It’s that time of year for those of us who are parents of potential kindergarteners in the fall – time to size up your school options and decide what you’re going to choose. Even if you’re super happy with your public school district, many of them now offer schools of choice, where you can attend any school in the district if there’s room, so even the most committed public school parents probably have some research to do around now.
This article in the Boston Globe presented a few good suggestions about evaluating your local district, as well as individual schools. For example, check your state department of education’s web site to find out how the school does on statewide tests.
All the usual sources for finding a school apply –opther parents, local message boards, etc. But look other places too – we found a school we’re strongly considering sending our daughter to by chatting with the owner of our local children’s bookstore.
And of course, there’s no substitute for actually going to the school in person. Talk to your child’s potential teachers, see the facilities, maybe ask around for other parent s who might be willing to talk to you about their experiences.
I’d suggest a few more things – pick up the local paper or visit its website, and by local, I mean the small daily or weekly that send reporters to the school board meetings and covers goings-on in the schools every week. You’ll be able to glean a good bit of information even from seeing which schools get coverage and which don’t –if there’s a lot of event coverage of a few schools in the district, you can bet that the principal and administrators probably have a good relationship with parents and the community as well as the local press.
And most importantly – know your kid and go with your gut. If you have a bad feeling about a school, not matter how sweet the teachers might seem or how high the test scores are, move on – there is probably another teacher, or even another school, that would be a better fit.
