patrick.net

Mark_LA says

It’s a tough balancing act. You don’t want your kids to be the Valedictorians at Compton High, get accepted to Berkeley, then drop out because they’re not prepared for the curriculum.

Yea thats the biggest problem ive had looking for housing in LA... Plenty of nice homes/condos in areas with great to average elememtary schools... But very few decent high schools. Its interesting looking at the demographics of bad school districts... For example theres great elementary schools in Studio City.. But the highschool is rated a 5/10 North Hollywood High... It looks like parents that live in Studio City pull all their kids out of the public school system by Sr High after getting a great elementary education at Carpenter Elementary.... The demographics of North Hollywood high are 70+% hispanic.. Maybr 10-15% caucasion. We dont have a child yet so maybe we can just look for the great elementary schools and plan on moving in 12-15 years to a better district.... Who knows maybe we will be able to afford private school.... Even though I'm against the idea.

Note: Don't mean to sound like I'm disparaging a school just because it's 70+% hispanic.. Just pointing out the curious difference in demographics... Let me give you an example.

Carpenter Elementary... (rated a 9/10 on greatschools.net i believe)- Demo: 74% White, 9.9% Hispanic, 4.5% Black, 10% Asian...

Walter Reed Middle School (6/10 rating) - Demo: 32% White, 52% Hispanic, 7% Black, 7% Asian.

North Hollywood High (5/10 rating) - Demo: 16% White, 70% Hispanic, 5% Black, 7% Asian

All the above schools are in the same district... It appears everyone in Studio City that is White pulls all their kids out of the public school system after 6th grade... and sends them to Private School....

Los Angeles Renter says

North Hollywood High (5/10 rating) - Demo: 16% White, 70% Hispanic, 5% Black, 7% Asian

Keep in mind that there are usually 4-5 elementary schools that feed 1 high school, so that also accounts for the majority of the change in the demographics. The other elementary schools that feed North Hollywood high are probably the inverse racial profile to the Carpenter elementary.

You can bus your kids to a magnet as well, or if you work in a good school district, then it's usually possible to do an inter-district transfer.

In addition to the change in feeder schools, a combination of those 2 options above are what's happening at North Hollywood High. I don't think more than 20% of the White parents put their kids into private school. In this economy, many are going from private to public.