We bought a house about 2 years ago inside of the Alta boundaries. I send my 6yo DD to private school, but we wanted a good choice to send her to in case anything ever happened and we had to pull her out.
I can empathize with your dilemma greatly; we were told that Alta was pretty diverse, but that was by our realtor, who is Mormon. I've casually polled people and I think it's not as diverse as I was led to believe, but, it also isn't as bad as say, Utah County schools. My friend lives in the Alpine district and wow, the things she tells me they teach kids there makes my head spin (and that's just Kindergarten).
Something to think about - do you want quality classes or do you need the socialization of a more diverse school? HS only lasts 4 years, and while it can certainly be a long 4 years, it sounds like you're a) already part of the way through, and b) intelligent enough to know that life outside exists. If you went to Alta, could you handle the lack of diversity if it meant a better curriculum and knowing that the overall education was of a higher level?
Yeah, I'm so glad we're not in Utah county. Eek. And at this point I'm not overly concerned with the best possible education I can get, I just want a nice school that will be comfortable for me for the last 2 years. I can't imagine that Jordan is that bad, education-wise, but I'll check out those links and see.
nice school that will be comfortable for me for the last 2 years.
I'm not sure that high school exists anywhere on the planet. By definition its supposed to be a miserable experience that motivates you to go do something awesome. Its the kids who have a great time in high school who never do anything great later.
I can empathize with your dilemma greatly; we were told that Alta was pretty diverse, but that was by our realtor, who is Mormon. I've casually polled people and I think it's not as diverse as I was led to believe, but, it also isn't as bad as say, Utah County schools. My friend lives in the Alpine district and wow, the things she tells me they teach kids there makes my head spin (and that's just Kindergarten).
Something to think about - do you want quality classes or do you need the socialization of a more diverse school? HS only lasts 4 years, and while it can certainly be a long 4 years, it sounds like you're a) already part of the way through, and b) intelligent enough to know that life outside exists. If you went to Alta, could you handle the lack of diversity if it meant a better curriculum and knowing that the overall education was of a higher level?
Here's a good site that gives a breakdown of student makeup: http://www.schooldigger.com/go/UT/schoolrank.aspx?&level=3
Alta has 95% Caucasian while Jordan HS has 88%, so there is clearly more racial diversity at Jordan HS.
This website (http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/cs_compare/ut/?area=d&sortby=name&tab=over&level=h&district=18&x=70&y=10) ranks the schools based on test results - Alta ranks 6, Jordan HS ranks 3. There are also parent/student reviews, so those might be useful as well.
Finally, this website (http://www.sutherlandinstitute.org/usaag.asp?stype=0) ranks schools on academics, environment and college prep. For environment, Alta gets a 94, Jordan has a 110. You can find their ranking criteria here http://www.sutherlandinstitute.org/faq/faq.asp?ftype=2 The lower the score, the "better" the ranking (at least in environment - honestly, I was a little confused about the other categories).
I don't envy your decision! Good luck.
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Yeah, I'm so glad we're not in Utah county. Eek. And at this point I'm not overly concerned with the best possible education I can get, I just want a nice school that will be comfortable for me for the last 2 years. I can't imagine that Jordan is that bad, education-wise, but I'll check out those links and see.
Reply
I'm not sure that high school exists anywhere on the planet. By definition its supposed to be a miserable experience that motivates you to go do something awesome. Its the kids who have a great time in high school who never do anything great later.
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