How to Choose an Elementary School?

Hi D.,

Is there anyway her father and grandfather can help out with school drop off and pick ups? Maybe that will take some of the load off of you.

Here in Las Vegas, a lot can change each year. Zoning and class sizes change, so you may have the best school one year and soon be rezoned for something completely different. My biggest concern would be rankings. Here is a website I found about rankings http://www.psk12.com/rating/USindexphp/STATE_HI.html

Which of those things are most important to you? That's how you should evaluate schools. Prioritize your list and decide from there.

For me, it's class size, safety record, test scores and socio economics - in that order.
I'm not sure about HI, but you can pull all of that up on the CPS website here in Chicago. Anything independent of private, that information is available, you'll just have to go looking for it.

You don't really have a choice if your choosing an elementary public school. those are chosen based on school boundaries. private schools you can choose but not public as a general rule.

I taught elementary and I will look at:

Class size...not necessarily ratio. In LV, the ratio was 16 to 1, but they put 32 kids in a room with 2 teachers. Hectic for 1st grade.

The mode number of years of experience of the teachers. Not the average. The mode is the number that shows up the most. I'd prefer a teacher who has at least 2-3 years of experience, but not more than 15.

I would want to know about their policies of how they handle safety and bullying situations. Are they really 0 tolerance and do they abide by it?

I would want to know if they teach specific programs. How do they teach kids in reading and math? Is it all textbook and worksheets? Is it all hands on and technology related? I would want something in the middle.

Socio-economics play next to no importance to me. It is all about the teachers and administration and how they teach the kids. Money doesn't insure education or improve it necessarily.

How involved is the community and parents in their children's education? Is there a strong effort of parental support? I'd want something in the middle. A place where I am welcomed to volunteer, but the school is NOT parent run.

I know that I can supplement when necessary and am the main teacher for my child (as all parents are). As long as my child is given reasonable expectations to maintain in a safe environment by someone who truly cares for her, I will be happy.

As others noted -- if this is a public school system, you really may have no choice or very little choice; in most public schools, the child's school is determined by where she resides. It is often very difficult to move a child to another school, short of moving your home.

If she is eligible to ride a school bus, and you made a choice not to use the bus but to drive her instead -- In our system at least that would not be enough for the school system to let you move her to another school; you'd likely be told "She has the option to take the bus" and that's all.

You need to find out from the school system (again, assuming this is public school -- that's the big factor you don't mention either way) what the criteria are for allowing a parent to move a child to another school that is not the one required by her place of residence.

Bear in mind, too, that if you move house and it ends up cutting out her father from the equation, as you note, he may have some legal rights to prevent the move, depending entirely on what your current custody agreement with him is like. (A friend's ex-husband threatened to take her to court to stop her when she wanted to move out of state for a new job; she did end up making the move and the ex moved to the same state. But he could have made her life hell over it if he had wanted to.)

I know this doesn't answer the questions about what to evaluate. All the thngs you mention are important, and I would add that you should check whether the school provides adequate music and art instruction (once a month or weekly or twice a week, etc. -- less music and art generally indicates less funding and an emphasis on "we're only about standardized state test scores").

Are you looking into any private or charter schools? Is Kamehameha an option? I don't know how schools are on Maui...on the Big Island...most public schools weren't anything to get too excited about. If it is a really good public school...you may have a hard time getting her a district exception to attend (My brothers were able to attend a better high school by listing on their request form a program that was only offered at that high school - that may help if you do need to fill out any paperwork) I think all those are important factors...you could also just ask to walk around and tour the different schools you're interested in...I think you can tell a lot about the 'feel' of a school by walking the halls.

We don't have a choice. We live at a certain address and that determines where the kids go to school. They only allow transfers for specific reasons and they don't allow it very often.

I know that some of our schools have different socio-economic areas, one gets a lot of kids from the reservations and some only have kids from 5-8 bedroom homes with multiple floors and maids quarters. I would rather my kids went to a school that offered a variety of people and a record of great test scores.

I don't know a thing about schools in your area... We went through a situation where we were trying to decide if we wanted to place out daughter in a spanish immersion (public) school or if we wanted to register her in our "home school", which is the one we live closest to and are "assigned" to (and a 4 minute walk from our house). After talking to some others we decided to choose the school closest to us. There's a lot to be said for having your child in the neighborhood school in terms of building friendships and community within your neighborhood and school.

Are Dad and grandparents responsible for some of your daughters transportation and/or care? The every day routine of school, homework commuting, extra curricular activities increases as kids get older. If the burden of all of that falls solely on you, then I would consider moving and being closer to work and school. Even a half and hour or hour more in the evening helps to lessen the stress of each day during the school year. Dad and grandparents can visit on weekends, breaks, holidays if you're the main caretaker.

Just my two cents...