"24 things to know before you choose a school" (Auckland high schools)

[Oregonkiwi]

Metro Magazine's annual "best schools" issue is out this week, which reminded me of this informative article from last year about choosing a high school (Auckland focused, but with generally useful tips):
http://www.metromag.co.nz/city-life/...oose-a-school/

[kiwieagle]

That article has great points about deciles. My children's school has gone up a decile and it has hurt the quality of the education due to a significant cut in funding combined with increased enrolment. People will want to investigate a school's plan for its future and how they intend to deal with various changes.

[kirillkruger]

That article has great points about deciles.

Just to add an anecdotal example to the ones given in the article. I attended Tauranga Boys College, which was a decile 5 at the time. I don't have the numbers on pass-rates for the school, but I can easily say that the facilities provided there at the time were top-notch. The staff were also very good (as far as a teenage me could tell).

So while the decile would imply that the school was average-at-best, we had fantastic facilities for science, a surprisingly big computer department and film facilities, and great sports facilities (even a rock climbing wall... which somehow led to me being a school sports representative, despite shying away from sports most of my life).

[Oregonkiwi]

So while the decile would imply that the school was average-at-best, ....

No. Deciles don't "imply" anything except income levels:

That’s because deciles are not a measure of quality, and nor do they correlate to any given student’s chance of success. They reflect nothing more than the income level in the students’ homes: the greater the wealth, the higher the decile.

[newarrival]

No. Deciles don't "imply" anything except income levels:

That might be the fact, but usually the decile,because it implies lower income parents, is something people seem to find very important as in the higher the better...

[kiwieagle]

That might be the fact, but usually the decile,because it implies lower income parents, is something people seem to find very important as in the higher the better...

Yes, unfortunately, this is true. Most people don't understand how the decile system works and don't realise that it can include incomes of parents of school age children who don't attend the school.

Decile is funding. The higher the decile, the lower the funding.

[kiwieagle]

Also, decile is not only related to income. It includes parental education and profession. Again, it can include people who don't actually have children attending the school and can include areas not in the school zone.