How Do You Compare Schools?

Stats are meaningless. To get the real story from parents who know those schools, try posting here http://www.city-data.com/forum/.
Anonymous posters will be more than happy to share the good, the bad, and the ugly!

We moved while my daughter was in high school so I had different criteria. Of course I looked at class size, test scores, how much money was spent per child, teachers salaries. All that stuff was on greatschools.org But I also looked at the social and cultural aspects. She was 14 and I wanted her to have a good well rounded highschool experience. I looked at sports programs, ethnic diversity, crime stats, and median income. I didn't want to send her to a school that was known for being terrible at basketball and football since Friday Nights at the game were a real tradition at the school she was leaving. We also wanted her to be at a racially diverse school. I didn't want to send her to an all white school or all black school. I think that would be very limiting. We come from an area of great diversity and that's rich culturally. It's important to me that my kids be ready for the world and that means being comfortable with people that have differant points of view and backgrounds. I wanted her to be happy and comfortable. I wanted her to see enough people that looked like her to be comfortable but enough people that didn't look like her to be exposed to a bigger world. It turned out very well for us.

Ask about teacher tenure and turnover. Ask how many 6th graders get placed into the schools of their choice. Ask about parent involvement, especially at the private school. Look into what enrichment activities are available - spanish classes? art? music? gym? sports?

And above all, visit both schools. I was amazed at how quickly I eliminated schools once I sat in a classroom for 1/2 hour.

www.greatschools.org

I also look at these factors: childrens' grade of the school, I like to know how it does overall... Additionally, parent involvement. You'll come to discover that any school (whether public or private) and it is thriving has GREAT parent/caregiver involvement. It's so essential for the kids' sake and the moral of the school. Ask what you can expect your child to learn in each class. Recently,my own child's school closed and although for a long time I thought and still think to some degree he was getting a great education, after touring other similar schools, I found out that when it came to some courses, in fact he may not have been. e.g. computer science. At my son's school, they taught them the basics and little more .. but at other schools by 4th grade they were already doing powerpoint presenation and excel worksheets. Additionally, at some schools , reading was VERY much emphasized. whereas, at our school, it was, but not as much as I would have like. Thankfully, I make my son read each night regardless.
Lastly, ask the other parents what they like about the school., a school is only as good as its reputation. so ask away... you'll be glad you did..
oh and you can always have your child shadow at a school for a day to see how well he/she does.. that is what we did... it was a good thing too.. because for example, I thought this teacher for whom we met was really great and seemed to be good at what she was doing, but after my son spent an entire day in her class, come to find out (per my son) the class was super noisy all day long, the kids didn't listen, were disrespectful in that even when some were to be benched for talking during class, they got up and played. In his words, the teacher had no control of the kids and all that talking drove him nuts... Now, this coming from a kid.. I am not saying it's completely up to the teacher, but it's late in the school year and at this stage.. if the kids are still running the show and NOT the teacher, it shows me a lack of discipline on all parts.. hence, we chose a different school..

anyway, it's all these things rolled into one that make or break a school..

best of luck to you

Well, I just typed up a long response and I'm not sure where it went. Bottom line is that we moved our kids to a private school when our son was in 6th and our daughter in 1st. It was one of the best decisions we've ever made and wish we would have done it sooner. So good for you for thinking early!
I would, as another poster said, think long term. You never know.

Our motivations were a little different. We knew our son needed more structure and smaller class sizes than what we were getting in the public system.
When he was having problems, nothing major but I just wanted to stay on top of things, I kept trying to meet with his teacher. I had to go through the office and they would only set up an appointment during her 'planning time' during the day. I worked at the time. That was probably my first biggest AhHa moment between the two. Within the first few weeks of the kids in the private school we were given a directory that included everyone's home address and phone number. From the board of directors down to the janitors. EVERYONE at that school is accountable for what goes on and truly cares about the success of the kids! We have called teachers on the weekends as well as received calls. And not just for the bad stuff. Once a teacher was grading papers and called us just to say our son had aced a test and was proud of him!

Our private school tends to teach 1-2 grade levels above the local public districts. When our daughter was in 6th grade (she's now in 10th) she was learning the exact same science cirriculum as a local district's 8th graders. I know, because our science teacher helped them put their program together. Who by the way is truly a NASA scientist!
When our son started there in 6th grade, his English teacher told me that she too was teaching her 6th graders what she used to teach in the 9th grade at another local district. And because of the smaller community he was able to catch up easily to where the other kids were.

Teachers. There are good and bad teachers everywhere. But the not so good ones don't last long in a private school. They may be brilliant and have credentials out the ears, but if they can't teach they're gone.

Quality of classes offered. OK, so in our smaller school community, we may not have some of the classes offered in a larger environment. I had a friend whose daughter left because we didn't have the architectural and drafting classes she wanted. BUT, my daughter had French every day from 1st grade through 6th when she switched to Spanish. She now has picked French back up and is doubling up on her language and math classes (currently in Honors Pre-Calculus) through the rest of her school.
They also were exposed to computers-laptops in the grade school years and the school has a laptop program in place by middle school.

I loved the post about diversity. Again, from my experience, there is cultural diversity everywhere, but in the larger school the same cultures hung together. In a smaller environment, they are all together. When our son had the buds over, I always kept different things in the house. He had a friend who was Jewish and held Kosher. As well as a Muslim and Hindu friend.

As I said, we wished we would have made the decision earlier. I sometimes wonder if my son's experience would have been different if he would have had the same foundation our daughter has had. But I also realize that not everyone wants or can look at private schools. We made a decision for our family. You will make the best decision you can with the information you have at the time.

The school websites should provide basic educational information about the school's data. At the school I work for they call it the "campus snapshot". It should include demographic information, testing scores and how they compare to the state, attendance information, drop-out rates (it may not seem like it matters in the younger grades, but it is an indicator of overall school performance). You should also be able to sheck staff webpages. In my experience, if a staff member doesn't keep up with their webpages it can be in indicator of either a lack of time or caring, or a lack of technology experience, which in this era can be troubling.
I hope that helps!

You need to get into both schools and meet parents. To me the general vibe of the place is extremely important and also the stuff that they do not tell you on paper. Also-consider the long term-not just the lower elem-and see how the options compare. Before you know it you will be looking at this. I did not consider this at all when we moved and my kids were babies. I am miserable at the long term prospects of our district and the way that the school are configured but never would have thought to question this when they were little.

one question I would not of thought to ask is how much homework is given to grade K and 1st graders? When you take a tour of the places and they let you peek inside of the classroom ask if you can take a peek at what the homework looks like for that day or week. That will give you a sense on how fast or demanding the school is.

Safety is a big issue with us!

Another thing to check is the state testing that is done. You can check each school to see what their grades did in scoring for their school. Better scoring generally means better quality of education.

Many schools or mass school sites will list percentages of safety, grading, sports, teacher to student ratio and so on.

Every school is going to have a teacher here and there that won't meet your expectations but you can't put that as a school problem. I think the overall feel of the school when you walk in and how staff treats you can be telling as well. If you're just a number then I don't like that.

Diversity is important as well. I liked the idea when the military sent us to one base and there were multiple races everywhere, and mixed races. My oldest son was only around while people until age 8. He adapted quickly and soon didn't notice race. Our next son was raised around completely around multiple races and never batter an eye. Our triplets on the other hand were moved to another small base with mostly white people and their entire kindergarten class was entirely white. After moving again this new class is all white as well. I miss the opportunity for multiple races and the chance of being blind to race as my older boys experienced.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets