January 24th, 2007 in Lifestyle
Parents Guide: How to pick a school for your children
When considering a move to a new community, it is very important to learn as much information about the potential surrounding school districts as possible. The following are three sites aimed at providing information to parents who may be considering a move. Each site allows you to search by school name, district, or state:
Great Schools looks like the easiest of the sites to navigate, but all three have some very important content including average test scores. When you were choosing a school for your children what materials did you use? Let us know in the comments.
Great Schools.net – [Dumb Little Man]
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Comments
Marty says on January 24th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
When looking for a school, there is absolutely no substiture for an on-site visit, preferably with your child in tow.
I homeschooled my daughter until she couldn’t stand it any longer (!); we spent her fifth-grade year searching for the right school. She was accepted to the five best private prep schools in our state, but we chose to move 800 miles away so that she could attend another excellent school, but one much better allied with her personal needs and our values.
We discovered a social environment at the “best” of those prep schools that was absolutely poisonous — no ammount of intellectual stimulation was sufficient to overcome this serious liability. At another “best” school, relations between departments were unpleasant, and hardly beneficial to the students. And so on . . . all stuff we could never have gotten from brochures or just a quick overview.
I visited the school my daughter ultimately attended twice by myself, and twice with my daughter before we made the decision. By the time she enrolled, we knew how the school functioned, how the sdministration interacted with parents and teachers, and how the school’s philosophy was actually implemented.
The match between child and school turned out to be as perfect as earthly possible — she thrived, and went on to a top-25 liberal arts college with a huge (positive) social support system and our family values firmly reinforced.
Every bit of that year-long search was worth the effort. Education (intellectual, social, ethical) is the best tool/gift you’ll ever give your child — start with the research tools on the Internet, but make sure you investigatae in person, too. The ultimate pay-off is potentially huge.