laurathere

Oh, and responding to myself because I realized this response was really centered on my experience. That’s partly to make the point that Emily Oster also makes which is that students who come from a privileged background with parents who support education will likely do really well anywhere. And it is important for all types of students to attend public schools–for a lot of reasons.

But I will say that there are plenty of students who attended my school who still did really well and didn’t come from privileged backgrounds. Yes, 50% did not graduate. But of the 50% that did, there are a lot of doctors, scientists, PhD students, people who got full-rides to the best state university, etc. And to the point Emily was making, I think those people would not have automatically succeeded no matter where they went, so the fact that the school contributed to a good chunk of people really succeeding is still impressive even if they couldn’t help all of the students in the really disadvantaged community they were serving.

Wanted to chime in along with others about the school rankings! I went to a public high school ranked 3/10 on Great Schools (I don’t think this website was really around then but that’s accurate-seeming to what it would have been during my time, I think). It was and is only about 15% white, with the rest being Black and Latinx students, majority of kids qualifying for free lunch, only about a 50% graduation rate, etc.

But I had a wonderful experience. I had come from a very privileged background and attended an elite private middle school–where I excelled academically but struggled socially, to the detriment of my mental health. In high school, I found my place. They had an IB magnet program and I had a few wonderful teachers (along with a few bad ones, I admit). I was in the opposite of a high pressure environment but still had smart, talented peers, many of whom came from very different backgrounds than mine. It was really good for me to experience being in the minority (racially and socioeconomically) and made me a better person and citizen, I think.

I ended up going to one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country, then a top-three law school. And I am so grateful that my parents didn’t care about school rankings and let me choose the high school that felt best for me. It has made me able to really resist the temptation of school rankings and to feel confident that we’ll make these decisions for my kid together with her based on information that isn’t captured in a website ranking–like talking to co-workers and neighbors about what their experiences have actually been like at our local public schools.