<p>Scarsdale schools are still considered great.</p>
<p>We considered moving there when we relocated back a couple years ago, but opted instead for a school district that had a special program in the high school that was perfect for my daughter.</p>
<p>As to diversity, Scarsdale people seemingly have an unprompted party line for that, almost as if rehearsed in a school assembly, where they extoll their community’s extensive diversity. However upon probing they mean they have well-off people from all over; the range of economic diversity does not dip far on the low end.</p>
<p>The APs are kind of a problem in these parts because after the test kids are watching movies, or otherwise treading water, for a month.</p>
<p>I have two minds about the APs myself. On the one hand they definitely limit teachers, and stifle those who would institute a more challenging curriculum.
In some cases I don’t think college level courses are ideally taught by high school teachers who are not experts in these fields at this level. Some Honors courses offered by our school looked more interesting than the AP courses, but my daughter was scared to take them because she felt the colleges would be expecting the APs.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I like the idea of a standardized curriculum where there is some certainty about what’s been covered at minimum.</p>
<p>I’m reasonably certain Scarsdale can get away with this, as can private schools with established high reputations like Fieldston (which actually was at the vanguard of this “rebellion”). But most public schools with less lofty reputation can’t, without their kids getting penalized by the college reps, IMO.</p>