Submitted by Intelligent_End6019 t3_10b3353 in boston
I've noticed homes going for pretty high in the following places that have poorly rated schools
Is this because they are being bought by people who don't have children, or by people who send their children to private school? Or is this an anticipation of some sort e.g. in Somerville?
🤯
You listed 2 neighborhoods of Boston and 2 cities that border it. Idk why you would be shocked houses are expensive there.
Somerville and Medford high schools are still ranked in the top 50% of schools in the state by US News, and Massachusetts has the #1 schools in the country.
School districts with socioeconomic diversity will tend to do worse in school rankings compared to school districts where everyone is wealthy, but many people put value on being in a diverse community, even if they could afford to live somewhere less diverse.
And even those with children consider more factors than just the school ranking when deciding where to live.
The fact that people use "good public schools" as code for "public schools with as few poor kids, special needs kids, and English learners as possible" is always telling.
Teaching a bunch of upper-middle class kids from highly-educated, well-resourced, English-native-speaking backgrounds is playing the game on Easy Mode. It's not particularly impressive to get good metrics if that's your student base.
I’m am administrator at a school. School ratings are directly correlated to socio-economic factors and are usually bullshit. The greatest indicator of academic achievement is high income (resources for tutoring and extracurriculars) parental involvement, and behavioral accountability. As a result, if you have all three your children will be successful in any school district including those you mentioned as well as even poorer districts like Lynn or Lawrence.
I agree. I know families who are thrilled with their children’s schools despite lower ratings. Specifically in Charlestown I have been impressed with the elementary schools. The ratings are really the most shallow way to look at the schools.
I agree. The state publishes MCAS scores by school/grade level, and then by subgroup (low income, non-low income, race, gender, EL status). I can see that my child is scoring way higher than their classroom’s scaled MCAS score. I wonder what the distribution of MCAS scores is, in a given classroom.
A lot of people who can afford to buy a house in a nice area of Boston will put their kids into private school so BPS not being good won't impact their decision.
Because of the proximity to Boston proper for work…
Charlestown and East Boston are all part of the same district. BPS may not be highly rated as a whole but it does have a couple of the best public schools in the country, if your kid can get into them. Prices are high everywhere though, so unless you are fine with a long commute or don’t work in the city, people are willing to pay $$$.
You must not live here if you’re surprised. It’s an expensive city. Anywhere in close commuting distance is expensive.
Yes. The answer is all of the above and probably more. How this impacts public schools still remains to be seen a little - give it a few more years. "Gentrifcation" isn't new, but schools are slow to change.
Some urban schools, not just exam schools or magnets, can be excellent though poorly rated due to the inability to properly track students K-12. We're talking about a more mobile population. Some kids move from Eastie to Chelsea and back again while in High School, and those are not the same municipalities. I have personal experience with CHS and students can really thrive there, but scores reflect the transient nature of the population and high percentage of ELL students. Scores aren't everything. Scores don't show how well those students have actually progressed while at CHS. If you really want to know how good "the schools" are, track students who have been in the system K through 12 or at least most of it.
Also, look for turnover. If there's a new principal or superintendent every other year, regardless of what kind of school it is, rule that place out. It has problems.
I live in a gateway city and we are exploring two options right now for kindergarten. 1. Public school. 2. Secular private school. There will be no charters or religiously affiliated schools in our short list.
... or maybe it's an indication that schools are poorly rated for reasons other than their town's available funds to pay for said schools?
What's their per-student spending look like?
This is a question in the right direction: I haven't looked carefully, but I don't think spending per student accounts for the difference.
The typical correlation is expensive houses (relative to area) -> affluent parents -> better school performance. This holds true pretty well in most school districts around Boston, but not in a few.
I suppose, as another poster proposed, it is the location bonus that raises the prices, but I'm impressed that a location bonus would be so strong.
Another poster mentioned that some Boston schools are stellar. I know there is a lottery to get in, but I suppose if you have the right connections the lottery isn't so random.
Wait!! You’re surprised to hear that location matters in real estate?
Nah, the wealthy parents end up leaving Boston because the lottery is fairly nepotism proof. The BPS lottery is frankly too complicated and confusing to be easily gamed -- I don't even think the people running it even understand how it works. If it were that easy to game, the rich parents would have had it locked up decades ago.
There was a huge dust-up recently about exam school seats, because they changed the rules to give seats to a more geographically diverse set of students. This resulted in a lot of angry upper-class parents, because (surprise surprise) those upper-class neighborhoods had previously been overrepresented in exam school admissions.
On the one hand, I was thinking that maybe despite relatively high revenue, that those towns might be underspending on their public schools.
Or, it's also possible that the money being spent on the schools, however much it is, just is not being spent wisely or effectively.
...
For example, I went to HS in Dracut, and while I was there, the athletic teams got a larger chunk of the school's budget than some entire academic departments.
Two of the four places you listed are in the school district with the #1 school in the state.
Boston Rindge and Latin? Another poster mentioned that BPS has some stellar schools, but that is through lottery. It's surprising that people would pay such a premium only on a chance that the children could attend a "good" school.
Lol. Real estate prices in Boston, Somerville, Cambridge, Medford, etc have nothing to do with the schools. Housing is expensive because people want to live in Boston, or at least with subway access to Boston.
Housing in Manhattan and San Francisco are also very expensive, but they're definitely not home to their State's best school systems...
You have no idea what you are talking about. There does not exist a school called Boston Rindge and Latin.
Rich people who live in Cambridge and want to send their kids to school in Cambridge would send them to BBN
The prices are high because there’s a ton of demand for homes around Boston near where people work. School ratings are important for people at very specific points in their lives, and while good schools might make some areas more expensive, the places you’ve listed would be expensive even if no public schools were available .
I suppose the GLX increased prices in Somerville, but it's not like they were low to begin with
Buying in Eastie guarantees your child a BPS assignment in Eastie, and the schools here are good to great.
But a lot of people buy for Eastie not for BPS assignment but for quality of life. Airplane noise, especially in Jeffries Point, is basically nonexistent and the neighborhood feeling/vibe is great. Very quiet, peaceful, and family friendly.
In my experience "good school system" is just what white people say instead of "mostly white”
Prices are high near major cities with booming economic activity. Color me shocked
If you can't afford to have kids because your house was so expensive what do you care about schools.
Because the home price is driven by childless people who want to live in hip areas.
Most BPS elementaries are fine for kids who have strong support at home.
The law of supply and demand.
Somerville is mostly 30s no kids who don't care about the school system and West Medford is mostly upper middle class with young kids that are mostly preschool. Same can be said for East Watertown with new buyers. Often both groups will either move to Belmont, Lexington or Newton for both more space but also better ranked schools - if they can afford it, which for people who bought the past 2 years I doubt so anytime soon unless household income is $400K+.
Personally, I'd do Everett or Brighton 10 times before even considering Somerville. Way too dense, and not in a nice way. Medford was a hidden gem that's discovered and property values there will keep going up for years to come. Malden will absorb the cash from those that are now priced out of Medford but still looking for somewhat similar access to the city although the orange line is a huge bonus for sure
[removed]
Many people who live in those towns are sending their children to private school
Private schools.
School districts are not the only things that draw people to a city
I live in Somerville with kids. I don't see any glaring deficiencies with the schools.
School ratings are not the end all be all. Somerville has a high rate of ESL kids that bring down MCAS scores which is primarily what those are ranked on. I grew up in Somerville and graduated post 2000. Many of my teachers are still there teaching at the high school. For an urban school there was a lot of diverse opportunity in terms of sports but also music programs, there’s honors and a wide range of AP courses offered. Me and my siblings all graduated with enough AP credits to finish college a semester early. I did my science fair projects at a lab in Biogen through a community outreach program. Based on conversations with college friends, there was also less rampant drug use in Somerville compared to wealthy suburban neighborhoods. Obviously people smoked pot and drank, and the hockey team had an Oxy problem, but I didn’t know anyone getting their hands on cocaine for parties which apparently happens other places. If your kid is supported at home and motivated there’s plenty of opportunity at the high school.
I get all these comments. I live in a school district rated about what Somerville and Everett are rated at and send my kids to the public school. Some people can look beyond ratings on paper, but in my experience, people who can drop 1.5 million on a house do not. This is the mystery I see with Somerville's 1.5+ million houses. The buyers must be optimizing for something very different. I wonder what percentage are overseas buyers who don't actually live in those houses.
VoteCamacho2508 t1_j47u542 wrote
This is because there are more people looking for homes than there are homes.