Simpson Middle School in East Cobb (Marietta: personal, daughter, person)

[Freeminds]

Originally Posted by aries4118

Actually, Simpson is very similar demographically to the other four--especially Mabry and Hightower Trail. (see my post above)

This "issue" is more about what is perceived. Because Simpson does not totally feed into the "big three," some really weird people are starting to look down on it.

East Cobb is OK--but, since the mid-1990's, there is been a rising element of always trying to "one-up" other areas in East Cobb. (This is when Walton was featured in a national magazine, and when "rankings" started being published everywhere.)

I am not just talking about race. Socioeconomic and background as well.

I am saying kids who go to Simpson were probably not all born with silver spoons in their mouth and generic conservative households and thus have diverse backgrounds and personalities to go with it.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by Freeminds

Both Sprayberry and Lassiter have perfect or great rating ( 9-10). What the heck?

People are silly. OP needs to send their kids to the diverse schools if not for the benefits then to spite the other parents because they are clearly on par.

Yes--Sprayberry is a great school.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by Freeminds

I am not just talking about race. Socioeconomic and background as well.

I am saying kids who go to Simpson were probably not all born with silver spoons in their mouth and generic conservative households and thus have diverse backgrounds and personalities to go with it.

I understood you.

I am not just talking about race as well. I just used the metric above because it was quick.


The schools are very similar economically.

Drive through the area--there is no difference between the school districts.

[Freeminds]

Originally Posted by aries4118

I understood you.

I am not just talking about race as well. I just used the metric above because it was quick.


The schools are very similar economically.

Drive through the area--there is no difference between the school districts.

Despite looks, OP claims she heard residents make comments about the kids in that district not being " squeaky clean". That tells me there is a divide in mindsets and priorities and that would be reflected in the kids who go to each school. If most of the kids of parent who would make such comments about the kids are going to school X then you are going to have much more rounded and independent thinking from kids who go to School Y, which in this case is Simpson.

Combine that with the fact that many of the homes are in the OPs price range. Simpson is a no brainer and their kids will appreciate the experience.

[syracusa]

Thank you so much for everyone's opinion.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by Freeminds

Despite looks, OP claims she heard residents make comments about the kids in that district not being " squeaky clean". That tells me there is a divide in mindsets and priorities and they would be reflected in the kids who go to each school. If most of the kids of parent who would make such comments about the kids are going to school X then you are going to have much more rounded and independent thinking from kids who go to School Y, which in this case is Simpson.

Combine that with the fact that many of the homes are in the OPs price range. Simpson is a no brainer and their kids will appreciate the experience.

I am from the area. Know it well. I attended the schools.

I agree with what you are saying about Simpson.

In order to totally understand this situation, you have to understand East Cobb dynamics.

An "us" and "other" dynamic started in the mid-90's when school rankings and school comparisons became en vogue. Also--Walton High was featured in a national magazine article that totally added to its cachet. Minute differences (and most cases, no differences) were then magnified in order to one-up the other. Real estate agents added to the problem.

Some people in the big three districts (Walton, Pope, Lassiter) have this perception that the Sprayberry district is a "red-neck+ethnic+blue collar" hell-hole. Anything west of the Lassiter/Pope/Walton border might as well be Alabama. And really--all of this is totally untrue about Sprayberry.

McCleskey and Daniell, for example, are somewhat different demographically from Mabry, Hightower Trail, Dodgen, and Dickerson. McCleskey and Daniell are solidly-middle class, good schools, and feed into Kell High (McCleskey) and Sprayberry (Daniell and McCleskey).
The funny thing is--Simpson is very similar to Hightower Trail and Mabry demographically, but because it has a 40% feed to Sprayberry, some have decided to give it a "mark." (And so that you know--the Simpson part of the Sprayberry district is the upper-middle class part of the cluster).

This was an age-old rivalry that was magnified after the mid-90s. There was always friendly banter that Walton was snobby, Pope and Lassiter a little less so, and Sprayberry was a tad more "red-necky." However, everyone knew that the five pre-Kell East Cobb high schools were five sides of the same coin (the other East Cobb high school is Wheeler). People generally moved to area and picked the house/neighborhood they liked. Luckily, most of the Sprayberry district was developed before the mid-90's, so there are a lot of upper-middle class neighborhoods that were established before the ill-informed "perception" magnified.

Also--Kell High and Sprayberry High are similar demographically. But, because Kell is a relatively new school (started 2003), it was never linked with the age-old perceptions that became magnified in the mid-90s.

[Saintmarks]

Aries, if you magnify the attitude you are talking about, there is an east Cobb faction that perceives Walton as the only "good" school and the others are lesser desired. And Pope neighborhoods think they are better than Lassiter. It is a sign of insecure people, IMHO, who need to justify their "better than the Jonses" mindset based on what schools their kids go to. Personally, I think my kids will do better in life by having rubbed shoulders with all types. It might work out better when their kid's arts degree from a toney university lands them working in retail under a go-getter with only a semester of college. (Speaking from my own personal story here....)

Will add a different thought, the OP speaks to this.... If the property value of a certain neighborhood seems diminished because of the specific school it is zoned to, then you ought to be able to buy into it for less. So, your net gain should wash out in the end, right? It's not like values in these neighborhoods will decline.

And one should always remember... school zones are not going to be constant foreever. These zones have remained stable for years, but schools like Pope, Kell and Sprayberry are no longer in the largest classification in sports, enrollment has dropped off from a decade ago. Their might come a day in the future when (gasp) a school like Pope is closed and the whole area get rezoned. Don't foresee it anytime soon, but stranger things have happened.

[westau]

Originally Posted by syracusa

Simpson Middle School, Marietta GA School Profile, Ranking, and Reviews - SchoolDigger.com

Click on the "rankings" tab. It went from being 17th in the state in 2007 to 32nd in 2011. GA percentile from 96.1% to 93.3%. I don't know...I just know around here it is perceived to be "lesser" than the other four. I am just hoping that the difference is small enough to NOT matter and for us to feel at peace with including it in our house search. Like many parents, we promised ourselves we would compromise on other things so we can get our kids into THE BEST public schools we can afford.
If we could do private, we would - but we can't afford it; so we decided to do "the best public", especially in middle school which I believe are the most important years for acquiring a serious academic foundation.

Trouble is, houses in the "first 4" areas are terribly expensive ...and the compromise on house would just have to be too much. I could deal with this, but apparently my husband can't. He wants more "niceness" in the house itself than I do - and including Simpson might give us a bit of that.

Thank you so much everyone for your input - perhaps the difference really is an exaggeration and we should not feel guilty about sending the kids to a "lesser" school.

One interesting thing if you look at those rankings the school actually improved test scores over that time frame even though the rank went down. Comparing it to the other schools in the area it looks like the difference is Simpson is about 1% lower on math scores and similar in reading to the "top 4". Personally that wouldn't be a big enough difference to me to have to live in a cramped house/yard if those are the compromises you have to make but obviously everyone has to make their own choices.

[syracusa]

All of this sounds good - as we might actually pick a house assigned to Simpson.
It is a house we could very easily afford, not necessarily because it is Simpson, but because it is light years below what we could qualify for. We are relatively far away from the middle school years and if Simpson really does turn out to have some problems, we will get another house in the area when times comes.
If not, Simpson will be. :-)

Thank you again for your encouragements.

[JennyMod]

My son is an 8th grader at Simpson and it is definitely not a so-so school. Last year it was rated a top-5 Middle School in the Atlanta metro area, beating out several other East Cobb Middle Schools. It is rated a 10 on GreatSchools.net and very similar scores (either exceeding or within 0.5-2 points) of middle schools it is always compared to, Hightower Trail and Dodgen.

The principal is great, very engaged PTSA, teachers are wonderful. There's no reason to strike Simpson off your list.