School Ratings Thread - Start One & Keep On Top? (Atlanta: school district, taxes)

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by cmtiger

We love Decatur, esp the schools... it's just that our house is small and I'm lusting for a basement and a garage!!!!! Maybe it's b/c my kids are making me nuts right now.... I'd like a basement so I can lock them in there when they get wild!

It isn't *that* hard to get out of a basement if it has any windows.

Well, maybe it would be hard for me now. But not when I was in high school.

[new2atlanta]

Originally Posted by MantaRay

So how SHOULD people pick a neighborhood to live in? Find out what the "best schools" are but also what the "good schools" are. Stay away from the underperformers. Then, of that list, add in other factors that are important, and for different people these will be different. It might be best area for recreation, or closest area to downtown, or area with the most historical architecture, or area with the newer planned community homes, etc.

thanks for your post MantaRay. It is very useful to people like me that don't have kids yet but are looking for a nice neighborhood in a good school district.

[MantaRay]

Glad to help. I just hate to see people get suckered by slick salesmanship.

[SouthernHospitality]

Neighborhoods in Metro Atlanta change faster than anywhere I have ever seen! What you read is a good place to live in Georgia will literally change over the course of even a few months. You can find the best information about violence and neighborhood crime by searching the Atlanta Journal Constitution and television news sites. Although it's not comprised of statistical information per se, it will really give you insight as to what's happening and where (as it occurs).
Atlanta News, Sports, Atlanta Weather, Business News | ajc.com
11Alive.com | Atlanta, GA | Home
Atlanta Area and North Georgia Local News, Weather, Traffic, Sports and Entertainment - WSB-TV
http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/

Check out the schools ratios and ratings by going here to the Georgia Board of Education website: Georgia Department of Education You'll also find out about school closings on all these sites listed here.

Who's to say that what you feel is "good and wholesome" someone else may feel is "settling"? You really have to do alot of research and be prepared for change if you're considering Atlanta as a home.
You must be open-minded, too!

[shm2009]

Hi,

I have been in Atlanta for several years now and have 1 child who goes to a Montessori Based School. He is in 1st Year Elementary (i.e. 1st Grade) and although I had previously considered continuing until Upper Elementary (i.e. 6th Grade) and then worry about finding a good school closer to that point, I think we are ready to move now as unfortunately looks like the very open montessori-curriculum is not working out for him even though I personally like the method of teaching very much.

We are also looking at buying a house at the same time. At our first shot -we have narrowed down our areas to Dunwoody and Sandy Springs (based on work locations of drive-to-Buckhead and downtown-via-marta).

Now the next step is evaluating schools - Sandy Springs doesn't seem to be very well connected to good public schools, dunwoody seems to be better in that respect. Both don't seem to have any good middle schools. I am open to both public and private schools, public is the first preference if we don't increase our commute too much.

I have read through each and every post on this thread and I found a wealth of information. I will continue my research using the links provided in this thread, but I wanted to see if anyone has suggestions on -
1) School - Continuing with montessori vs. moving out of it.
2) Location - Choice of Sandy Springs and Dunwoody areas, and any other areas that we should consider along with the schools in those neighbourhoods. Alpharetta seemed ideal as far as schools and the newer construction available but will increase our commute each day and we also wanted to stay closer to the marta.

Since my experience here is just of very few years and much of my knowledge comes from friends and the internet not from any first hand experience like attending school here myself, I will be very thankful to any frank suggestions.

[lastminutemom]

There are some very good public schools in Sandy Springs and Fulton better funds its schools than DeKalb. Tell us a little more -- what is your price range and can you realistically find the type of housing that you want in those communities?

You are very fortunate that you live here already and can go tour schools. I recommend that you look at at least 3 different elementary schools before narrowing your house search. Most give tours. If you want you can also tour the middle schools in the areas you are interested in.

Middle school is tricky to get right for lots of reason but both Peachtree and Ridgeview Middle School in Sandy Springs are find and getting better. Don't be deceived by test scores at this age.

Montessori is totally not for every child at all. I can tell you that for children for whom it isn't a good fit, it tends to have disastrous results. They tend not to be on track academically.

[shm2009]

Our price range is up to 500 or so. With the current market we are hopeful that we should be able to find what we are looking for. We toured some houses in a community which we liked very much - but the public schools tied to that area are - Spalding Drive Charter School, Sandy Springs Middle school & North Springs High School and we haven't toured the schools but they don't look very promising, from my research over the internet. Before we completely drop out the area and community I thought let me see what others think about that area and whether there are any other schools that I am not seeing.
Also, although I am paying for montessori right now some of the more popular private schools are way too expensive.

[Sandy Springs Rep.]

Funny you mention those schools; those are the three schools I went to for 13 years of my life.

I'll you the biggest problem with Sandy Springs Middle and North Springs High is that such a large percentage of the parents in the area send their kids to private school so the public schools and sort of drained of the community support. Sandy Springs is a very wealthy area but was overdeveloped with apartments by the county before it became a city, so there are a lot of lower-income students at the public schools, which in turn causes the wealthy parents to pull their kids out of public school and send them to private school. It is very frustrating.

The quality of education is still very high at all three schools, your kids will just be finding that a lot of their neighhood buddies go to a private school down the street.

[shm2009]

Do you know which private schools are considered best around that area?

[Sandy Springs Rep.]

I know what all the private schools are, but I don't know which are the best, no. Sorry.

There are a ton of links on the first page that will tell you that, though.