL in Silicon Valley offered more foreign languages than any COLLEGE in Denver, and that included the Denver branch of the University of Colorado and the $60,000/year University of Denver.

I consider foreign language study to be essential to a great education, especially French and German, since those two languages contributed so much to English, and for me, personally, since my ancestors were primarily English, German and French . When I attended public junior high school (now called middle school) in the SF Bay Area, foreign language instruction began in the 8th or 9th grade as an elective. I started with a class called "Foreign Languages" which included instruction in Latin, French and German and probably also Spanish. I continued studying French in high school and then German at university. I feel sorry that European languages are not a major part of the curriculum anymore.

Unlike pathrunner, I never felt that girls were left behind when I was attending public school, except in sports.

[mattja]

Originally Posted by TheTimidBlueBars

The schools are bad? That really surprises me given the wealth in the area.

Is it a situation where the districts have no incentive to improve because the parents have to live around there for their jobs and can't take their tax dollars elsewhere? Or do most upper-middle-class parents use private schools?

Entrenched teachers union is one problem.

But the real problem is illegal immigrants entering the schools totally unprepared and bringing down test scores. Los Altos High School is a perfect example. It's located in an affluent city, yet the test scores have dropped and the school's rating decreased from a 9 or 10 to an 8. The feeder pattern for Los Altos High School includes Los Altos and parts of Mountain View. The area of Mountain View that feeds it contains a high population of illegal alien Latinos. So, they bring down the test scores and place a burden on both the teachers and the English-speaking students who receive less attention.

The situation became so bad that 15 years ago Los Altos Hills tried to form their own school district. Can you blame them? Paying $5-$15 million for a home and the schools are no better than San Jose? They failed in their attempt for political reasons (The district where they are located did not want to give up their cash cow.)

There are exceptions. Palo Alto's Gunn HS was rated the best in California this year. Palo Alto schools in general are very good. However, the elementary and middle schools along El Camino rate average. Test scores are depressed by Latinos who live in the apartments along El Camino. Homes in that area still cost $3-$4 million.

Yes, the most wealthy send their kids to private school. The Catholic schools often accept anyone, and there are some good Catholic schools in the area. St. Francis High School in Mountain View is one example.

You cannot rely on expensive areas having good public schools in California. Most probably do, but there are many exceptions. I will say, it would suck paying $4 million for a new home, along with $4,000/month in property taxes, to find the local public schools are average at best.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by SFBayBoomer

I consider foreign language study to be essential to a great education, especially French and German, since those two languages contributed so much to English, and for me, personally, since my ancestors were primarily English, German and French . When I attended public junior high school (now called middle school) in the SF Bay Area, foreign language instruction began in the 8th or 9th grade as an elective. I started with a class called "Foreign Languages" which included instruction in Latin, French and German and probably also Spanish. I continued studying French in high school and then German at university. I feel sorry that European languages are not a major part of the curriculum anymore.

Unlike pathrunner, I never felt that girls were left behind when I was attending public school, except in sports.

Two years of foreign languages was a requirement when I was in HS, pretty sure it still is. Most kids take Spanish as a foreign language in high school. There are a couple of Spanish immersion schools too, my kids attend one.

[BRinSM]

Originally Posted by mattja

Entrenched teachers union is one problem.

But the real problem is illegal immigrants entering the schools totally unprepared and bringing down test scores. Los Altos High School is a perfect example. It's located in an affluent city, yet the test scores have dropped and the school's rating decreased from a 9 or 10 to an 8. The feeder pattern for Los Altos High School includes Los Altos and parts of Mountain View. The area of Mountain View that feeds it contains a high population of illegal alien Latinos. So, they bring down the test scores and place a burden on both the teachers and the English-speaking students who receive less attention.

The situation became so bad that 15 years ago Los Altos Hills tried to form their own school district. Can you blame them? Paying $5-$15 million for a home and the schools are no better than San Jose? They failed in their attempt for political reasons (The district where they are located did not want to give up their cash cow.)

There are exceptions. Palo Alto's Gunn HS was rated the best in California this year. Palo Alto schools in general are very good. However, the elementary and middle schools along El Camino rate average. Test scores are depressed by Latinos who live in the apartments along El Camino. Homes in that area still cost $3-$4 million.

Yes, the most wealthy send their kids to private school. The Catholic schools often accept anyone, and there are some good Catholic schools in the area. St. Francis High School in Mountain View is one example.

You cannot rely on expensive areas having good public schools in California. Most probably do, but there are many exceptions. I will say, it would suck paying $4 million for a new home, along with $4,000/month in property taxes, to find the local public schools are average at best.

Los Altos High is certainly a high performing school regardless of any lower income students that attend. Keep in mind that many people reference Greatschools.org for school scores, where LAHS does rate an 8 as you noted. If you take a closer look though (https://www.greatschools.org/califor...s-High-School/), you'll see 10/10 for test scores and college readiness. Having said that, Greatschools started sharing an Equity Score a number of years ago, which brings down the overall rating noticeably for many schools. LAHS has an Equity Score of 5. Meanwhile, only a quarter of the student population is Hispanic. While it's unfortunate certain racial groups perform lower in school, I'd have no issue sending my kids to this school. Having said that, if I could afford to live in Los Altos, I'd likely also to be able afford top notch private schools, which would probably have resources far exceeding anything available at even the best public schools in the region.

[mattja]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

Los Altos High is certainly a high performing school regardless of any lower income students that attend. Keep in mind that many people reference Greatschools.org for school scores, where LAHS does rate an 8 as you noted. If you take a closer look though (https://www.greatschools.org/califor...s-High-School/), you'll see 10/10 for test scores and college readiness. Having said that, Greatschools started sharing an Equity Score a number of years ago, which brings down the overall rating noticeably for many schools. LAHS has an Equity Score of 5. Meanwhile, only a quarter of the student population is Hispanic. While it's unfortunate certain racial groups perform lower in school, I'd have no issue sending my kids to this school. Having said that, if I could afford to live in Los Altos, I'd likely also to be able afford top notch private schools, which would probably have resources far exceeding anything available at even the best public schools in the region.

Look at the test scores for "Hispanics."

7 overall
62% for English
33% for math

That's pretty bad.

The math scores for "Hispanics" is even worse at Gunn in Palo Alto: 20%.

The undeniable fact is the Latino population is growing and expanding into affluent areas, and they are generally poor students.