Imagine International Academy of Mableton? (Atlanta, Marietta: school district, live, to move)

[yabadaba]

Greatschool.net now has a listing of both IAM and IAS. If parents with kids in these schools could please post their reviews, it would make it easier for some of us to make decisions about private schools/ moving to East Cobb etc.

Imagine International Academy of Mableton - Marietta, Georgia - GA - School overview

Imagine International Academy of Smyrna - Smyrna, Georgia - GA - School overview



Thanks

[Rhonda K]

The test scores for this year should be on greatschools for next year as well. I don't know how Mableton did, but Smyrna did very good in the lower grades(we don't have 8th grade this year, and I'm not sure about 6th & 7th). I know for fact the test scores are much higher than many of the Smyrna schools, including the one my child attended last year.

[yabadaba]

Originally Posted by Rhonda K

The test scores for this year should be on greatschools for next year as well. I don't know how Mableton did, but Smyrna did very good in the lower grades(we don't have 8th grade this year, and I'm not sure about 6th & 7th). I know for fact the test scores are much higher than many of the Smyrna schools, including the one my child attended last year.

It looks like IAM did not even meet AYP this year.

It has a "greatschool" ranking of 3. Harmony leland has a ranking of 4.

Imagine International Academy of Mableton - Marietta, Georgia - GA - School overview

do we as residents of mableton have ANY hope that the schools will get better or should we just start planning on moving to East Cobb/ North Fulton?

[yabadaba]

CRCT Results
Scale: % meeting or exceeding standards

Grade 1
Reading
90% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for Reading was 90% in 2008.

English Language Arts
85% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for English Language Arts was 84% in 2008.

Math
79% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
The state average for Math was 86% in 2008.

Source: GA Dept. of Education, 2007-2008



Grade 2
Reading
91% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for Reading was 92% in 2008.

English Language Arts
79% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for English Language Arts was 84% in 2008.

Math
78% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
The state average for Math was 86% in 2008.

Source: GA Dept. of Education, 2007-2008



Grade 3
Reading
86% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for Reading was 88% in 2008.

Social Studies
79% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
The state average for Social Studies was 89% in 2008.

Science
58% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
The state average for Science was 75% in 2008.

English Language Arts
77% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for English Language Arts was 87% in 2008.

Math
48% (2008)
The state average for Math was 71% in 2008.

Source: GA Dept. of Education, 2007-2008



Grade 4
Reading
80% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for Reading was 88% in 2008.

Social Studies
77% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
The state average for Social Studies was 90% in 2008.

Science
47% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
The state average for Science was 74% in 2008.

English Language Arts
73% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for English Language Arts was 86% in 2008.

Math
33% (2008)
The state average for Math was 70% in 2008.

Source: GA Dept. of Education, 2007-2008



Grade 5
Reading
80% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for Reading was 87% in 2008.

Social Studies
81% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
The state average for Social Studies was 89% in 2008.

Science
61% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
The state average for Science was 71% in 2008.

English Language Arts
88% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for English Language Arts was 90% in 2008.

Math
50% (2008)
The state average for Math was 72% in 2008.

Source: GA Dept. of Education, 2007-2008



Grade 6
Reading
89% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for Reading was 91% in 2008.

Science
42% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for Science was 66% in 2008.

English Language Arts
83% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for English Language Arts was 87% in 2008.

Math
43% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for Math was 69% in 2008.

Source: GA Dept. of Education, 2007-2008



Grade 7
Reading
86% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for Reading was 88% in 2008.

Science
40% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for Science was 75% in 2008.

English Language Arts
80% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for English Language Arts was 90% in 2008.

Math
63% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
The state average for Math was 80% in 2008.

Source: GA Dept. of Education, 2007-2008


Grade 8
Reading
79% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for Reading was 91% in 2008.

Social Studies
29% (2008)
The state average for Social Studies was 59% in 2008.

Science
43% (2008)
The state average for Science was 60% in 2008.

English Language Arts
93% (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for English Language Arts was 89% in 2008.

Math
7% (2008)
The state average for Math was 62% in 2008.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by yabadaba

do we as residents of mableton have ANY hope that the schools will get better or should we just start planning on moving to East Cobb/ North Fulton?

If the school is actually meeting the needs of your child/children, what difference do the various rankings mean?

I really don't get the focus on test results down here. I really don't. Schools are about the KIDS!!!

[yabadaba]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

If the school is actually meeting the needs of your child/children, what difference do the various rankings mean?

I really don't get the focus on test results down here. I really don't. Schools are about the KIDS!!!

How exactly should someone "measure the needs" of our children?

The differents ranking allow us as parents to make the best decision possible for our kids. If the school is failing, has low test scores and has high staff turnover, why would anyone in their right mind put their child in that school? How do you measure that your child is making adequate progress without test scores?

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by yabadaba

How exactly should someone "measure the needs" of our children?

Simple observation? Looking at their report cards? Asking them what they think of their school?

You're qualified to be a parent, right? Don't you measure their needs in various ways in many other contexts?

The differents ranking allow us as parents to make the best decision possible for our kids.

School rankings provide one tool (out of many tools) that one can use to determine the viability of a school, yes, but just because a school is stellar in some measureable aspect doesn't mean that the specific teachers or peer mix that your child encounters will be better for your child, and even a better school can provide mixed results depending on your kid's rapport with teachers, etc.

Case in point: I went to a high school which had excellent ratings all across the board (and still does), and yet in retrospect I believe that I would have been MUCH better served in a school which had taken a somewhat different approach to class scheduling and chosen curriculum in some areas.

Note that I have some personal experince with this -- it isn't speculation. I transferred to another school in the same school district for the last semester of my senior year, and I found that the lower-rated school that I transferred to was vastly superior to the one I had left in two subjects in particular: Physiology and Anatomy, and AP physics.

The P&A teacher at the better school taught to the test and didn't really deviate from that very much, while the P&A teacher at the lesser school had been to medical school and had some real-world experience that made her approach to the course material a lot more interesting. She was also a vastly superior teacher, IMO. The physics course at the two schools was similar in terms of subject matter and approach, but the teacher at the lesser school was also far more interesting. I *know* that I learned more, even though the school itself was considered the lesser of the two in general.

The lesser-rated school also had a better learning atmosphere (more traditional hour-long class periods instead of the unstructured modular schedule with variable length classes that the better school used). I found that I benefitted from the additional structure, and I wasn't so tempted to blow off class (which was the reason I was transferred to the other school in the first place).

School ratings simply don't guarantee a good experience for your child anymore than a bad test score guarantees a bad experience, and they also don't reflect some of the differences between schools, some of which can be fairly major.

If the school is failing, has low test scores and has high staff turnover, why would anyone in their right mind put their child in that school?

If you know that there is high staff turnover, you're basing your decision using other sources of data in addition to test scores, and that is commendable.

Many parents seem to blindly choose a school based solely on test scores, and THAT is what I was criticizing. I think it's simplistic. And stupid.

How do you measure that your child is making adequate progress without test scores?

General school ratings do not reflect individual progress. That's what student grades are for.

[yabadaba]

The reason we pay attention to rankings is because most of us in Mableton are new(er) parents and in my subdivision, a majority of children will start kindergarten in the next 1-3 years.

That's why my first post on this thread also encouraged people who have their kids at IAM to post their experiences so that we as parents can make an informed decision.

That's why we cant look at report cards and ask our children what they think. Besides, in kindergarten, I doubt asking them what they think of the school will help. I know about IAMs high turnover because I am subscribed to their newsletter and you see almost on a quarterly basis that the teacher teaching x grade has left and they welcome a new teacher in that class. The MDJ has frequent reports on the drama that is going on between the principal and the "franchisers" that own Imagine schools.

A significant majority of us do not want to experiment the choice of our schools with our kids. I for one refuse to put my child in a failing school with the hope that either the child rises above the failing grade of the school or that the school will get better.

And I am not talking about high school here. I am talking about elementary school. If the school cannot teach a child how to read or how to do simple math (as the CRCT data shows), how do I expect them to develop into a well rounded charter school.

It is very easy to assume that people chase "test results down here." But the reason why is people want to cut through the noise of people's opinion about a particular school and look at the hard data to see if they are making the best decision for their kids.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by yabadaba

The reason we pay attention to rankings is because most of us in Mableton are new(er) parents and in my subdivision, a majority of children will start kindergarten in the next 1-3 years.

Okay. That makes more sense to me. That doesn't seem to be the pattern in these forums in general (people seem to worship these test scores even when they have older kids), but for younger kids you don't really have much else to go by.

I understand that. But thanks for pointing that out. I didn't think of that situation...

[RainyRainyDay]

RC, do you really notice parents of older kids using the test scores to form their opinion of their kid's current school? That would be pretty lame, as you suggest.

I think the parents of older kids who are concerned about test scores on this forum are often people who are considering moving, and trying to evaluate schools somewhere they don't currently live. These folk are in the same position as the Mableton pre-K parents - they don't have many sources of info, and test scores seem like a basis of comparison that's at least objective, although not comprehensive.

Parents of elementary and middle schoolers also seem to take an interest in the test scores of the middle and high schools that their kids are slated to attend in future. In this case too, they can't evaluate the school from their kids' experience of it. Of course, if they live nearby, they could visit, or ask neighbors. Those would be good things to do. But it seems reasonable to me to take a look at the test scores and other publicly-available statistics too.