Post by andrewsgal on Jan 31, 2015 10:17:27 GMT -5
I am fully aware that I don't have a good grasp on lower income schools in other states. Our lower income schools actually fair better than our middle income because of more funding.
So tell me about your typical school. The good, bad and ugly.
I know we pay more to live where we live because we are zoned for the top elementary, middle, and high school in the district. Our current elementary school is rated 8 out of 10 on great schools and got good parent reviews. We have a ton of extracurricular activities, summer school, and after school program and (imo) the best teachers and staff.
The worst elementary school in the district is rated 2 out of 10. Housing is more affordable around that school but I refuse to send my kids there.
ETA: I know that sounds bad and it sucks that we have such poorly performing schools. But where I choose to send them to school is the only thing I have any control over.
we have a free dental van that comes twice a year (I believe) for students who do not have dental insurance.
they do have fundraisers but usually do not make tons
around the holidays they send home information in how to sign up for thanksgiving baskets and toys for tots etc.
the administrators and teachers are all great.
they have tons of fun at their school. this months box top contest is the class that collects the most box tops, gets to silly string the principal. they do live high five every day, star student papers are handed out when good behavior is witnessed and they are put into a huge drawing each each for prizes. the principal wears funny clothes and ties for fun and is out front greeting kids, busses and parents every morning.
but test scores are not awesome. I believe there is very little parent support from home so many kids are way below benchmarks. one dad was a para for a while and he has commented how many 3rd graders were barely reading at 1st grade level. (he would never reveal a student name or anything)
but our school does have government funding for for programs like GAP which b was in and we have a full admin staff. psychologist, social worker, behavioral therapist principal and vice principal, 3 secretaries and a shares staff of sp ed, slp, OT etc.
they have all specials and bussing. cheap field trips and pto is amazing.
our supt really tries not to cancel school because he knows many kids count on their meals there.
overall it's a good school.
etc: also just for clarification. I would not consider my town to be bottom level poor. yes we have a lot of minimum wage work, lots of unemployed and many, many people are scrapping by. but there is very little homeless and I am sure there are many other areas that are worse off.
we also have this organization for eastern ct that offers tons of resources for the community. everything from GED programs to on the job training connections. they run a head start and they also work with a handful of lower income community schools to teach about the environment.
my oldest does it in class. he has a pen pal from another school/town. they learn about the areas argriculture and ocean life. they visit each other's schools and take a field trip together. this year they are going to a rocky beach so study the snails, and barnicals etc.
Post by penguingrrl on Jan 31, 2015 11:09:45 GMT -5
Our school district is rated well and everyone H works with recommended it. Everyone I met through the campaign was in agreement it is the best district around.
That said, I'm unimpressed. A lot of Julia's education is clearly geared towards test-taking skills and there's no real creativity in the curriculum.
The teachers and principal are very friendly and kind, and I absolutely adore Julia's teacher especially, but it's clear the district prizes test scores above all else and I can see how little actual learning is getting done in favor of filling in the all-important bubble. All of the homework is in multiple-guess format without leaving room for critical thinking answers, which really worries me. Back to school night was all about the almighty test scores and how we're now ranked 2nd in the Lehigh Valley based on them.
The school day itself is very short (8-2:15) compared to our old district. I'm very upset that gym is only once ever four days, which seems like not enough running around for kids (this compares with every other day in our old school).
Football seems to be king here. They even rescheduled Halloween because of a HS football game. Apparently even people who don't have a kid or friend playing go to the games, which is a foreign concept for me.
The town has a huge range of incomes. There are several new developments going up with SFH in the $300-600K range, so that group is comfortably upper middle class, but within town there are liveable houses that can be bought for $130K, which is lower than I've ever seen coming from NJ (in my town in NJ you can't get a condemned tear down for double that).
The community at large is not welcoming to new people. We've been left out of all the birthday parties and no playdates or anything this year. It seems unintentional, but many of the kids have parents who grew up here and basically are friends with mom's childhood friends kids. The school doesn't really have activities or events to foster community at all either.
School closes for snow a lot sooner than my old district did and so far they have had several days that they closed that I was rolling my eyes because there was no need to at all and they called it incredibly early. Last week in the blizzard that never happened we lost two days of school that they called the night before rather than waiting to see what the situation was that day and it never got bad here.
Even if H ends up staying at his school in a tenure-track position we'll be moving to another district this year because I'm really disappointed in the school district and the community as a whole.
Also, we have free breakfast and the school got a grant to offer free lunches this year. Otherwise every school does low cost or free lunches. I will say that the after school program costs something like $7/day.
Post by amynumbers on Jan 31, 2015 11:18:08 GMT -5
So, as a rule the Philadelphia school district is horrible, for all of the same reasons lots of large urban district struggle with. On the flip side there are some amazing agent public schools and even neighborhood schools, but they have to fight for everything.
Our "amazing" and highly ranked neighborhood K-8 still has no nurse, the parents have to donate copy paper, and there are 30 kids in a class.
We go back and forth everyday between moving or staying and doing private school. There is lots of back and forth about ranking in the various suburban districts, but honestly most of them do very well, and the difference in ranking can just be .01s of a point.
However, like Penguin I am concerned about what that means, since that data is so test driven. And I am scared to buy a house and then hate the schools, noatter how they are ranked.
The school day itself is very short (8-2:15) compared to our old district. I'm very upset that gym is only once ever four days, which seems like not enough running around for kids (this compares with every other day in our old school).
Wow, I would love if DS had gym every 4 days. Right now he has it every 6, so some weeks he doesn't even have gym. It works out to 3-4 days a month.
I think it's strange how much curriculum requirements can vary from school to school. In DS's school they started out the year learning to write their names, learn their letters, numbers, how to count, etc. DS knew a lot of it, but not everything. Two counties over, the kids are expected to come into school knowing their all letters, their sounds, how to count to 100, several sight words, and how to write their entire name. The variation is strange to me.
Post by mamaalysson on Jan 31, 2015 11:23:46 GMT -5
I don't yet have experience with our schools as a parent, but I was a student at this district, taught for them for years, and am an involved community member. It is a hugely mixed bag. Our neighborhood school, the one I attended, and the one I taught at are all very high performing, with a strong community behind them and really good teachers and administrators running things. They all have enrichment programs, before and after care (run through the YMCA), and are located in active communities. Awesome. But then there is another chunk of schools that are not supported by their communities (through choice and neglect), have students with huge needs, and, due to school closures, have a large population that comes from other neighborhoods. And then there are a lot of schools that fall somewhere in the middle. We also have a handful of magnet and charter schools that families can try to lottery in to. And high schools suck across the board. Like seriously low graduation rates. And, as a graduate of one, I can tell you that my well regarded, top performing public school did jack shit to prepare me for college.
The big problem is that the district that runs everything is ridiculous. Honestly, it's kind of a shit show down there. They run things in the most ass-backward way, and while that may not always impact the students or parents day-to-day, it is unbelievably frustrating as an employee of theirs. The last superintendent decided to close a bunch of neighborhood elementary schools, merging them with nearby middle schools are creating K-8s. Maybe an okay idea in theory, but it was never really thought out or given proper support, and she left before seeing it all the way through. The schools are also almost all very old, historic buildings, which are amazing, but have not been maintained properly. They have been hokily rewired (several times over) for modern technology, and as a result, don't really work. On report card day, for example, when evey teacher in the district is supposed to be online doing report cards, the system crashes. ALWAYS. I taught in classrooms with peeling lead paint, outlets on just one wall, and in one in which the heat was out for three days during winter because my room was still on the "old boiler" and the ONE GUY who knew how to fix the "old boiler" retired 2 years previous and was in poor health
ETA: And like most districts, our is plagued with money problems. Big classes (due, in part, to the short-sighted school closures), sparse supplies, specials vary a lot by school, and nurses split their time between usually 5 grade schools and 1 middle school.
tl/dr - Mixed bag; crappy high schools; ridiculous district decisions.
So, as a rule the Philadelphia school district is horrible, for all of the same reasons lots of large urban district struggle with. On the flip side there are some amazing agent public schools and even neighborhood schools, but they have to fight for everything.
Our "amazing" and highly ranked neighborhood K-8 still has no nurse, the parents have to donate copy paper, and there are 30 kids in a class.
We go back and forth everyday between moving or staying and doing private school. There is lots of back and forth about ranking in the various suburban districts, but honestly most of them do very well, and the difference in ranking can just be .01s of a point.
However, like Penguin I am concerned about what that means, since that data is so test driven. And I am scared to buy a house and then hate the schools, noatter how they are ranked.
Not going to lie, the two moms I've met since moving here (a colleague of Hs wife and someone at dance) either homeschool or are considering it because the schools aren't meeting their standards. I judged that hard when I first heard that, especially coming from a professor's wife, but the more I see the more I get it.
We're considering living in the cheapest area around instead so we can free up money for private school instead, which is something that I had never for a second considered before. I worry that the pressure on tests is not unique to our district. I'll be honest and say that I'm seeing a huge disparity on them from our well ranked public school in NJ to here. No idea if it's a district issue or a state issue, but it has me very concerned.
We live in a very upper class neighborhood. Top schools. However, they don't have many special needs programs, they like to send kids that aren't going to be able to mainstreamed out of district quickly. So my boys will never be actually in the district.
The school day itself is very short (8-2:15) compared to our old district. I'm very upset that gym is only once ever four days, which seems like not enough running around for kids (this compares with every other day in our old school).
Wow, I would love if DS had gym every 4 days. Right now he has it every 6, so some weeks he doesn't even have gym. It works out to 3-4 days a month.
I think it's strange how much curriculum requirements can vary from school to school. In DS's school they started out the year learning to write their names, learn their letters, numbers, how to count, etc. DS knew a lot of it, but not everything. Two counties over, the kids are expected to come into school knowing their all letters, their sounds, how to count to 100, several sight words, and how to write their entire name. The variation is strange to me.
ETA: fixed word
That's insane! When we had the 6-day rotation thing (this school has a 4 day; side note, WTF is up with 6 or 4 day weeks? Soooo hard to keep track of for the kids and me, Julia constantly goes in on gym day without sneakers because we lost track of what day it is) we had gym 3/6. Wonder where the childhood obesity crisis is coming from...
Post by penguingrrl on Jan 31, 2015 11:33:05 GMT -5
Oh, and Amy, I would highly recommend renting in your desired town for a year before committing to buy. In the short term of course renting is less ideal, but it's always better to have a temporary commitment before committing IMO because you don't know if you'll hate the schools/town for whatever reason without living there first.
Of course, I'm the crazy person who has had 5 homes in the 7 years I've been a parent and am facing at least two more moves. It's much easier to leave a bad rental than to live in a community that doesn't make you happy.
Wow, I would love if DS had gym every 4 days. Right now he has it every 6, so some weeks he doesn't even have gym. It works out to 3-4 days a month.
I think it's strange how much curriculum requirements can vary from school to school. In DS's school they started out the year learning to write their names, learn their letters, numbers, how to count, etc. DS knew a lot of it, but not everything. Two counties over, the kids are expected to come into school knowing their all letters, their sounds, how to count to 100, several sight words, and how to write their entire name. The variation is strange to me.Â
ETA: fixed word
That's insane! When we had the 6-day rotation thing (this school has a 4 day; side note, WTF is up with 6 or 4 day weeks? Soooo hard to keep track of for the kids and me, Julia constantly goes in on gym day without sneakers because we lost track of what day it is) we had gym 3/6. Wonder where the childhood obesity crisis is coming from...
That makes me sad. My kids have PE every other day.
We live in a large district with over 75 schools. There is a wide range of schools within our district and it is very dependent on which part of the city you live. We live in zone for one of the best elementary schools and middle schools and the best high school in our district. Our elementary and middle school are rated 9 on great schools and the high school is rated a 10. We have excellent teachers( with the exception of a few), a great administration, a lot of parental and community involvement and a PTA that does a ton for the school. The PTA has provided new playground equipment, a technology lab, a classroom set of iPads, as well as other small things in the past 3 years since we have been there. Most schools within 10-15 miles of us are similar. These schools also provide after school care on site through the YMCA as well as extracurricular activities. in other parts of the city, schools are rated 2-4 on great schools, have a large population on free or reduced lunch, no parental involvement, very little PTA activity. Some of those schools are considered very rough and they have a very hard time finding good teachers that want to teach there. They even pay double for substitute teachers for those schools. Test scores are not good and the drop out rate is high. Those are the extremes and there is a good portion of the schools that are in the middle. All schools in our district have a school nurse, psychologist, guidance counselor, special Ed department, etc. The entire district is very focused on test scores though and I hear a lot of complaints from parents and teachers across the district about teaching to the test especially in the upper grades. Our K-2 students took a standardized test for 2 years. They voted this year not to administer that test anymore which I am glad about. It seemed to relieve a little stress from the teachers and they can teach the way they should be. As a parent and hopefully a teacher again soon I hate teaching to the test.
Wow, I would love if DS had gym every 4 days. Right now he has it every 6, so some weeks he doesn't even have gym. It works out to 3-4 days a month.
I think it's strange how much curriculum requirements can vary from school to school. In DS's school they started out the year learning to write their names, learn their letters, numbers, how to count, etc. DS knew a lot of it, but not everything. Two counties over, the kids are expected to come into school knowing their all letters, their sounds, how to count to 100, several sight words, and how to write their entire name. The variation is strange to me.Â
ETA: fixed word
That's insane! When we had the 6-day rotation thing (this school has a 4 day; side note, WTF is up with 6 or 4 day weeks? Soooo hard to keep track of for the kids and me, Julia constantly goes in on gym day without sneakers because we lost track of what day it is) we had gym 3/6. Wonder where the childhood obesity crisis is coming from...
Our school has a 7 day rotation with PE and art twice, music, library and technology once. It is hard to keep up but fortunately for us DS wears sneakers every day and DD's teacher puts the schedule in her weekly newsletter.
We live in a large district with over 75 schools. There is a wide range of schools within our district and it is very dependent on which part of the city you live. We live in zone for one of the best elementary schools and middle schools and the best high school in our district. Our elementary and middle school are rated 9 on great schools and the high school is rated a 10. We have excellent teachers( with the exception of a few), a great administration, a lot of parental and community involvement and a PTA that does a ton for the school. The PTA has provided new playground equipment, a technology lab, a classroom set of iPads, as well as other small things in the past 3 years since we have been there. Most schools within 10-15 miles of us are similar. These schools also provide after school care on site through the YMCA as well as extracurricular activities. in other parts of the city, schools are rated 2-4 on great schools, have a large population on free or reduced lunch, no parental involvement, very little PTA activity. Some of those schools are considered very rough and they have a very hard time finding good teachers that want to teach there. They even pay double for substitute teachers for those schools. Test scores are not good and the drop out rate is high. Those are the extremes and there is a good portion of the schools that are in the middle. All schools in our district have a school nurse, psychologist, guidance counselor, special Ed department, etc. The entire district is very focused on test scores though and I hear a lot of complaints from parents and teachers across the district about teaching to the test especially in the upper grades. Our K-2 students took a standardized test for 2 years. They voted this year not to administer that test anymore which I am glad about. It seemed to relieve a little stress from the teachers and they can teach the way they should be. As a parent and hopefully a teacher again soon I hate teaching to the test.
75 schools in ine district?!?! That's insane! We have 6 schools and I find it unmanageably large! So much seems to skip through the cracks and I feel like students are just numbers. I canmt imagine how bad it would be in that huge a district!
That's insane! When we had the 6-day rotation thing (this school has a 4 day; side note, WTF is up with 6 or 4 day weeks? Soooo hard to keep track of for the kids and me, Julia constantly goes in on gym day without sneakers because we lost track of what day it is) we had gym 3/6. Wonder where the childhood obesity crisis is coming from...
Our school has a 7 day rotation with PE and art twice, music, library and technology once. It is hard to keep up but fortunately for us DS wears sneakers every day and DD's teacher puts the schedule in her weekly newsletter.
I miss the days my girls wore sneakers every day and that was that. They both seem to have my feet and find sneakers really uncomfortable (even my expensive, properly fitted running shoes leave my feet throbbing if I wear them for anything more than two hours. They prefer flats or boots.
We live in a large district with over 75 schools. There is a wide range of schools within our district and it is very dependent on which part of the city you live. We live in zone for one of the best elementary schools and middle schools and the best high school in our district. Our elementary and middle school are rated 9 on great schools and the high school is rated a 10. We have excellent teachers( with the exception of a few), a great administration, a lot of parental and community involvement and a PTA that does a ton for the school. The PTA has provided new playground equipment, a technology lab, a classroom set of iPads, as well as other small things in the past 3 years since we have been there. Most schools within 10-15 miles of us are similar. These schools also provide after school care on site through the YMCA as well as extracurricular activities. in other parts of the city, schools are rated 2-4 on great schools, have a large population on free or reduced lunch, no parental involvement, very little PTA activity. Some of those schools are considered very rough and they have a very hard time finding good teachers that want to teach there. They even pay double for substitute teachers for those schools. Test scores are not good and the drop out rate is high. Those are the extremes and there is a good portion of the schools that are in the middle. All schools in our district have a school nurse, psychologist, guidance counselor, special Ed department, etc. The entire district is very focused on test scores though and I hear a lot of complaints from parents and teachers across the district about teaching to the test especially in the upper grades. Our K-2 students took a standardized test for 2 years. They voted this year not to administer that test anymore which I am glad about. It seemed to relieve a little stress from the teachers and they can teach the way they should be. As a parent and hopefully a teacher again soon I hate teaching to the test.
75 schools in ine district?!?! That's insane! We have 6 schools and I find it unmanageably large! So much seems to skip through the cracks and I feel like students are just numbers. I canmt imagine how bad it would be in that huge a district!
It is insanely large and for the district the kids are just numbers/test scores. We are lucky we found a house in zone for the school we attend. It is large as well(7-8 classes per grade) but has a great community feel with teachers and administration that seem to rally care about the kids.
We live in a large district with over 75 schools. There is a wide range of schools within our district and it is very dependent on which part of the city you live. We live in zone for one of the best elementary schools and middle schools and the best high school in our district. Our elementary and middle school are rated 9 on great schools and the high school is rated a 10. We have excellent teachers( with the exception of a few), a great administration, a lot of parental and community involvement and a PTA that does a ton for the school. The PTA has provided new playground equipment, a technology lab, a classroom set of iPads, as well as other small things in the past 3 years since we have been there. Most schools within 10-15 miles of us are similar. These schools also provide after school care on site through the YMCA as well as extracurricular activities. in other parts of the city, schools are rated 2-4 on great schools, have a large population on free or reduced lunch, no parental involvement, very little PTA activity. Some of those schools are considered very rough and they have a very hard time finding good teachers that want to teach there. They even pay double for substitute teachers for those schools. Test scores are not good and the drop out rate is high. Those are the extremes and there is a good portion of the schools that are in the middle. All schools in our district have a school nurse, psychologist, guidance counselor, special Ed department, etc. The entire district is very focused on test scores though and I hear a lot of complaints from parents and teachers across the district about teaching to the test especially in the upper grades. Our K-2 students took a standardized test for 2 years. They voted this year not to administer that test anymore which I am glad about. It seemed to relieve a little stress from the teachers and they can teach the way they should be. As a parent and hopefully a teacher again soon I hate teaching to the test.
75 schools in ine district?!?! That's insane! We have 6 schools and I find it unmanageably large! So much seems to skip through the cracks and I feel like students are just numbers. I canmt imagine how bad it would be in that huge a district!
We have 85. Definitely hard to make blanket decisions that are best for all kids with those kinds of numbers.
Post by justbecause on Jan 31, 2015 11:54:00 GMT -5
Our district is now risen to 4 stars out of 10. The town is cutting a lot lately and we are about to lose some support staff. Ds1 goes to free preschool which is offered to all kids in the nearby towns. Lots of reduced lunches and free after school stuff. We are looking to move out of district before the kids get to the high school which has severe bullying issues ( a student committed suicide two years ago) and also not the best test scores. My district that I went to has issues, too. Apparently, enrollment went way down after they built the addition so they have two gyms, a giant science lab, etc for few students. There just are fewer kids around here now. So they have to cut staff/programs. A lot of schools around here win awards for healthy school lunches with local foods though.
~20-25% proficiency on standardized tests in both reading and math. 72% free and reduced lunch no librarian nurse is at 75% of full-time (shared with the middle school)
One principal, one counselor = administration.
Call me a hypocrite, but my kids will not be attending this school.
I live in a city, not a suburb.
The school I work at is similar, but our test rate is closer to 50-60% and our free and reduced is 64%.
I need to add that the teachers I know at our neighborhood school are incredible. They're kind, loving, educated, passionate, and caring. The principal should probably DIAF. (this comes from working in the district.)
Wow, I would love if DS had gym every 4 days. Right now he has it every 6, so some weeks he doesn't even have gym. It works out to 3-4 days a month.
I think it's strange how much curriculum requirements can vary from school to school. In DS's school they started out the year learning to write their names, learn their letters, numbers, how to count, etc. DS knew a lot of it, but not everything. Two counties over, the kids are expected to come into school knowing their all letters, their sounds, how to count to 100, several sight words, and how to write their entire name. The variation is strange to me.
ETA: fixed word
That's insane! When we had the 6-day rotation thing (this school has a 4 day; side note, WTF is up with 6 or 4 day weeks? Soooo hard to keep track of for the kids and me, Julia constantly goes in on gym day without sneakers because we lost track of what day it is) we had gym 3/6. Wonder where the childhood obesity crisis is coming from...
They send a calendar home each month and on Sunday's I put all of his clothes for the whole week in a closet organizer divided by days. I try to make sure he has clothes that are easy to move in on PE days. And we check the calendar every morning to see if he needs to wear tennis shoes. I definitely wished they got more physical activity, but I am mostly satisfied with the amount of play based learning that they do.
My H went to the same school when he was a kid, and the school did a real disservice to him. He's dyslexic and has always struggled to read. MIL fought for him to receive services and the school just kept reiterating that he was ADHD and needed to be on medication. It really, really hindered him. Of course that was many years ago and now things are totally different. DS1 is also struggling in reading, but I have been very pleased about how the school is handling and feel that they are very proactive in addressing his needs. I have not had the best experience with his teacher, but the school overall is fine.
No clue really. DS starts kinder in August so I'm hoping to your our school soon. I don't know anyone else zoned for my school with school age kids so I don't know much. I do know it's all day K which I like
Post by andrewsgal on Jan 31, 2015 14:53:04 GMT -5
I will type more later but both of my kids have PE and recess daily (kinder has two recesses). Kids need to move this whole post makes me sad. They have art and music every other day.
So, as a rule the Philadelphia school district is horrible, for all of the same reasons lots of large urban district struggle with. On the flip side there are some amazing agent public schools and even neighborhood schools, but they have to fight for everything.
Our "amazing" and highly ranked neighborhood K-8 still has no nurse, the parents have to donate copy paper, and there are 30 kids in a class.
We go back and forth everyday between moving or staying and doing private school. There is lots of back and forth about ranking in the various suburban districts, but honestly most of them do very well, and the difference in ranking can just be .01s of a point.
However, like Penguin I am concerned about what that means, since that data is so test driven. And I am scared to buy a house and then hate the schools, noatter how they are ranked.
Not going to lie, the two moms I've met since moving here (a colleague of Hs wife and someone at dance) either homeschool or are considering it because the schools aren't meeting their standards. I judged that hard when I first heard that, especially coming from a professor's wife, but the more I see the more I get it.
We're considering living in the cheapest area around instead so we can free up money for private school instead, which is something that I had never for a second considered before. I worry that the pressure on tests is not unique to our district. I'll be honest and say that I'm seeing a huge disparity on them from our well ranked public school in NJ to here. No idea if it's a district issue or a state issue, but it has me very concerned.
I know one of the things we always say is "what makes you think you can do a job better than a teacher". I couldn't. BUT I know so many teachers who feel they could do a better job without the constraints of testing or school boards.
I can't say if I fell into some amazing homeschool co-op run by actual teachers I wouldn't check it out.