Quote:
Originally Posted by greenvillebuckeye
lexington 1 with lexington hs and white knoll is solid. lexington 5 with dutch fork, chapin and irmo is very solid as well. richland 2 is ok..... none of their 4 high schools really stand out but they're not horrid either. blythewood is decent as is spring valley. ridge view is ok, richland northeast is so so IMO.
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On paper it may look like some Richland 2 schools aren't quite "up to par" with Lex/Rich 5 & Lex 1. However, the district still offers high-quality education and great opportunities that don't always show up as the highest test scores.
For example, Spring Valley's math/science magnet program has students as high-performing as any at Dutch Fork or Lexington. It is arguably the most elite magnet program in the Midlands and can compete at any level this side of the residential math/science Governor's School in Hartsville.
Richland Northeast is a very diverse high school so "performance" is going to run the spectrum. The school houses the district's peforming & fine arts magnet program.
There are some top-notch elementary schools, particularly on the outer fringes of the district, like Lake Carolina, Round Top, and Bookman Road. These are as good as ones in Lexington like Lake Murray and Midway.
The district continues to grow rapidly becuase it is perceived as a highly desirable district. Yes, there are schools in the older, established neighborhoods in the southwest portion of the district that do not have the high-flying PACT/PASS scores, but they have fewer stable middle-class/upper-middle-class families and as such aren't always going to show up in those stats. Even Lexington/Richland 5 is experiencing more of these issues in the older areas in its southern portion (i.e., it's not all Dutch Fork/Chapin in that district).
Lexington 1 is definitely a very highly regarding district and deservedly so. However there are also areas in that district such as Gilbert and Pelion that don't show up on everyone's "must have school zone" radar. Gilbert is a fine school otherwise, no doubt, but I think it just demonstrates that most districts in the Midlands have a variety of test scores. We don't have tiny elite school districts like states up North do.
One thing we decided when moving here is that we weren't going to let raw test scores dictate where we live, especially if it meant a sacrifice in commuting time (we live in NE Richland and my work at the time was in NE Columbia). Richland 2, Lex/Rich 5, and Lexington 1 are all very good school districts, but unless someone has a particular attachment to some other variable (e.g., you really want to be on/near Lake Murray), I see no reason to choose a district on the opposite side of town as one's work.
I suppose since the OP is working from home mostly, they have a wider range to pick from (both Palmetto hospitals are centrally located enough that it's not a huge deal in terms of commute, although parts of Irmo and NE Richland might be marginally closer). That being the case, just visiting the schools and talking to parents and staff might be better than doing a "desktop" analysis.
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