As a product of 12 years in Roanoke City schools, I think I can say that the difference between city and county schools is primarily the socio-economic status of the student bodies, not a difference in the quality of the education available. My graduating class sent students to Harvard, Yale and pretty much every ivy league school. Our governers school students were a year ahead in math than county students. But my h.s sent far less total students off to college. If you compare city and county students with similar incomes, the difference in scores vanishes. Many people think you should judge the quality of a school by the results, but you must look at the input and output to make a fair judgement. If Roanoke county schools were terrible, they would still send more kids to college and have higher sol scores than the city. The average county student is middle or upper middle class, while half of city students (at least at high school level) are near or below the poverty level. Family income strongly corrolates with performance in school.
