Choosing schools

[Dragon Lady]

My brother asked me today what school district we would be in in our new place. I had no idea. Dragon Baby is only 2! I haven't thought about schools yet. But like a good (and curious) sister, I started poking around. a) It's really hard to figure out what school district an address is in online. I think I finally figured it out, but it was ridiculous. Is there an easier way that anyone knows of? b) As I started reading reviews of those schools, I started getting nervous. When parents are giving it a 3-star rating on average, that doesn't strike me as fantastic. And for the first time ever, the reality of being involved in my kids' schooling has hit me hard. I mean, I've had general opinions on the subject, but nothing personal. Other than I went to a public school system and loved it. (Though I just looked up my high school and it got 4 stars.) Same with Yellow. I figured when the time came I'd start researching schools more. Y'know, when I actually knew where I'd be living. And now I'm a bit overwhelmed and nervous.

I know most of you don't have kids in school (maybe not anyone?) but since there was a great thread on here awhile ago about public education, I was wondering if any of you had knowledge/experience that would help me on my way.

[Unit of Energy]

Know that your kids can be successful in any schooling situation. You will just have to be involved in their education. But I imagine that you would be anyway. Perhaps you will want to look at all your options, charter schools, homeschooling, private schools, etc. There are plenty of options out there, but you will need to be on top things in all of them. I was home schooled, and I loved it some of the time, hated it other times. But I turned out just fine, scored 90th percentile or higher on all my standardized tests, got into BYU, have awesome friends from high school despite never having attended school with them, and a few other things that i don't think I would have been able to do or experience not being home schooled.

[krebscout]

We just had a conversation the other night with a guy our age who grew up here in LA (and the schools here are not known for being fabulous). It wasn't very in-depth or anything, but he said pretty much the same thing that Unit said - he got a good education because his mom was involved ("too involved"), while his peers, whose parents used school as a way to get rid of their kids for a while, suffered.

Good thing Dragon Baby and DB2.0 have smart, loving, involved parents.

[krebscout]

P.S. The only way I found out about our local school...or even the name of our district...was by talking to people in the ward. I had to talk to the district about some things for our son. Call the district you think you're in and ask them if you are.

[Dragon Lady]

Know that your kids can be successful in any schooling situation. You will just have to be involved in their education. But I imagine that you would be anyway. Perhaps you will want to look at all your options, charter schools, homeschooling, private schools, etc. There are plenty of options out there, but you will need to be on top things in all of them. I was home schooled, and I loved it some of the time, hated it other times. But I turned out just fine, scored 90th percentile or higher on all my standardized tests, got into BYU, have awesome friends from high school despite never having attended school with them, and a few other things that i don't think I would have been able to do or experience not being home schooled.

While I have nothing against the idea of home schooling (though, I admit, I have had experiences in the past with home-schooled kids that probably do bias me against it), I know it's not for me or my family. And it all boils down to me. I know I'm not disciplined enough to do it. I don't have enough patience or desire to do it any kind of justice. Now, if something comes up in future that makes homeschooling the best-by-far option, I'll buck up and do it. But unless that happens, I have every intention of sending my kids to school. I also intend on being very involved in their education. Helping them with homework, knowing what's going on, and supplementing their education with things that aren't normally taught in schools. Things about plants, cooking, piano*, etc. And I'll tailor my teaching-time to the child and what that child needs most.

So I guess I'm looking at public, private, and charter schools. (But probably mostly public and charter schools. I don't know that I can justify the cost of a private school.) I actually looked at a charter school this afternoon not too far from where I'll be living and was impressed. So I'll definitely look more into that. But it's entrance via lottery, so if my luck holds, she won't get in for at least a few years.

I guess my hold up is that I don't even know where to start. Today I just googled schools in Lehi and went from there. But surely there's a better resource, isn't there?


*Ok, Yellow will do piano stuff. Not me.

[Dragon Lady]

P.S. The only way I found out about our local school...or even the name of our district...was by talking to people in the ward. I had to talk to the district about some things for our son. Call the district you think you're in and ask them if you are.

I'm pretty sure I figured out the district (Alpine) and even the schools. Based on a bus route map. (Told you it was round about and a little ridiculous.) And based on the reviews of the school, I'm pretty sure it's largely just perspective. The best and worst reviews say exactly the opposite of each other. "The principal is very concerned about the welfare of the students and is often seen outside with them" vs. "The principal doesn't care at all about the students." So I don't want to base everything on just that. I'm taking all the reviews with a grain of salt. Plus I figure I'll talk to parents in the area. And lets be honest. She's 2. She won't even start kindergarten for 3 more years. I have time to figure all this out.

[krebscout]

The best and worst reviews say exactly the opposite of each other. "The principal is very concerned about the welfare of the students and is often seen outside with them" vs. "The principal doesn't care at all about the students."

Wasn't this a General Conference talk? Or an Ensign article?

[Unit of Energy]

I'll be honest, I don't plan on home schooling either. I strongly believe that it should be an option available to people, but that doesn't mean I want to do it with my children. Mostly it really depends on your children. I have a friend that home schools their son, but because their daughter has such a fear of people, they sent her to a private school. Since Dragon Baby is so young, she may have personality traits that will affect the decision that haven't really had a chance to manifest yet.

[TheAnswerIs42]

The thing I have figured out, based on my experience as a teacher, private tutor, and trying to find the help my son needs in schools, is that everything is individual. No one wants to hear that, because we like quantifiable numbers that generalize (like the star ratings you found), but it is true. There are good and bad teachers at every single school. I have neighbors who swear by a local charter school and how fantastic they are, but at one point four of the students at the school were so advanced in math that they had to search for a teacher to handle them. So they found some gym teacher who could only come on A days (despite the fact that the charter school had a daily schedule) and she was so poor at helping those advanced students that I ended up tutoring three of the four of them. Some teachers truly are bad, some teachers truly are good for most people - but most could go either way. My son actuallty regressed his first year, despite the fact that my neighbor couldn't stop talking about how that teacher turned things around for her son.

I always say it comes down to "fit" - that classroom wasn't the right fit for my Pizza boy, but it was for other kiddos. In fact, a classroom could be awesome one year and bad the next based, not on just the teacher, but the other kids that are in the classroom as well. I know that as a teacher, I had classes that always went smoother than others based on the yokels in the backrow.

So, yeah. I wouldn't get too worried yet. I have to take things year by year - last year, Pizza had a fantastic fit, and the teacher was exactly what he needed that year. And then the next year you get a whole new teacher and a new ball of yarn to sort through. As you say, you have plenty of time to talk to your neighbors and see what they think about the schools, both public and charter. In my experience, charter schools are something people love to brag about, but are actually just schools with lower standards for teachers to be hired and less funding. They will always test higher because the only kids who attend there are kids whose parents care about their education - which, as pointed out above, is the single most important thing in any kid's education.

[Sky Bones]

My sis-in-law sends her kids to a charter school in that (sort of) general area, and she says only high things about it. But yeah, I completely agree with 42 here. My younger sis is special needs and it was fascinating to see how some teachers would just click with her and not do so well with other special needs children, and other teachers my sister wouldn't even consider getting along with while the other kids loved them.

My mom, an elementary school teacher for years recently turned elementary school vice principal, would also agree with the general consensus here that it's what you make out of it, every school (public, charter, private, etc.) has "good" and "bad" teachers/leaders, and one of the most important things you can do is distill a love of learning in your children before they even start kindergarten.

[Marduk]

Just one nuance I'd like to put on a point that's already been made (several times.) One important part that often gets overlooked but is part of "being involved:" talk to the teachers of whatever school your kids end up in, and discuss your children specifically. Conversations that include concepts such as: "this is what motivates my daughter" and "this is what my son gets excited about" or "my daughter really struggles with this part of school" can be invaluable, and you're giving that teacher a leg up in teaching your child. While classroom size usually prevents tailoring education to a particular child, or taking the time to understand just how to motivate and educate this particular student, having that knowledge in hand beforehand really makes a huge difference.

My education was probably the best when I was in middle school; I don't think, however, that that school was the best or anything. It just happened to be where my mom taught, and she had regular discussions with all of my teachers, about me.

[Indefinite Integral]

From another teacher's perspective, I ditto basically everything that has been said. The quality of my classes differs from one period to the next depending on the students in there and the classroom dynamic.

The students who end up doing the best are those who already have a love of learning and/or have very involved parents. I also love it when parents tell me specific things about their child. It makes me a lot more aware, and reduces the learning curve I have in working with them at the beginning of the year.

[Whistler]

I've thought about how I want to educate my children. I have OPINIONS about the way orthodox schooling works (I mean seriously, are we doing this the same way we were fifty years ago there has to be a better way). I think going to public/private school is a really good way to learn how to fit into society (learn how to obey an authority figure, be quiet, and stay sane in a desk all day). Also, I've looked up what elementary school my future children will go to and I didn't have a terrible time with it (search for your district's boundary map?), though maybe Spanish Fork is better organized.

Right now I'm planning to decide based on what my future children are like. I'd really like to home school each child for one or two years in jr. high (so they can learn things like programming or whatever they're interested in).

I was a transfer student in a highly competitive, wealthy high school. I did not fit in. I rarely hung out with kids after school because I had to take two buses home (though I did have friends). When I heard my husband's stories of going to friends' houses all the time and staying up all night playing/making video games in high school, I admit I felt a little jealous. I spent so much of my high school life studying and practicing my flute, and while I had good grades, I look back on that time and I wish I could have loosened up a little. Basically, I wonder if my social life would have been better if I had gone to the local high school--if I would have made friends with more people in my own neighborhood where I fit in socioeconomically. It was a lot of paperwork to transfer districts, and I'm grateful to my mom for being so concerned and involved in my education, but I wonder if I was too focused on academic achievement and pleasing other adults and not focused enough on what I actually liked. Oh well.