Good Public School Districts in the Bethlehem Area? (Allentown, Northampton: to rent, safe neighborhood)

[knicksin8]

i will soon be moving to the bethlehem area because my company relocated me. i would prefer to send my children to public school.

can anyone recommend any quality school districts in the bethlehem, PA area? thanks in advance.

[katmar37]

Check out schoolmatters.com and greatschools.net
Even the bad school districts have good scores from the younger grades but see how the kids score in high school....that's a better indication of how well the school district is in general.

[toobusytoday]

Generally, the public schools are not too well thought of in Bethlehem. Do you really want to live in town? Katmar has given you good advice with SchoolMatters. I'm not a big fan of greatschools. Another site is Schools in Bethlehem Area School District. Schooldigger.com

Don't get me wrong, I love to visit Bethlehem, I'm just not a city person. Most of the town surrounding Bethlehem (NOT including Allentown) are great. If you would give us some more information about what you are looking for, that would be helpful. There's a sticky at the top of this forum that you can cut and paste and then answer some of the questions. I hope you come to like the Lehigh Valley as much as I do!

[enwalker]

I know I´m not the owner of this thread but I need your advise as well.
My wife will be attending Northampton Community College this fall and we are moving to Bethlehem on July.

I always read people saying that the schools in Bethlehem are not that great. How about private schools? Is there any good private school near NCC? Witch kindergarten do you recomend? My son is 3. And where do you think it´s a good place to live near NCC but not in the city? I want a really calm and safe neighborhood but not too far away from a mall or supermarket. I plan to rent U$2.000,00 max.

Thanks!

[toobusytoday]

enwalker,
Here in the US, Kindergarten doesn't start until a child is 5. What you are looking for is a pre-school, and they are all private. Are you planning to stay in the area? The elementary schools are all pretty good. It's once the kids get into 5th or 6th grade that the ratings start going down. The area out by NCC is pretty nice and would be a fine area to live.