Palo Alto high schools refuse to join Newsweek survey of best schools - SJ Mercury News, May 21, 2007 

When I saw the above article in yesterday’s Mercury News, I nearly spit a perfectly good latte all over the paper.

The schools in Palo Alto are a major driver of real estate values in the city and are consistently marketed and believed to be the best public schools in the area.

The local real estate community feels so strongly about this that they have an annual drive for donations to Partners in Education, to solicit donations for Palo Alto schools. In return for their generosity, local real estate agents who donate get their picture in the paper as a thank you for being donors and supporting Palo Alto schools. In recent years there has been quite a competition between the various real estate companies in Palo Alto for who donates the most money, which is kind of losing sight of the point of things, but I digress . . .

Interestingly, in Newsweek’s 2006 rankings, we saw a disparity in the rankings between Palo Alto High School and Gunn High School, with Paly coming in below Los Altos High and Cupertino’s Monta Vista.

Article excerpt:

Last year, Gunn High School in Palo Alto ranked 79, and Palo Alto High School ranked 361. But this year, prompted by concern at both high schools, the Palo Alto district refused to send in Newsweek’s required forms.

“We don’t want to be a part of it,” said Gunn Assistant Principal Tom Jacoubowsky.

Said Marilyn Cook, associate superintendent of the district: “It’s a very simplistic premise that the quality of a school can be measured by the number of AP tests students take.”

Gunn neither ranks students nor chooses valedictorians.

“We’re trying to do things to avoid and alleviate student stress,” such as reducing pressure to take advanced placement classes, Jacoubowsky said

Interesting stuff.

This also lends fuel to my personal fire that as increasingly affluent and educated people are moving into cities like Mountain View, they are injecting more money into the schools, while also demanding more of the administration. I prognosticate that we will begin to see increasing parity between Palo Alto public schools and those of the surrounding communities. If this happens, the upward price pressure resulting from a demand for homes in Palo Alto in excess of Supply could be lessened, leading to a stagnation of home prices or even sales.

Heresy! You say.

We will see. In the meantime I welcome your comments and tirades. I don’t pretend to be an expert on education or even to play one on TV.

You can see the rankings for local schools on the SJ Mercury website here.

Thanks for reading.

Tags: 94301, 94303, 94306, Home selling, Mountain View, Palo Alto, palo-alto-real-estate, Real estate, real-estate-prices, San Jose Mercury
Possibly related posts

• Million Dollar Homes and Overcrowded Schools?
• Palo Alto CA Real Estate
• Palo Alto