<p>Some of you may have read my other posts :) Oh well, here is another dilemma - this time about younger son (older one just got into USC).</p>
<p>We are contemplating on moving to CA............!! DH lost his expat job in Asia and I would like to get back to work slowly or may want to even go back to school to get a certificate in teaching or counselling. (I am a CPA, but dont want to do that!)</p>
<p>Younger son is going to be a HS Junior next year and he is very keen on moving. We were in CA this spring. My question is about transition for son into a decent HS either in LA/SF/SD......not a tippy top school (to avoid the 10% band) and also that he is not particularly stellar academically. He does work hard and has a B+/A- range right now in the private international school he attends. He wants to be a teacher and I also feel that spending for the older son right now is really as much as we can afford college expenditure wise. The money we would save in fees right now by sending him to a public will compensate partially for the house. Plus where we are right now in Asia we are paying a substantial amount in rent as it is.</p>
<p>We would look into renting or buying a house, a fairly average kind.</p>
<p>Lots of those areas have good schools. You can look up every school’s “report card” in CA by going to the CA dept of Education website and looking up the average scores on standardized testing for each school. You might start there.</p>
<p>I can tell you that if you move into San Francisco itself you will have very little choice of public high school – your son could get assigned anywhere within the district – and as a junior transfer that could be a rough adjustment. Where you live would have no bearing one school assignment. But if you moved to a suburb- anything outside of city limits, then you would pretty much the same as anywhere else – in most cases, the high school options would be tied to your residential address – so its the sort of thing to check out at the time you are looking into leasing a place. However, you probably would want to choose to live outside the city anyway, given the rental market. The web site Greatschools.org is a good place to pick up on basic stats for a schools wherever you go. California assigns a 1-10 ranking (API = academic performance index) to schools based on test scores that you might find helpful. (10 would be the best, you would probably consider anything with 8 and above acceptable, and be very frustrated with a school with lower end scores.) Of course those scores aren’t everything, but you can get a rough idea of level of academics from those numbers.</p>
<p>In the SF Bay Area, you might check out the Fremont Union High School District. The name is misleading, because this is not in Fremont, but in the South Bay, between San Jose and Palo Alto. This is a Silicon Valley school district, straddling Cupertino, Sunnyvale, and South Los Altos, and the public schools are all quite good. Of these three communities, Sunnyvale and parts of Cupertino offer more affordable housing. The tippy top" schools are Lynbrook (which had 12 students accepted to MIT this year) and Monta Vista, but the other schools in the district also range from very good to really outstanding. The weather in this part of the Bay Area is absolutely beautiful year round, by the way, and you are just a short train ride from San Francisco or San Jose. [Fremont</a> Union High School District: Home Page](<a href=“http://www.fuhsd.org%5DFremont”>http://www.fuhsd.org)</p>
<p>Here’s an article that appeared in LA Magazine in 2008 about good public high schools in the LA Area. Of course, this is not an all-inclusive list, but it might be a good place to focus your search a bit. Not surprisingly, most of them are in the more affluent areas of LA County, but even in these areas, there are reasonable rentals to be found. It would help if we knew your approximate budget, though.
[Best</a> High Schools 2008 - Public - Los Angeles Magazine](<a href=“http://www.lamag.com/featuredarticle.aspx?id=10152]Best”>http://www.lamag.com/featuredarticle.aspx?id=10152)</p>
<p>Please feel free to PM me if you feel more comfortable.</p>
<p>You may also want to do some research on teaching jobs if that’s what you want to do. Teaching jobs in public schools are hard to come by and there have been layoffs all across SoCal. You can find more specific info when you target the areas where you might want to settle. I’m a native San Diegan and there are some wonderful schools there.</p>
<p>Top school districts often correlate to higher real estate prices, at least in my area south of San Francisco. However it’s possible to buy a small house in a great school district for a “reasonable” cost, and since you’ll only have one child at home that might work out ok for you. Note that what’s reasonable for the Bay Area just might make you faint. Starter homes in Mountain View are around $900K; slightly higher in Cupertino, a lot higher in Palo Alto.</p>
<p>The good news is that the CSUs offer an excellent education at a very good value for those who want to become teachers. If your have a choice of locations and your son has targeted a specific CSU, he’d have a better chance of being accepted at some if he was in the local service area.</p>
<p>If you look at that article I live in the Palos Verdes area. Both of those schools are excellent, but buying a house is very expensive - around $1M minimum. However, you can rent an apartment or condo and still attend the school -probably around 1700 - 3000 month depending on how luxurious. A house would be much more expensive.</p>
<p>I suggest looking in Sonoma or Marin counties rather than SF. High quality publics, nice tax base. Property is pricey but I assume you know that already.</p>
<p>All the advice you’ve received so far is good. CalMom’s post for the school scores is useful. Your son will likely find California schools much easier than the school he’s been going to, so his grades might go up. Good luck!</p>
<p>CA has some of the worst public schools in the US. If your student is used to a private internationaal school, this will indeed be a difficult adjustment as a junior. The better schools, including the ones mentioned above in the Fremont district, are highly competitive and being top 10% will be tough for the student you describe.</p>
<p>Personally, I’d move anywhere BUT California given your goals.</p>
<p>Most states have public schools that range from outstanding to simply sad. California is no different. I’d even argue that, given its size, California offers a world of good options. </p>
<p>The best schools - including Fremont district schools (I myself went to Monta Vista) - offer many levels of academics and I’m sure will be able to meet the needs of this B student from an international private, even if he’s not super competitive.</p>
<p>well, this may be a bit harsh also, but here it is: please DO NOT move to california! this state is crowded enough. our major cities are home to too many people already! and very few who are here now want to leave.</p>
<p>can people please start falling in love with another state in this great big country of ours???</p>
<p>^^ Since the OP has an S attending a U in California I think we should give her a break and welcome her.</p>
<p>I agree with katliamom, California has some very good public schools and some lousy ones with them being roughly aligned to the wealth distribution which brings with it all kinds of factors including whether the parents were likely college educated, whether the kid received early learning, whether there’s any emphasis in the home on education, whether the parents speak English and understand what’s even going on in the classroom, etc. In California this latter point is important.</p>
<p>In San Diego check out the San Dieguito HS district and specifically Torrey Pines HS but it’s in an expensive area (Rancho Santa Fe, Del Mar, Solana Beach). Another district that’s ranked fairly well is the Poway district which includes Rancho Bernardo, Poway, Carmel Mt Ranch, Penasquitos, and is more affordable than the other one I mentioned. Even within the other districts not as highly ranked it’s possible to find the better schools of the district and make sure you live within the boundary of it. Even in the more middle of the road schools as long as you make sure there’s a pretty decent offering of AP classes you’re generally okay if you have a student targeting being a high achiever. If the student doesn’t plan to head that route of higher achievement and lots of APs then it’s not as important but there’s no point in inhibiting them at this point.</p>
<p>I disagree. Welcome to California!! We need more employed citizens who can contribute to society. We need citizens that put their children as #1 priority. And when you come here please help out in the classroom or volunteer wherever you can at the school.
Check out the San Ramon Valley Unified School District. Located 45 minutes east of San Francisco. Great scores- great schools. Housing prices do corrolate to those school stats --high. </p>
<p>Do you want and urban or suburban are to live in? Figure that out and then find the great schools that will match. CA has big issues in funding…but there are some gold mine schools out there that perform to the highest standards.</p>
<p>I think it’s fact that few states have the rock bottom and getting worse everyday funding that CA does and the inability to tax themselves, district by district, to improve schools.</p>
<p>So welcome to CA if you want to pay a ton for a really bad house in a school district that’s good by virtue of the super competitive families who live with no furniture and no vacations to send their kids to a decent school that feeds off it’s family’s insistance that their kids work non stop.</p>
<p>I also read the OP as asking for not super competitive schools where her DS might make the top 10%. One of the mostly Asian school districts like Fremont where a 4.3 won’t put you in the top 10% does not sound like what she seeks.</p>