[LDC]

I need advice from all you experienced parents with kids in school. My son will start kindergarten a year from this fall and I am starting to wonder if we want to move to be in a different school system. How do you research schools and make a decision that is best for your child? I've talked with some people and have gotten their opinions, but everyone is different and I am more confused. I went to a very good public school so I have high standards. My husband went to the school system that we currently live in and I just don't think it is as good. We have two children adopted from Guatemala so I would also like a culturally diverse school, but I think that will be hard to find in our area. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Lisa
mom to Carlos & Sophia

[florobin]

When I started looking at schools I first decided if I could afford private schools. In my case I could but it would be difficult. Then I looked at the public schools in my area. I looked at test scores, the financial and racial make-up of the school and I read any articles I could find. When possible I talked to parents whose kids attended the school. I'm fortunate in my area to also have charter and magnet schools available. I opted for a magnet school and I feel comfortable with my choice.

What you can do now is to check the various schools in and out of your area for Kindergarten round-up and go. Take your son. It's a good way to get a feel for the school.

[proudmommyof 2]

I'm not sure what state you're in, but check your states Dept. of Ed. site to see if they have report cards/ethnic breakdowns by schools. Standard and Poors (not sure of the spelling-put into your browser) has a more or less nationwide search of the same thing: Breakdown of elementary scores, SAT averages, ethnic percentages, economic breakdowns, etc...


Good luck!

[proudmommyof 2]

Oh-one more thing-real estate agents (some at least) have incredibly detailed reports of schools by district. Contact one, tell them if you plan to move to a better district, and they should help you...

[momm2be]

We have had big school issues, so I will weigh in here. I live in a very prestigious town in my state. I bought a small house in the best zip code I could afford. This has been good/bad.

The good- its a beautiful town with all the niceties that I would want in a small town, top notch public schools.

The bad - its not diverse at all, Mostly caucasian families with stay at home mom's, two parent families, there are a few adopted children, but the schools were not in tune with the impact of adoption (such as if I was asked by a teacher etc about her real mom one more time I was ready to start swinging)

My nice little town scores on average about 94% on standardized tests -- bright kids - yeah right -- they are teaching to the test - which works for most kids but not all.

In the end, I found the public school to be too chaotic for my daughter and moved her mid-year to a small catholic school where she is now excelling.

Talk to neighbors, persons in the area, anyone you can possibly find in the school district and get the inside info on the activities
- are they teaching to the standardized tests, or just teaching a specific curriculum
- what's the make-up of the school by race, household (1parent/2), income
- do they have other adopted children in the school
-if so do they adapt certain programs - like family trees - health classes (family talk) to the make-up of the class
-How big is the school overall, how many kids per class
- what's the structure of the kindergarten and first grade class
- what is lunch period and recess like - how many aides are on duty (not parents, but paid aides)
- do they have policies on bullying, how is discipline handled - in the classroom or by the social worker,
- what type of access do you have to the teacher
- is the school open or closed to parent participation in classroom activities
- what kind of special services does the school offer on site, how does one get these services if needed

Like I said I am in a top-notched school system -- according to all the reports. BUT the elementary school has 770 kids in grades K-4. That's huge! 7 classes per grade causes alot of confusion and really gets into the "factory" approach. Lunch and recess were stressful, by the time the whole grade got through the lunch line, it was time to clean up. The kids were hungry, DD's teacher allowed them to eat in class. There was always someone eating at any giving time in the morning - weird. Also only 2 aides for 150 kids, the were reliant on parent volunteers- this caused alot of chaos in our house as it was a good time for bullies to step up.

I had to fight for speech support and lost. They would not even evaluate her because they had too many kids with bigger problems -- how do you evaluate a language delay without formal testing?

Also had the issue that the teacher kept a very unstructured classroom. Kids were given their school work responsibilities at the beginning of the week and had to used an allotted time to get it done -- most college kids are still trying to figure this out. Some kids would not do any work, some kids would finish it all by Tuesday and cause havoc Weds, Thurs and Fri. Now this was only her class, but in a school with so many kids, it's harder to get a good read on the teaching styles in the next grade, and you could not make requests.

Don't know why they just don't open 2 smaller schools, since the current prinicipal could not seem to handle all the action and they were accepting kids from 3 different towns.

Much to my dismay (I am Jewish), I found the Catholic school with its structure to be a much emotionally safer environment for my daughter. The school is smaller - same class size as the public school but only one class per grade, the principal knows each kid, so does the office staff. Its a more intimate environment with reasonable expectations not motivated by keeping their test scores up. They teach the basics, the kids need to master the basics, not just get 80%, passing. The change (reduction of stress level) in my daughter has been remarkable.

[aspenhall]

I believe it mainly depends entirely on the individual teacher. Are they willing to work with you and your specific needs for your child, or is it a factory? Are they open minded, or rigid?

Can you be a volunteer to help make a difference?

[screaminrieman]

Great post. I was in this same situation when I was putting my son into Kindergarten. I tried the private school but couldn't afford it so I did the local public school. Noah went there till the 2nd grade and I knew it wasn't right for us anymore. I then went to a few friends who had their kids there (I went there) and they had nothing bad to say about it. I found there were 3 other adopted kids in the class and the fit was perfect. The bad news is that the school was shut down by the priest after 1 year and we were left screambling. Thru interviews, reviews, and personal beliefs, we are now attending the school I feel we were ment to belong to. If you can afford it, look into private schooling (Catholic), it's well worth it.

Originally Posted by florobin

When I started looking at schools I first decided if I could afford private schools. In my case I could but it would be difficult. Then I looked at the public schools in my area. I looked at test scores, the financial and racial make-up of the school and I read any articles I could find. When possible I talked to parents whose kids attended the school. I'm fortunate in my area to also have charter and magnet schools available. I opted for a magnet school and I feel comfortable with my choice.

What you can do now is to check the various schools in and out of your area for Kindergarten round-up and go. Take your son. It's a good way to get a feel for the school.

[LDC]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I've been researching and talking to people and I think we are just going to stay where we are. Our district is supposed to be quite good. The elementary school our son will go to is only a few years old and not too far from our house. It also has before and after school care, which I'll need. Thanks again!

Lisa
mom to Carlos & Sophia

[hermi14]

Go to http://www.greatschools.net

There you will find (free) data about student-teacher ratios and test scores and demographic breakdowns of all schools, including public and private.

It's an AWESOME site!

hb