Is the school system good in your area?

[Deleted]

Generally yes. Our town is not the greatest but we are moving before they are in school anyway. The schools are a large reason we want to stay in MA. And like pp said, town and property taxes reflect it lol.

I definitely think schools should always be a factor when moving when you have kids. My ils town has a not good system and sil complains about it. I know it isn't easy to pick up and move but it is one of the things I would have thought of before buying a house somewhere. SiL does rock tho b/c she sah and all her "free" is spent volunteering in the schools. She is very active and trying to do something. And otherwise they love where they are.

[auntie]

So you're complaining about free preschool?

Schools where I live are very good to excellent; DS's public high school routinely makes the Top 50-100-500 Schools lists. We paid crazy taxes and compensate teachers well.

FWIW, the Prek- 8th configuration is the most common one at the selective private schools in the area. I wouldn't see it as a plus or minus.

[jenna]

We are supposed to be in one of the top 15 School Districts in the state of MO. So far, we are not impressed.

12 year old SS is in 7th grade, but we have heard the High School is better than the middle or grade schools.

Thankfully, E (2 1/2) was just accepted into private school.

We are on the fence about sending SS to private school.


ETA:  We also pay a ton in property taxes - most of which goes to support the school system.

[ProfessorArtNerd]

Another Philadelphia resident checking in. Our schools are terrible. I wish I could send Lucy to the school across the street from us, but since she's a dummy who hasn't been reading since she was 3, catholic school it is!

[curtains]

I moved to a Philly suburb and pay too much in housing costs but it is worth it for the school system.

[snickers]

When I was in school they were good (according to my mom) but recent cut backs and things have brought a decline for sure.

[meganew]

Aug 17, 2013 7:48:01 GMT -5 curtains said:

I moved to a Philly suburb and pay too much in housing costs but it is worth it for the school system.

What district? Do you like it? I'm shopping suburbs : )

[auntie]

Aug 17, 2013 1:28:47 GMT -5 bab said:

Aug 16, 2013 19:48:11 GMT -5 joenali said:

What makes the rating low? Are there special education students that attend your school? I'm going to assume so, and therefore could lower the rating making it look "bad".

What did you think when you toured the school for kindergarten? Was your impression different than what you see on paper?

Seriously?  Aren't there special education students in virtually all public schools? 

You're going to "assume" the special ed kids are lowering the rating for an entire school system?  What an assinine comment. 

Most school districts have between 10-15% of their students identified as receiving special education services, so it's a pretty level playing field between districts with the exception of very small districts that are forced to send more of their students with special educational needs to schools with appropriate programs.

My district runs about 13% kids on IEPs; I'm proud to say mine was one of them. DS's elementary school was one of the newer and largest building in the district. Because it was fully ADA accessible, it was the home to a number of County IU (the PA Sped Co-op) self contained classrooms for children with profound and multiple disabilities. FWIW, the vast majority of kids with IEPs in my district spend the bulk of their time in mainstream and inclusion model classrooms. DS had an IEP through graduation; he didn't set foot in a "special" classroom in secondary. Because their test scores were included with the rest of the building, the averages for the school were a tad lower than they'd be otherwise. 

Our sister school was much older and on a septic system which limited class sizes, the smaller class sizes meant less hours in the building for the school psych, SLP and OT- consequently kids whose IEPs stipulated more than one session of speech or OT a week were sent to other schools. Their test scores were generally remarkable- fairly often highest in the state for 4th and 5th grade.

But what really matters is how your child does, what they get out of the program they're offered and how prepared they are for their next step- college, work, trad school or the military.

[joshlyman]

Yes, I live in an excellent school district. I really want to stay in the district when/if I have kids.

[Deleted]

Our school system sucks. Terribly. The high school I graduated from wasn't equipped properly. It only had 500 students in it, but was set up for 200. The teachers weren't all that great.

The other high school I went to was awesome (the one on the border lol). The teachers pushed you to succeed and wanted you to learn and graduate (to get out of the hell hole) but our school was well equipped and did well on State testing.

[zarapipe]

They are ok- from what I hear. Better in the elementary school than the high school. We live in a smaller town and only have one public school option, a small Christian private school, but in 2015 a charter school is hopefully going to opening. It will be nice to have another option. I live in NC- and it is probably only going to get worse considering all of the cuts the governor has implement. The teachers are some of the lowest paid in the country- its disgusting.

[dragonfly08]

The schools here are excellent. That's the only reason we moved into our current home...I loved my old house so much more, but the schools there were definitely not up to par.

[texassmith]

Houston ISD in general is pretty bad (with pockets of greatness). Fortunately we are zoned to very good schools.

[Deleted]

You guys need to come up to San Clemente or go down to Carlsbad. I have friends with kids in kinder in both districts and they are both very happy.

[kaybee85]

Generally, I wouldn't be happy raising my kids in the FL school system, but there are some counties that have good programs. The county I teach in is decent, because we are in university town, so there are enough people who value education and are willing to pay local taxes to boost the schools here. Still, it makes me sad to see the lack of opportunities my students have, especially for extracurriculars and exploratory classes. I don't have kids, and do not plan on raising kids in FL.

On the plus side, we have a lot of good magnet programs here in the middle and high school (there are some in elementary, but they are for gifted students, so there is a chance you have a good student who wouldn't be able to be in the program).

[copperboom]

Yes, very good. 

[Yankees21]

Yes, the school district we are in now is good. I hope to stay here or the district I graduated from when we have school aged kids.

[demelza]

Yes ours ranks in the top ten in the state. Yay!

[mrsjuleshs]

Yes. This is the reason we have stayed out in the burbs.

[macmars45]

It's fine. I'm personally not a fan because when I was employed by them I was discriminated against. I was told by a teacher that she didn't want me subbing in her classroom because of "the limited mobility in my left arm & hand". Yeah, that happened. I was compensated for my lost wages. Sadly, said teacher got nothing more than a stern lecture.

Anyways, the school system in the city we're moving to this coming spring/summer is better. As of now we plan to settle and raise our kids (that we don't have yet) in the city we're moving to.

[curtains]

Aug 17, 2013 8:01:25 GMT -5 meganew said:

Aug 17, 2013 7:48:01 GMT -5 curtains said:

I moved to a Philly suburb and pay too much in housing costs but it is worth it for the school system.

What district? Do you like it? I'm shopping suburbs : )

I am in West Chester. There are even better schools in Downingtown but I liked having the diversity that is here as well.
Have you looked along the Mainline? Radnor and Wayne are nice I hear. I have friends there and they love it.

[curtains]

Dup

[bugandbibs]

Yes, they are very good. It's why we moved here. We were unhappy with our old district and moved mid-year. Education is a priority for us. We pay for and pass new taxes to pay for it.

You should feel lucky that you have a free option for preschool. There is no public preschool or pre-K here unless you are below poverty lines. It's around $500/ month if you can get it (it's a good program and highly competitive for the non-income based slots). Everyone else pays for private school or does homeschool preschool.

[lissaholly]

Yes, it is why we live where we live. The high school DD's are slated to attend rank in the top 50 public schools in the country.

We lived in Chicago and I couldn't stomach 15 years of private school or the competitive nature of the good public high schools. Hope it was worth the move!

[luckyval]

It went from one of the best in the country to being ridiculed on the Colbert Report

We have a few years to go, but if the school board doesn't stabilize itself, we may look into the local charter school

[joenali]

Aug 17, 2013 1:28:47 GMT -5 bab said:

Aug 16, 2013 19:48:11 GMT -5 joenali said:

What makes the rating low? Are there special education students that attend your school? I'm going to assume so, and therefore could lower the rating making it look "bad".

What did you think when you toured the school for kindergarten? Was your impression different than what you see on paper?

Seriously?  Aren't there special education students in virtually all public schools? 

You're going to "assume" the special ed kids are lowering the rating for an entire school system?  What an assinine comment. 


Speicial education students' state/district tests are factored into the overall schools test percentage and therefore rating. Many people don't know this. It's not fair is it? But it happens. It's not assinine it's the truth. 

[hisno1girl]

There are good and bad systems.

There is one elementary school that's one of the top schools in the state and there's an entire district that closed down in May because they ran out of money to pay the teachers. That township's entire school system ended up getting dissolved. The lines in the district were re-drawn and the children will have to attend school elsewhere. 

[Deleted]

We have one of the best school districts in the state and our elementary is the best in the district. If we lived in a terrible school district, I'd take my children elsewhere.

Guess I'm extremist like that.

[pantsparty]

I don't know. The elementary school I drive by looks nice! It's a very family oriented community, so I'm guessing yes.

[pixelpassion]

The area I'm moving from has a decent school, not anything too special. The town I'm moving back to (my hometown) is ranked #1 public school in the state.