Choosing a school?
Kadyra
member
I looked and I didn't see anything recent about this topic.
DS1 starts kindergarten next year. In Arizona, there are charter schools in addition to the usual "neighborhood" school. The district we live in is open, meaning, that if we want to, we can send to a school other than the one down the street. We are fortunate to live in an area with 8 A-rated schools, 2 of which are in the top 25 in the state. We have toured 3 so far. We have three more to tour. I don't think we'll bother with the others, as we're pretty overwhelmed!
My question is, did anyone else have a very large variety of choices like this? How did you narrow it down to your final choice? I have a friend who is a 3rd grade teacher and have gotten a bit of advice from her, but I am lost. Enrollment lists for these schools start as early as November 1, so it's something I need to seriously consider now. Thanks!
Re: Choosing a school?
I live in an area where there are many good public, private, and charter schools to pick from.
Although LO is still to young to start worrying about it yet, I teach 1st and 2nd grade in a charter school, but have also taught in both public and private schools, so I may be able to offer some advice.
First, there are some things you need to decide- things that are important to you as a parent- all day or half day, art integrated, small classes, language, enrichment activities, parent involvement, bus ride, afterschool care, etc. Many schools offer these things, but not all do, so you need to make some lists of what are you "must haves".
As far as the ones you have toured and the ones you haven't so far. It may be a good idea to start getting your names on some lists, you can always take them off later, but if there are really good ones, then changes are they fill up fast. so get your name on these lists.
Then start trying to connect with other parents. Most schools have a parent outreach board, its a board where current families create opportunities for families to get together by setting up school events. See if you can get on the list as a possible new family, so you can get connected with a current family and they can answer questions and talk about their experience.
Also google the schools, see if their are reviews of the school on line. Hope that helps, I would be happy to answer more questions for you if you have them. But for sure get your name on your top 2-3 choices while you are still deciding.
Good luck!
ETA- I should add one thing to consider is transportation. If you want your kid to be bussed, you will have to live in the schools bussing area, which may limit your search. IF you are okay with driving, that does open up your search a bit, but you still have to consider how much you want to be responsible for the dropping off and picking up everyday, in addition to going back for special events and evening activites.
Finally, you need to decide how close you want your child to be with his friends. Do you have a lot of kids in your neighborhood? Is it important to you that they go to school together? if you are cool with LO having friends from many different areas and that you may need to do some driving to go see friends, then check out schools that are further. But if you want LO's friends to be close in distance, then stick closer to your neighborhood school
A kiss he will never forget- Disney World 2014
GSx1 - 05/13/2013
GSx2 for T&B - EDD 6/21/2015 - They're having a GIRL!
why is that?A kiss he will never forget- Disney World 2014
At first from the outside Common Core looks like a good idea - then you dig deeper and have to follow it and you realize it's "dumbing down" kids beyond reason and a NIGHTMARE! When my lefty-left friends and righty-right friends can agree on something for the SAME reasons, you know something is really bad! Some of the things like how math and history are taught go counter to the real world. Kids are expected to grasp concepts long before they're truly ready in order to meet the testing guidelines. It's also a private enterprise so schools must pay to use it in a way much different than previous structured pricing models for schools to use. Most of all, dig into it for yourself and you'll find it's probably as bad or worse than what NCLB was..
As for choosing a school, go with your instincts on which school atmosphere your child will excel the most in. It's literally a crap shoot because what works for one student doesn't work for another. The school we started DD at came well recommended, when she got there it was the worst place we could have ever put her. The welcome sheet should have just said "any problems will only be addressed to the level of your tithing to the school in the form of cash, credit, or check!"... Poor DD was coming home purple every single day from that place and the school did nothing to help the situation.. That said, I'm so glad that DH finally gave the go-ahead to change schools this year and we've seen a rather dramatic shift in DD. We don't have daily battles that come to physically getting her dressed and carrying her to the bus just to go to school - which went on since Kindergarten at her old school...
A kiss he will never forget- Disney World 2014
Why do I not like it? As an educator and a parent, I can say without reservation that it is completely developmentally inappropriate for early elementary school grades. The testing involved in common core is ruining our children. It does NOT teach them to "think for themselves" or to "think more deeply". Many of the companies that developed the curriculum that are "common core aligned" are also the testing companies. So big wigs at this company, who have NO EXPERIENCE in teaching, develop the tests. Then they develop that books, guides, lessons, manipulatives that they will SELL to the school systems to take the tests that THEY made. (Remember, all with little to no experience in education!) Then these high stakes tests are used to determine everything from funding, salaries, teacher evaluations, student promotion, student tracking etc, etc, etc. It is a money making BUSINESS and not at a process that has the students' best interest at heart.
The students spend all year prepping for "the test". "The test" is what supposedly proves that a child learned what they should have that year. What they actually learn, is test taking skills. Lots of 'em. Many elementary schools are now taking up to 8 standardized tests per year, along with scads of practice tests and interim assessments. The use the results as part of "data driven instruction" which is supposed to help a teacher figure out what to teach, but really, just gives them so little teaching time that the results barely matter. The assignments that are given to K, 1 and 2 grade students are analytical in nature (for reading) and suck the joy out of reading completely. Everything is a task, nothing is for them to learn the sheer enjoyment of reading for pleasure or to accomplish something. It just picks apart texts and teaches them how to answer the questions that will appear on their tests. Gone are the days of learning to love knowledge and seek answers in creative, diverse ways. If it's not how it will appear on the test, it isn't done. If it's not a text that is "approved", then it's not read. If an answer can't be shown that way on a test, then it's "wrong". I want my children to learn to be creative, bold thinkers.....not test taking drones. Common Core is turning teachers and children alike into test taking robots. This is NOT promoting higher level thinking.
Those who say that it's just a different way of learning, most likely does not have children in the upper grades or middle school yet. It is not just "different", it is completely convoluted and developmentally inappropriate in many grades. The methods they use to teach basic concepts are not helpful to many children. Some of them are fine for advanced students, but many of them do not work for children that are meant to be learning the foundation of a concept. Don't believe me? Google "lattice multiplication" and realize that this is how they're teaching basic multiplication to 2nd and 3rd graders. I know many, many friends that have children that are coming home with hours of impossible homework, frustrated to tears and are 'failing' all of their preliminary tests. They feel like failures and they are being led to believe that if they don't fit this "one size fits all" testing, that they are not good learners. This is scary! Once the joy of learning is gone for your child, it is a long, long road ahead of them. I am 100% for creating a challenging, diverse curriculum for each grade. Many schools CAN be more challenging and our students need to become world leaders in learning. However, this curriculum was poorly developed and implemented and the person that will ultimately pay the price for this is your child.
Everyone has different political beliefs. I respect that. But I do not respect the absurd liberal policies promoted in many of the texts that the children are given. Some examples of which are here: https://theredpillnetwork.tumblr.com/post/67700773632/below-are-common-core-lessons-what-do-you-think
Then there are the arguments that schools should NOT teach lock-step/every-class-learns-the-same-in-every-school-in-every-city. Schools and teachers need autonomy to teach what is relevant and most important to the children in their schools, in their cities, in their states. Parents should be able to go to a school board meeting and discuss what works and doesn't work in their district. That can't be done with common core, because it is a nationally set standard. Don't like something? Too bad, you won't have a say in it anyway. That's not how education should work. On top of that, add in data mining....where ALL of your child's personal and academic information will now be sent to data bases to track their performance, "guide their instruction" (and career choices in the future). I don't know about you, but that scares the bejeezus out of me. And finally, many of the common core standards are no more "rigorous" than the weakest standards in the most poorly performing states. Don't believe me? Research it.
I could go on and on about this, but I won't. I am very well informed, am an educator and have children in the school system at each level. Everyone is entitled to their opinion regarding Common Core and the most important thing I would urge ANY parent to do, is to research it and follow through with finding out about what is actually happening in your child's school. Many of you on here only have younger children, and only see the beginning of the spectrum. If there is something going on that is detrimental to your child, and you don't find out about it, it will be far, far too late to do anything about it years down the road. Sadly, I think most parents are happy to put their child on the bus and trust that when their kids say their day was "fine", they believe it really was fine.
Ask questions, research and form your own opinion. But most of all, be informed and do what is best for YOUR child. Each state, city and school will be different and I hope you find the perfect fit for your son. Good luck!
^^I agree with you (I don't want to quote you since it is quite long). I don't love Common Core and the way it is being implemented. And I agree with you on the curriculum information. Luckily, I teach in a school that is already pretty differentiated. We used Readers, and Writers Workshops where kids are reading and writing at their own level and I teach mini-lessons and then the kids go and apply what they learned to their own writing and reading. We give very little homework, a math page for extra practice and a book from their book box to read with their family and bring back the next day. So, no tears there.
For me, when I looked at the standards, I went through them and realized I was already teaching 95% of those items and also going above and beyond the standards, so to me, the change made no difference. Not all teachers and schools are like that. So, once again, research, research research and find the best school for your kid and family.
Oh and I teach 2nd grade and have never taught lattice multiplication to the kids. I have however taught basic multiplication to them in the spring. The kids who were ready for it, enjoyed it and ran with it, The kids who weren't ready, did their best, and then knew that they would learn it again next year.
A kiss he will never forget- Disney World 2014
Having been a parent to a kid being taught how to do things the Common Core way, it has been an absolute NIGHTMARE! A Kindergartener through third grader should not have to spend every waking minute outside of school doing impossible homework for coursework that is well beyond levels of logic. Once the love of learning is gone, it's not coming back. When a kid learns to do the bare minimum for the test they get lazy in a hurry.
Why do I use "dumbing down" - look where the US currently ranks in the world for education. Common Core only speeds up the process of confident yet stupid generations who can't think their way out of a wet paper bag. Test smart, reality dumb! While memorization may be considered by some to be a "thing of the past", when the computer goes down, it's the person who can live without technology that comes to the rescue. Heck, kids coming through the line right now can't even figure out how to give proper change without the computer telling them what to give. It shouldn't take a computer to tell the person that if the order is $17.50 and you had them a $20 what the change will be... Yes, memorizing is still important!
There is a website that I use called www.greatschools.com that will give you their school rating and the communities' rating. It also will give you some demographical info.
I also toured schools and asked about the parental involvement, which I think tells a lot about a school.