changing schools

Taz

Member
Recently there was a big deal going around in the elementary schools with some people who either wanted or didn't want to send their little ones to certain schools. I only caught a little of it and am looking for what the whole story was.

While I'm on this subject, short of private schools or selling the house and moving, is there any way to change schools. I think my daughter is well ahead of the level she is being taught at and would like to move her to another school that is higher in the rankings of local schools. Has anyone been here, done that?

Thanks.
 

SmallTown

Football season!
Originally posted by Taz
While I'm on this subject, short of private schools or selling the house and moving, is there any way to change schools. I think my daughter is well ahead of the level she is being taught at and would like to move her to another school that is higher in the rankings of local schools. Has anyone been here, done that?

Thanks.

If you read others threads on here on that topic, you'll see the school rankings don't mean anything :rolleyes:
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
Taz, I think that as far as public elementary schools go, they're all about the same. Unless you have a daycare provider or someone that you can use for an address in the school district you prefer, I don't think you can switch schools. School choice is NOT alive and well in MD.

If private school is an option, I hear good things about Starmaker (and some of the people on this board send their kids there). Also, I've had a few friends who sent their kid to Little Flower and rave about it - and they're not even Catholic, they just liked the discipline and educational value.
 

Christy

b*tch rocket
The really nice thing about Starmaker is they teach to the individual child. My daughter is in kindergarten and she's already doing multiplication and division, reading chapter books etc.. Whenever she masters a task, they move her forward to a more difficult one.

We couldn't really afford it when we put her in Starmaker, however now, there's really no way we could afford not to send her.
 

Sharon

* * * * * * * * *
Staff member
PREMO Member
Originally posted by vraiblonde
School choice is NOT alive and well in MD.
In Calvert, you can send your kid to any of the public schools as long as you provide the transportation if the school is out of your district. I got this info a couple of years ago, so if anyone is considering it, call the Board of Ed. in Prince Frederick for more details and to see if they still let you do it.
 

SurfaceTension

New Member
We took advantage of the "No Child Left Behind" provision that allows one to switch out of a "failing" school. We are beginning, however, to question the wisdom of our choice. We are pleased with the new school, but unhappy that little friends of the community had to be left behind.

Getting a good teacher and high levels of parental involvement are key. Most likely your chances of getting both are better at the higher-testing schools, but it's not a sure bet.

How's that for a wishy-washy answer? :razz2:
 

cattitude

My Sweetest Boy
Originally posted by Sharon
In Calvert, you can send your kid to any of the public schools as long as you provide the transportation if the school is out of your district. I got this info a couple of years ago, so if anyone is considering it, call the Board of Ed. in Prince Frederick for more details and to see if they still let you do it.

You know, Sharon, they're seriously reconsidering this practice because of the overcrowding at certain schools. I don't know if they've implemented a new policy.
 
K

Kizzy

Guest
My son goes to a school with a high ratio of black and minority students. Because of this very fact, the Federal Government stepped up and gave them additional money. I thought about sending my son to a private school, actually a Catholic school. A teacher, at the school my son now attends, told me that I should just stay put. She said that the class size is not allowed to exceed 20 students because of the Federal grant. Also, they have noticed that the students who come from Catholic school are behind those of the public school. Now, that is the first this has ever happened. But a priest explained this to me. He said we just do not have the technology that the public school has, which is why we are seeing a decline in the knowledge of our students versus those in Public school. My son has at least 30-45 minutes worth of homework every night, and they are very strict that if you miss a day of school, you MUST make up the work. He is in second grade. This weekend my son has to finish a packet because he was out sick 2 days last week. School has changed since we were in it that is for sure.

Also, in Charles County, you can send your child to any public school you want. There is a huge fee. Try $3500 a year. My niece is using her grandmother's address to get around this.
 

Dymphna

Loyalty, Friendship, Love
Originally posted by SurfaceTension
We took advantage of the "No Child Left Behind" provision that allows one to switch out of a "failing" school. We are beginning, however, to question the wisdom of our choice. We are pleased with the new school, but unhappy that little friends of the community had to be left behind.

Getting a good teacher and high levels of parental involvement are key. Most likely your chances of getting both are better at the higher-testing schools, but it's not a sure bet.

How's that for a wishy-washy answer? :razz2:

As I understand it, there were 2 or 3 schools in Southern St M's that were classified as "failing" under the "No Child Left Behind" rule. Whether they were failing was determined by the test results of the MSPAP test among other things. This test has been abandoned by the state because they figured it wasn't really accurate in measuring school performance. :confused: Some people have argued that it's not fair to classify these schools as failing because this test isn't valid and because the population of these schools is ever changing because of the high number of military families in the area, which skews the results because the test as well as other measurements were designed with the assumption that the same kids are being tested in 3rd grade, then two years later in 5th grade.

"Failing" schools must give the opportunity to parents to transfer their kids out to a non-failing school. However, if the school is later reclassified as non-failing the kids will be transferred back or the parents may pay for the privledge of sending the kids to the school of their choice. The other option, like someone said, is to put your kid in day care in another school district but that has problems as well, such as what to do if the day care is closed for some reason.
 

Taz

Member
Thanks for all the advice and opinions folks. It is a hard decision to make. Considering the cost of the private schools, the fact that she is so outgoing and has numerous friends at school already, I do hesitate to try to move her. The other side of the coin is that we want to ensure that she is given the opportunity to go as far as she can. She really loves going to school and I worry that if it is not challenging enough, she could lose interest in it.
 

alex

Member
We sent our son to a Catholic school for grades 4 - 7 and then put him in a the public middle school this year. The catholic schools are great for the elementary years k- 5 and maybe even 6th but once they hit 7th or 8th they go down hill. As for the kids being behind, my son is straight A's for 3 quarters now. Granted he is not in honors classes but honors in the middle school just means they write more reports (got this straight from one of my son's teachers), they don't really challenge the kids by picking up the pace of teaching so they can cover more topics or doing more or different experiments in science classes. I don't regret sending him to catholic school. I think they taught him the basics he needed for phonics, math, etc. plus they taught him good study habits and how to behave in the classroom. I think this will work well for him in public high school.
 
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