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My husband works in Hudson NH and I work in west metro area MA. We're renting an apartment in Nashua now. It takes me 1-1.5 hours to office but I can work from home 3 days a week. So we're considering buying a home in south Nashua. We have a 2.5 year old son. I've read other posts. It seems when people talked about good school district, they never mentioned Nashua. Can any body give any info about the schools in south Nashua? Thanks.
Use your experience & common sense. Any big city school system is going to be second-rate. The surrounding towns like Brookline & Amherst & Hollis are where you want to be if you can afford it. Or buy in Nashua & send the kid to private school.
Thanks for your inputs, Brave Stranger. I'm a foreigner and came to the States for graduate study. In my home country, the bigger the city is, the better the schools are. My experience and common sense really don't apply in this country, LOL.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brave Stranger
Use your experience & common sense. Any big city school system is going to be second-rate. The surrounding towns like Brookline & Amherst & Hollis are where you want to be if you can afford it. Or buy in Nashua & send the kid to private school.
Thanks for your inputs, Brave Stranger. I'm a foreigner and came to the States for graduate study. In my home country, the bigger the city is, the better the schools are. My experience and common sense really don't apply in this country, LOL.
I hear you Most of the larger cities in the United States have average to below-average schools. There are some excellent private schools in Nashua. I would look to living in the Hollis area. Great schools there, and in Amherst too. Good luck.
As so many others have said in other threads, parent involvement is the key to a good education. Usually the basis to decide which district is better is only test scores, reason why affluent small towns get better scores. In my opinion it's not necessarily that the schools are better, but the kind of kids they are teaching are more homogeneous and have more resources at their disposal. That said, Nashua School District does have some schools that are better. Luckily, my son is in one of them.
Check out the links below if you are truly concerned about the quality and style of your child's education. The first link shows an old F rating, but F is still the current rating.
Constructivism is the methodology being used in many NH schools. It is described as 'active learning' as opposed to direct instruction and emphasizes group dependent projects and group discussion - with teachers as facilitators as opposed to instructors. The opportunity cost of time spent this way is apparent: no grammar, no vocabulary, no spelling, weak writing instruction, *fuzzy math*. Mastery of skills and training in methods are NOT goals for students - the goals are exploration and creativity. Students are well versed in all kinds of social issues, however, and are quite empowered to express themselves, only without a broad vocabulary at their disposal and limited knowledge...
This is not traditionally the style of NH schools, but it has become the style of some districts in recent years and more districts are subscribing to this method because of the 'school to work' initiative.
In our time away in SoCal our kids actually got a stronger more solid traditional knowledge-based education in Los Angeles Cty.
We live in Hollis and while they do a good job at what they do, I consider the curriculum (or lack of) in combination with methods detrimental enough to remove my kids from public school.
Ask questions when you call schools if you are truly concerned about the quality and style of 'education' your child will get in NH public school.
Thomas B. Fordham Institute - (http://www.edexcellence.net/detail/news.cfm?news_id=338&pubsubid=1171#1171 - broken link)
I know a lot of folks with children who are happy with Nashua schools. I've heard the most praises for the Bicentennial grade school district. Likewise I've also met folks who are unhappy with the schools.
As with anywhere/any schools- there are plenty who are happy/unhappy. But one thing I will say is that they are safe (maybe not the safest compared to other areas of NH, but compared to national averages definitely) and with good parents/teachers- your kid should do fine.
I know how it feels to have a child a couple of years away from school and stating to feel concerned about it. When my daughter was about your son's age we started doing a lot of research on where to live with schools being the high criteria. We were living in MA - Revere, a city right outside of Boston and there was NO WAY my daughter was going to school there. I lived there, I can say it.
We moved to Londonderry and love it and the reason we chose it (over other places including Nashua) is the schools. Hudson is right next to Londonderry as well. Not sure if it is an easier commute for you if you are right near Rt3?? Any reason why you wouldn't move to Hudson? I'm not familiar with it (other than my daughter goes to dance class there) but it seems nice.
Also a woman in my association works in Nashua and said that the elementary schools are actually good because they are split into smaller districts (well they are good depending on what district you live in I suppose) but that she wouldn't want to work in the high school, etc.
Good luck!
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Most of the larger cities in the United States have average to below-average schools. There are some excellent private schools in Nashua. I would look to living in the Hollis area. Great schools there, and in Amherst too. Good luck.
