Best elementary and middle schools? (Kansas City, Independence: credit, lender, home)

[catroo]

My husband and I were born and raised in KC, but left 6 years ago to follow job opportunities and because the KC public schools were in such turmoil.

We are now considering returning to our hometown.

Can anyone give us advice on the best parts of town for elementary and middle schools? We've got two kids - 1st grader and 5th grader. The 1st grader is currently in a spanish immersion program in Portland, OR. We will really miss the great school the kids are attending...it makes this decision very hard.

[bls5555]

There are tons of good schools around KC. Overland Park, Lenexa, Olathe, Shawne, Shawnee Mission on the KC side. I think the actual district are Shawne Mission, Blue Valley (I think this one is overland park), and I think Lenexa and Olathe have their own seperate also. All the Kansas side ones are good.

On the missouri side, Lees Summit, Blue Springs and the Parkville school district are also all very good. Liberty, MO has a good one also but it is further out from KC.

Stay away from the actual city of Kansas City school districts, the Raytown school district and the Independence, MO school district and you will have wonderful schools.

We were considering moving there and did research on the school districts. From the info we got, the Shawnee Mission and Blue Valley Districts were the best with Lees Summit and Parkville (might be called Park Hill District, it has been about a year so I can't remember exactly the name. It is north west of KC though. There is a town called Parkville and it is part of that district) on the Missouri side not to far behind.

[westender]

I believe the OP was interested in the city school district. The best elementary school used to be Border Star in Brookside. However, I believe both Border Star and its high school, Southwest High, have been closed.

There are no good high schools in the city itself anymore. Westport has deteriorated significantly, and Southwest has been closed. Paseo High was demolished in the 1980s (and was a shadow of its former self).

The close-in Kansas suburbs will allow a limited number of KCMO residents to pay tuition. Prairie (elementary) School (serves Mission Hills) and Shawnee Mission East (serves Leawood, Mission Hills and Prairie Village) both had tuition-paying residents from the Missouri side in years past.

[catroo]

Thank you for the advice. We would be willing to live in of the outlying suburbs - Lee's Summit or Blue Springs might be an option. (Probably not Kansas, just because of MU and KU rivalry.) My parents moved to Blue Springs a few years ago, so I'm somewhat familiar with it.

Anyone aware of an elementary school in the area offering some Spanish instruction? My 1st grader is doing really well in Spanish immersion here but I don't thing there is anything like it in the KC area. So far my searches have brought up zilch.

[catroo]

An update - I discovered a charter school, the Foreign Language Academy in Kansas City which offers Spanish immersion for K - 8 and French for 6 - 8.

It's worth checking out anyway! (It is in KC, so I guess we'd have to pay that 1% e-tax again - really would like to avoid that.)

If anyone knows anything about FLA, I'd appreciate your opinion.

[GaylaC]

If you want Spanish Immersion, try Riverside, Missouri. There's 20 more hispanics everyday I think, and yes they speak spanish!

[Cindy McGee]

Foreign Language is an absolutely amazing school! (As the kids would say, "It's da bomb!")

However, I will admit that I am biased, because I have worked there for 8 years, and I love it.

Up until this coming year, we have served kindergarten through 8th grade--starting this fall, we will serve 3-year-olds through 8th grade. Talk about consistency!

We are a magnet school, not a charter school. (Charter schools are governed by boards that are independent of the local district, magnet schools are specialized schools that are part of the district.)

This is not an ESL school; our kids come into the school as English speakers, and as soon as they hit the school door that first day of kindergarten or first grade, they are "immersed" in the Spanish language. Through our Spanish immersion program, they become fluent in reading, writing, and speaking Spanish. Our Spanish immersion teachers are required to be native speakers of Spanish, who have been teachers in their countries of origin. They come from Spain, Argentina, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Peru, Mexico, . . . and the list goes on. (Many of them speak several languages besides English and Spanish.)

Our graduating 8th graders attend a college-level class at the University of Missouri-Kansas City at the end of their 8th grade year, and thus enter 9th grade with college credit in a foreign language. Pretty cool!

Yes, we are a city school--complete with free lunch kids, kids whose uniforms we quietly provide, etc. We serve a diverse student population--kids of lalwyers and doctors, plain old middle class kids, kids whose parents struggle to get the next meal on the table. Our parent participation is huge, and our skin colors are many.

What scientists know about children's brains is that the younger they are when they learn a second language, the faster it's learned. In addition, learning a foreign language is akin to learning mathematics or science. Apparently, the brain processes all of these in a similar fashion--thus leading scientists to believe that learning a foreign language as early as possible increases students' ability to learn math and science concepts.

Imagine what a student with multiple college degrees in foreign language, math, and science could choose to become! And, remember, they can enter high school with college credit already in place.

I know this is a long sermon, but I just have to sing the praises of FLA.

Call us--816-418-6000.

[Cindy McGee]

I'm sorry there is someone in the KC area who doesn't know about Lincoln College Prep Middle School and Lincoln College Prep High School-smack-dab in the middle of the city!

Lincoln is a Kansas City Missouri School District college preparatory magnet school that has the complete IB program, AP classes, the works.

By the way--Lincoln high earned the highest scores in the state on the Language Arts part of the Missouri MAP test (that test by which all schools are measured and judged)!

The drawback--you have to have high test scores and good behavior to be admitted to Lincoln, and you will be thrown back out ("demitted" is the proper terminology) if you can't/won't live up to the high standards of a college preparatory school.

Excellent school, with a rich history in Kansas City. Lincoln was once the only school to which Black students were admitted. And it is the best, by far, in Kansas City. (And no, I am not a graduate of Lincoln Prep--just a big fan.)

[catroo]

Cindy,

Thank you so much for the first-hand info about FLA. I love that FLA has a diverse student background - that is one of the things that I enjoy about our school in Portland. Spanish is not spoken in our home, and it's so incredible to see my 6 year old learning the language. As expected, he doesn't speak much Spanish around us, but he definitely understands his teachers. When he does use Spanish, his accent sounds quite authentic (to my untrained ears). I imagine some people would worry that his English language skills would suffer. Absolutely not - he's reading quite well at the end of Kindergarten.

I think it is a wonderful opportunity and am so glad that I found a school in the KC area that offers this. I'm also encouraged by the Lincoln High information. We will definitely research further and talk to the staff at FLA.

[rondamarchant]

I was given this info. from a local Lender that I work with. Pretty helpful when searching for school information. Good Luck!

Schools
The US Department of Education has a very useful national database of school demographic information, called the National Center for Education Statistics:
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a part of the U.S. Department of Education
Click on the “School, College and Library Search” tab for a school’s student/teacher ratio and enrollment by race and ethnicity. Two more sites to compare schools for academic performance are Great Schools and Standard & Poor's School Matters:
GreatSchools.net
Schools, High School, Public Schools, School District, Public High Schools - SchoolMatters
Many districts and state education departments also post useful online information.