James, the person that keeps posting that our schools can’t produce statistically significant numbers of students gaining acceptance to the best colleges and universities and other unsupported bullS**T is “fake news”. Please have this CNN employee find some proof or evidence as we have asked for in the past.
This is what I see…. https://www.schooldigger.com/go/NJ/schools/1383000764/school.aspx
And for the 4 generations of my family that have been here, nobody sees it as a decline over the decades either. He or she is free to hate the people running the schools but the facts show our kids perform great and are accepted to great schools (regardless of opinions about people teaching and running the schools). I previously also spot checked the acceptance rates at the Ivy’s (since he or she has also mentioned them frequently) and RHS’s acceptance is better than those schools advertise as the national rate. Which is pretty impressive given one would expect our kids to be up against a negative bias as the Ivies strive for both geographic and racial of diversity.
On top of all of that; if ranked against other public schools, (excluding the ones that are by acceptance such as Bergen Acad), RHS is top 10. Granted the goal is to be #1 but it is fake news to say it is declining or not getting kids into competitive schools at acceptable rates. This person must also be the the one that thinks downtown Ridgewood is lined with illicit massage parlors and gang members dealing drugs while patrolling with pit bulls. While it is humorous to the rest of us that live here and know the truth, but it is also harmful for us all to have such untruths posted as headlines. IF they produce anything other than some anecdotal BS it would be helpful to see it. Otherwise, it is just hurting all of us by making Ridgewood sound like Paterson. Which it is not. Is this person some kind of real estate developer trying to drive property values down so they can buy?
Bill, do you work for the REA, NJEA or BOE? RHS ranks 23rd for SAT scores and 26th in the state according to latest Niche rankings. Yet we spend $110 million on our annual BOE budget. Are you voting “yes” to support the current budget proposal? Can you explain why? Generally in the private sector when your business (as viewed by outside third parties like school rankings and university admissions offices in this case) have been in decline for a few decades and aren’t improving, good governance mandates that the Board change the leadership group. Do you think this current leadership group can reverse the trend? If no, what’s your point then apart from making continuous excuses for the BOE?
Why do you keep talking about the Ivies? The original post said “best colleges and universities” not just the “Ivies”. The fact remains that RHS does not place a statistically significant number of students in the best post-high school programs anymore, including the Juilliard, Parsons, RISD, SVA, etc. Colleges just aren’t competing for our students like they did before. Why is this acceptable to you?
1 Show one thing that says our schools are in decline.
2 you don’t know how I will vote, currently leaning no
3 I did not bring up the Ivy League it was is response to this idiot
4 I do not work for ridgewood
5 the outside third parties reflect positive data
6 go get a message at one of the illicit massage parlors guarded by gang members with pit bulls you keep talking about
Wow, RHS ranks #33 in that link you sent… in NJ. Even worse than the #26 in the Niche ranking. RHS used to be top ranked in the country. As I’m sure you’ll come up with an excuse for why the technical, magnet & vocational schools ranked ahead of us, Summit, Millburn, Ridge, Glen Ridge, Dr. Ronald McNair, Bergen County Academies, New Providence, Northern Valley at Old Tappan, Northern Valley at Demarest, West Morris, John P. Stevens, Montgomery all ranked ahead of us. If the goal of our high schools is to prepare our children for the challenges they face ahead in the world, we’re not getting our $110 million a year’s worth.
The rank you site, Niche ranks RHS an A+
You are an idot
In fact in the Niche rankings you site, the only caregory RHS did not get an A rating was a “B” for diversity. So if lack of diversity is the only thing keeping RHS from being ranked number 1, I think most of us don’t really feel the lack of diversity is a negative
Excluding the by acceptance, selective schools, as you obviously do, we’re ranked #13 or #14… in NJ. Is this better or worse than 10 years ago? Twenty years ago? How much have average property taxes increased in the last ten years? They’ve more than doubled in the past 16 years. The BOE is 65% of our property tax bill. And yet you just make excuses. Why? Are you a real estate agent?
Is this post written by a real estate agent still selling homes based on the lie that was the “Tradition of excellence” in Ridgewood schools? For $110 million a year we should get the best administrators and educators in the country. Yet the link you cited ranks us #33 in the state with SAT scores #23. Here come the excuses, ready 3…2…1
Yes it is better or same as 10 , 20, 30 years ago. Show me something that shows otherwise. Frankly I think it is more a reflection of the fact that parents care that the kids do well, rather than how much we spend.
Tradition of Excellence… Keyword Tradition
Bill, our lack of diversity is very clearly a negative at admissions offices across the best schools. For example, seeing as you keep citing the Ivies, the most recent “admitted class” at Harvard is their most diverse class yet: more than 15% of its members were African-American, nearly 23% were Asian-American, and around 12% identified as Hispanic or Latino.
As for “Ivy brats”, the majority of students receive financial aid. For example, given your interest Bill in dissing the Ivies, Harvard families with students on scholarship pay an average of $12,000 annually toward the cost of a Harvard education (2018-2019 cost of attending without financial aid is $67,580 for tuition, room, board, and fees combined).
55% of Harvard College students receive need-based scholarship aid, and the average grant this year is more than $53,000. The Harvard College financial aid program requires no contribution from Harvard families with annual incomes below $65,000; and from 0 to 10% of income for those with incomes up to $150,000.
Oh I don’t know Bill, compare this https://www.rhshightimes.com/#/article/4574 to this https://patch.com/new-jersey/ridgewood/where-will-the-graduates-go
Or you can just keep making excuses…
I don’t see what about the link to the high school news paper about STEM students is negative.
And why the patch story from2010 that has a few anecdotes about kids from 8 years ago has to do with supporting your fake news. But really keep complaining, we should raise property taxes even more to fix a problem with the schools that does not exist
Bill you proved you are a rasict. Your diversity comment shows that.
Who said I want to raise property taxes? I want them lowered. I’ll vote “no”. Just throwing more money at the problem is the mommies’ solution, spending their husbands’ money and hoping they can get out of town as soon as their kids graduate. They perpetuate the “tradition of excellence” lie told by their realtor friends like you, and their kitchen contractor friends from Ulrich and Hammer & Nail.
This link is for college destinations of the RHS class of 2018, nothing to do with STEM. Please keep up Bill!
https://www.rhshightimes.com/#/article/4574
Who needs the Ivies, I hear high school equivalency and a few connections with pull is all you need to get hired by the RPD.
the fact anyone puts so much weight on a “ranking” number is pathetic.
The destinations look fine to me. Yet another anecdote from you the village idiot. Did you fail out of RHS..?
A better comparison:
Ridgewood’s acceptance to the Ivies vs. other similarly situated towns (e.g. Tenafly, Demarest, Old Tappan, Chatham and others). What do those towns spend each year on education? Is it $110 million? Is it $50 million? Is it $200 million. I honestly don’t know. I’d love to see some data to see what we’re “buying” for that $110 million…
Sorry to tell everyone that most of the recent students accepted to the “Ivies” were athletes.