Cedar Rapids Schools (Marion, Washington, Jefferson: relocate, zoning, job)

[ronbofromvirginia]

We are looking at a move to the Cedar Rapids area of Iowa. We have two daughters (freshman now) and we would like some advice on schools. One of them is into the arts (theatre). What is your opinion on the best school to go with in the area? The schools all look very good. Our public schools in Virginia are no where near as good so we are in a private school right now. I’ve looked at Xavier (we are Catholic) but would also like any recommendations on the public schools. We may only have two days to look at the schools before making the decision. Thanks for any help.

[Chien]

Originally Posted by ronbofromvirginia

We are looking at a move to the Cedar Rapids area of Iowa. We have two daughters (freshman now) and we would like some advice on schools. One of them is into the arts (theatre). What is your opinion on the best school to go with in the area? The schools all look very good. Our public schools in Virginia are no where near as good so we are in a private school right now. I’ve looked at Xavier (we are Catholic) but would also like any recommendations on the public schools. We may only have two days to look at the schools before making the decision. Thanks for any help.

I am not certain if you have already relocated, but I have to suggest the College Community School District, which serves a portion of the Cedar Rapids city area as well as some rural outlying towns.
People will move to areas and buy houses based on the fact they are in this school district.
They have A LOT of money that they invest well in state of the art technology, buildings, programs, hiring excellent teachers, and providing a lot of extra curricular activities.
I would strongly urge consideration of finding something within this district.

[pollockshe]

Hello,
We live in Cedar Rapids and our children go to College Community School Distist. It is not in the Cedar Rapids School District but Cedar Rapids children go to the school. It is a fanastic school. The campus has four elementary schools, one middle school and new one opening in 2009 and one high school with brand new auditorium. So our children will be with the same student all through thier schooling. The district is great and the adminstration and faculty are beyond words. My daughter has need extra help with reading and they have gone above and beyond to make sure she gets the help she needs. I did alot of checking before we moved to CR and I found that College Community is a very highly recommended school district. I give it a big thumbs up for a public school. Good luck with your hunt.

Sheila

Originally Posted by ronbofromvirginia

We are looking at a move to the Cedar Rapids area of Iowa. We have two daughters (freshman now) and we would like some advice on schools. One of them is into the arts (theatre). What is your opinion on the best school to go with in the area? The schools all look very good. Our public schools in Virginia are no where near as good so we are in a private school right now. I’ve looked at Xavier (we are Catholic) but would also like any recommendations on the public schools. We may only have two days to look at the schools before making the decision. Thanks for any help.

[Roy G. Biv]

I'm a teacher in Marion and I've done student teaching at Xavier high school and at Prairie and I graduated from Jefferson and am also somewhat familiar with Washington and Kennedy.

All of the high schools schools in CR have some great opportunities and up-to-date facilities and to be honest there isn't a big difference between them overall. I'll do a little run-though of my thoughts on all of them starting with Xavier since that is what you mentioned.

Xavier is a brand new school. It does have the Catholic element to it--or at least the mildly religious. Basically there is mass on Wednesdays, a theology class they have to take, prayer in the morning, and a dress code where everyone wears khakis instead of jeans (which is weird since khaki pants are more revealing than jeans). Anyway, aside from these things the kids are no better or worse than the kids in a public school. In fact, in many ways the behavior is worse because the classes are leveled and unless you're in all highest level classes, then you'll end up in classes where all the bad behavior kids are in the same room and the expectations are a lot lower. Plus the fact that they go to a stricter religious schools seems to cause many kids there to engage in even riskier behavior to balance their image. Even in school I recall hearing the F-word shouted by a kid through a wall from the class next door that was a lower level world history course (and the teacher was in the room). Plus the teachers in at Xavier are paid horribly and have very bad benefits and a lot of the teachers there would give their right arm to be in a public school if they were good enough to get hired at one. I also had the opportunity to work in a musical while I was there. This was a few years ago and there wasn't really a theatre program there. Basically the big musical for the year was being run at the time by an inexperienced English teacher and a choir person--plus the auditorium itself is really small.

Traditionally the best fine arts have been at Jefferson. I'm not sure what its like recently, but they have had a very strong theatre tradition, a very active thespian troupe that goes back to the 1950s, and when I was there in the 90s they had multiple teachers who specialized in stagecraft and drama. The band and choir programs have also been pretty big there for a long time, although in recent years the music department has gone from nearly the best in the state to just average for a big school.

Jefferson's sister school built at the same time on the East side of the river is Washington. Washington has all sorts of unique things about it though. They have a lot of rich kids who go there from the old wealthy part of CR and they have the most poor kids from the old ghetto part of town. I'm not sure what the classes there are like, but I know that they also have more AP classes than any other school--probably as a de facto means of racial and class segregation within the school. Kennedy is on the NE side of CR and they have grown a lot in the last 10 years and I could't tell you many specifics about that school anymore. I know people who go there right now and like it. But I don't know about the fine arts tradition at either of these schools. I just know that 10 years ago neither of these schools were well known for their arts programs. In fact several mega-talented singers I knew at Jefferson came from the NE side to go to a school with a better arts program. But Kennedy was a lot smaller back then too.

Prairie (College Community) is a decent school, good facilities, decent music programs (not sure about theatre though). Although I know several teachers there who aren't real big fans of the school because it is more rural and they claim that even in the advanced classes the parents in general don't hold their kids to rigorous enough expectations.

Marion has some decent schools. Linn-Marr is the better of the two and has a really good music program (especially show choir) and an average theatre program and is an all-round good school for the most part. Although it has experienced massive growth in the last 10 years and has naturally fought to keep up.

[UNIFan]

I attended Linn-Mar High in Marion (CR's largest suburb) and would recommend it to anyone. It has an amazing music department and a pretty good theater department. But, it is growing amazingly fast and will some have over 2,000 students.

If you have your heart set on the Cedar Rapids district, I personally would recommend Kennedy High School, they are the most upper middle class. But both Washington and Jefferson (even though Jefferson was Linn-Mar's biggest rival when I attended) are both good schools.

Like other posters have mentioned, Cedar Rapids Prairie High in the College Community District is a great choice as well.

In my honest opinion, as a fellow Catholic, Cedar Rapids has amazing public schools when considering its size and the rest of the country and I really don't think Xavier is worth the money it costs to attend, but that is my personal belief. But you really can't go wrong with the schools here.

[zz4guy]

Originally Posted by Roy G. Biv

Xavier is a brand new school. It does have the Catholic element to it--or at least the mildly religious. Basically there is mass on Wednesdays, a theology class they have to take, prayer in the morning, and a dress code where everyone wears khakis instead of jeans (which is weird since khaki pants are more revealing than jeans). Anyway, aside from these things the kids are no better or worse than the kids in a public school. In fact, in many ways the behavior is worse because the classes are leveled and unless you're in all highest level classes, then you'll end up in classes where all the bad behavior kids are in the same room and the expectations are a lot lower. Plus the fact that they go to a stricter religious schools seems to cause many kids there to engage in even riskier behavior to balance their image. Even in school I recall hearing the F-word shouted by a kid through a wall from the class next door that was a lower level world history course (and the teacher was in the room). Plus the teachers in at Xavier are paid horribly and have very bad benefits and a lot of the teachers there would give their right arm to be in a public school if they were good enough to get hired at one. I also had the opportunity to work in a musical while I was there. This was a few years ago and there wasn't really a theatre program there. Basically the big musical for the year was being run at the time by an inexperienced English teacher and a choir person--plus the auditorium itself is really small.

Traditionally the best fine arts have been

Thats a pretty broad brush you paint Xavier with. Kids who shout F-bombs and teachers that aren't good enough to go anywhere "better". Yeah that never happens in public schools.

Myself, and my sister were former students at Xavier/Regis and the stories I got was that many of the teachers LOVE it there and are making the sacrafice in order to be a part of something special. There is a real bond that holds everybody togehter there.

Not sure why you ripped on the theater program. In the 8 years I've seen it the plays and musicals were out of this world performances. I participated in theatre for 4 years at Regis. My sister was in the play, band, art, thespian programs, anything you could think of, for her 4 years.

As far as academics Xavier stands above the rest. Routinely trouncing the area public schools in top ATC scores. There is much more one-on-one attention, especially if you are in the top AP classes.

Sports - Xavier has gone to state many times in the last few years - girls basketball I believe.

If I was coming to CR I would give Xavier a serious look, especially since you're catholic.

[UNIFan]

Originally Posted by zz4guy

Thats a pretty broad brush you paint Xavier with. Kids who shout F-bombs and teachers that aren't good enough to go anywhere "better". Yeah that never happens in public schools.

Myself, and my sister were former students at Xavier/Regis and the stories I got was that many of the teachers LOVE it there and are making the sacrafice in order to be a part of something special. There is a real bond that holds everybody togehter there.

Not sure why you ripped on the theater program. In the 8 years I've seen it the plays and musicals were out of this world performances. I participated in theatre for 4 years at Regis. My sister was in the play, band, art, thespian programs, anything you could think of, for her 4 years.

As far as academics Xavier stands above the rest. Routinely trouncing the area public schools in top ATC scores. There is much more one-on-one attention, especially if you are in the top AP classes.

Sports - Xavier has gone to state many times in the last few years - girls basketball I believe.

If I was coming to CR I would give Xavier a serious look, especially since you're catholic.

As a former catholic student (All Saints and St. Joseph's Elementarys) I need to bring up a few points.

First of all, the academics at Xavier are not as great as some believe. The main case is that Xavier students scored 1% better than Linn-Mar students on national standardized tests, but while the public schools have to take everyone in their district in, Xavier only deals with families that can afford it. Bottom line, the education differences are no better or worse at Xavier compared to the public schools when considering that and the fact the public schools have a MUCH larger number of disabled and special needs students.

Second, the music/drama department at Xavier is the worst in the city. That doesn't mean they are bad, but they are not as good as the 5 publics. For quick proof just compare the schools show choirs on YouTube, its easy to see.

Third, Xavier is good at many sports. Generally quite outstanding at football, but for all other sports they compete at the 4A level (Iowa's highest) against the other public schools, but come time for state competition they drop down to easier 3A competition because of their size. While out of their control, Xavier wouldn't be winning near as many titles if they had to compete against the 4As at state.

To me if you have the need for more one on one attention, Xavier is a GREAT alternative. But all things considered, Xavier isn't worth the cost for a normal education. In my opinion you get just as good education at say Kennedy, Linn-Mar, or Prairie.

[CRapidian]

Really its hard to make a bad decision for schools in Cedar Rapids, unlike many of the big cities in Iowa the city schools are as good as the neighboring suburban districts. Personally the only reason why I could see someone sending their kids to Xavier would be because they highly value a Catholic education. Though Xavier does have nice, and new facilities the cost doesn't seem fully justified when there are equally good/better public options.

For my children I would consider sending them to either Washington, Kennedy, or Linn-Mar. All three are academically comparable, and provide tons of AP choices (Though Washington has the most), and perform extremely well as a whole on standardized test. Washington has the best band program out of the three based on recent marching band/jazz band performances that I have watched they are consistently one of the best in the state. For music/choir I would give the edge to Kennedy, and Linn-Mar certainly isn't a slouch in either department. Linn-Mar and Kennedy are both slightly newer but recent updates at all the public schools around CR has made the difference almost unnoticeable. All three are generally competitive in sports, some years better than others, really the only sport dynasty I can think of around town seems to be Jefferson softball, which is consistently the best around.

The biggest difference would probably be student body. Washington is far and by the most economically and racially diverse of the three, with both some of the richest and some of the poorest kids in town attending. I personally don't view this as a negative at all, and it doesnt seem to have hampered the quality of education in any way. Kennedy and Linn-Mar students tend to come from the more affluent areas of NE CR, and Marion leading to a mostly white and economically comfortable student body, but this is only a result of zoning and I don't think it really says anything about the schools. But for the Linn-Mar district this means that they seem to have a lot of funding and are constantly expanding and renovating their schools, both in order to provide excellent facilities and to keep up with the rapidly expanding enrollment.

The reason why I would slightly prefer these three over Jefferson and Prairie was primarly due to the fact they tend to have lower test scores then the other three, and they don't have the wide variety of AP programs the others schools offer. Though Prairie does have a very nice new building, and is sure to only improve with time. Jefferson for a long time was really known for the performing arts, but after the retirement of their long time band director I know the band program has slipped a bit, I am unsure of drama or choir but I assume they are at least equivalent to most of th e other schools.

Hope this helps. Ohh and a side note Newsweek has a list of top schools and both Washington and Kennedy appeared, I however think this is primarily based on AP Test scores so it might not be so encompassing.

[UNIFan]

I completely agree with the above poster.

I didn't mean to come off so harsh on Xavier, but supports of Xavier are so forward in the area that it gets quite irritating. It's a great school, but I just don't think it is worth the money unless you need special attention or are very focused on a Catholic education.

[Roy G. Biv]

UNIFan

Newsweek has a list of top schools and both Washington and Kennedy appeared, I however think this is primarily based on AP Test scores so it might not be so encompassing.

No, all they know is the number of kids who attended AP testing (or another kind of testing). That is the only measurement for the Newsweek ranking. Washington has the most AP classes because its the only legal method for racial and/or socioeconomic segregation in the school. Kennedy is currently the biggest school and I would wager has the highest number of upper middle class white kids. That all the AP statistic is measuring. There are districts on the Newsweek list who boycott it and now refuse to have data submitted because it is so absurd.

Washington has the best band program out of the thre

Wow if that's true things have changed a lot.

zzguy

...teachers that aren't good enough to go anywhere "better". Yeah that never happens in public schools.

When I was student teaching at Xavier many of the teachers I knew liked Xavier, but they also wanted out. One guy I knew back then taught full time, coached, and had an evening job at a grocery store. Middle aged teachers who only have catholic high school experience aren't very marketable. But the Catholic schools aren't picky at all, you don't even have to be Catholic to get hired there. On the other hand, I don't know a single person at my current school who wishes they could get a job teaching at Xavier.