In the USA and other multicultural countries, a 'good school district' is basically one populated by middle class White and East Asian families: parents who value education and have received it themselves, and children who will not be disruptive in class.

Czechia doesn't have multiculturalism so it therefore doesn't have this concept.

> a 'good school district' is basically one populated by middle class White and East Asian families

So that would be all our schools. :) (Czechs and Vietnamese, respectively)

> and children who will not be disruptive in class

In my experience that seems to depend more on the type of school rather than on location. Gymnasia would be expected to have better-behaved students than vocational schools, even if the students come from the same region. I suspect that has a lot to do with entrance examinations. If you can pass the entrance examination for a Gymnasium, you're much less likely to be someone who had been disruptive in class in the past, and consequently also not likely to be disruptive in class in your new school.

European countries also have good and bad schools, they just don't constrain attendance geographically. Usually you only need good test scores to get into the better schools, see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_(school)

It's not about multiculturalism but about social classes.

Do Czechia have social classes? If yes do they live in different neighborhoods?

Interesting. How do you decide which school a child goes to? Presumably there are limits on how many places are at each school, and you need some way to make sure that a child doesn't wind up with the only place left for them being on the other side of a city - so you'd have some degree of locality.

Here in Melbourne, Australia - many schools allow some out-of-district students - as a percentage of their total enrollment - but pretty much all public schools are required to make a place available to any student inside their district (which are drawn based on distances between schools, so they're sometimes pretty weird for transport)

http://www.schoolcatchment.com.au/?p=5730

> How do you decide which school a child goes to?

It depends on which school you like. In case of high schools, if you choose a vocational high school (which teaches a specific craft or a group of crafts), as opposed to a gymnasium (a school that prepares you for further university studies), it also depends on your intended future profession.

> Presumably there are limits on how many places are at each school

That's what standardized entrance exams sort out.

> and you need some way to make sure that a child doesn't wind up with the only place left for them being on the other side of a city - so you'd have some degree of locality.

We have good public transport that was free for schoolchildren (and for high school students was very affordable), so this wasn't a problem for me even if my school was on the other side of town.

Interesting... I gotta get back to Prague, it has been as couple of years now!

Do you have children of your own in the school system? I found that my expectations didn't always match the reality either in Australia or in Norway when it came down to actual experience for my kids.

Myself, I grew up in a remote area and was home schooled, and then for the final years of high school I went to the closest school, about 90 min drive away, so I lived in a lodging by myself during the week from age 16.

I don't have children, so I can't comment on the situation today. But it doesn't seem to have changed much in terms of organization.

BTW the fact that districts limiting attendance don't exist means that you don't have to change a school if your parents move, which happened to me at least once. Or, that your parents are prevented from moving if you want to keep your school.

Australia is pretty good about allowing continuity once you're settled into a school if your parents move, so long as you didn't just move into the district for a few months to get into a school.