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Hello, let me start out by telling you a bit about my situation. My husband and myself have 2 boys,( 11 and 6 ). We are planning to move to Arizona next May ( 2014) My oldest son will be going into grade 8 and my youngest will be in grade 3. Schools are EXTREMELY important to us. Both my boys are very different from each other.
My oldest is not interested in too many sports, he likes to play soccer but I could never see him making a career out of it, he is a B student at school, quite shy but can easily make friends. I can see him becoming a computer programmer or wanting to get a trade of some sort.
My youngest is quite the opposite, he is really sports oriented, wants to play football, baseball and soccer, a bit of a comedian, catches on very fast to new topics at school.
I have done quite alot of research about the schools and realize that the Kyrene school district is rated highly on this forum.
For both my kids I want a schools that have a small feel too it, not large classes, for my oldest it does NOT matter if the school has lots of sports. I would rather the school work be the main focus, a school that has after school programs to offers kids extra help would be a great asset.
I realize that going into grade 8 is the last year of the elementary school and then on to High School. Which means another school change, this worries me again ( more changes ).
Any schools that go from grade 8 to the last year of high school, and are they any good ?
What is the different between Charter schools and public schools ?
Are their any Charter High Schools ?.
The US schools will be very new to our family as we are coming from Canada, We have no issues driving the kids to school, we are hoping to buy a business in the Chandler area.
It is always a worry when it comes to finding the perfect school for your kids,You always want the best for your kids, Moving to a school where you don't know anyone is a challange for anyone, especially when most kids are starting to form their groups where it may be hard for new kids to fit in. I may sounds like a crazy worrying mom, but I am sure I will look back on this and laugh at it, but for now I am asking for your advice in helping me overcome this worrying situation.
Here in the Chandler Unified School District, we have elementary schools which are K-6 (there might be some K-5), middle/junior high school is 7-8, and high school is 9-12. There might be exceptions to that in some CUSD schools, or with charter schools. But generally, that's the case. I'm not familiar with the other districts.
Depending on where in Chandler your business will be located, you could buy a home in Kyrene, Tempe, Gilbert or Chandler school districts and still have a manageable commute. So you could be looking at schools within all those districts. I can't speak to the other districts, but within CUSD, most schools are pretty similar in class size, school "vibe" and all get pretty good ratings. Check greatschools.org for school ratings.
I think it's great that you're doing so much research. I agree that moving can be tough for older students. But one upside of moving to the PHX area is that we constantly have people moving here, so your kids will never be the only new students at any given time. Kids transfer in during the school year, and there are always new kids at the beginning of each year. It actually makes it a bit easier to transition then if you were moving somewhere that wasn't as transient.
I'm new to Arizona myself big from what I see there is a school here for everyone ... From your description it does seem your older son would be more suited to a charter school. (yes there are many K-12)
When choosing a charter its all about what you are specifically looking for there are STEM schools, college prep, arts specific, accelerated, super accelerated, back-to basics etc. There are sooo many to choose from.
As the previous poster stated greatschools is a great website that has a wonderful easy to use 1-10 scoring system (you don't want to go lower then 8 imo) as well as scoring stats, demographics and teacher education. Arizona also has a statewide A-f score report that you can check.
If you want specific names of schools feel free to pm me.
We love CUSD. Top performing schools, excelling academics and great teachers. Any of the schools in the district are good but I would look at feeders into either Basha or Hamilton High. Chandler is good as is Perry but Basha and Hamilton are better rated. Keep in mind that if a school's sports programs are performing, typically their academics are performing as well (and vice versa).
Charter schools are just private schools that are funded by public money. They are very hit and miss so definitely check greatschools and look to the parent comments on the charters. Any of the CTAs would be good if you are looking at Charter schools.
The area is very nice as well, if you are looking in the Ocotillo area or around the Intel campus in west Chandler you may have a bit more transient students as Intel tends to move their people around quite a bit. My kids are in Elementary school and they regularly have students come in from different countries (notably Ireland, India and some of the Asian countries).
Just a bit of reassurance... we moved to Arizona 18 months ago, from Switzerland. There, my kids (although English) were in French-speaking schools, so as you can imagine it was a BIG transition! My then 11 year old went into the last 6 months of 6th grade, which is the final year of elementary here in Mesa, and my younger child went into the middle of 2nd grade.
My worries for them respectively were: for my son, that he was going to have to change schools again to go to middle school after just 6 months, and that he'd struggle to break into established social groups, especially when there might be an element of 'not worth the bother befriending X in this class, as we're all off to middle school shortly anyway'; for my daughter, it was the academics, as she couldn't really even read in English at that time.
But it's been completely fine. My son, who sounds similar to yours - sociable enough but not a joiner, not sporty, prefers one or two close friends to masses, all about the computers/ tech/ maths-y stuff - slotted perfectly into a small group of like-minded boys within days. My impression is that at this sort of age, a slightly geeky, on the edge of things kid is much easier to move than the King of the School, Captain of the Sports Team type, as there's much less Alpha Male and trying to carve out a public role involved.
The move up to middle school was stressfree, because everyone else was doing it and there were taster sessions, etc, plus he was probably better off because he wasn't as emotionally invested in the elementary anyway. You can trade on the recent move here too - it's either a success, in which case you can point out how good he is at changing schools, or it wasn't, in which case you can point out that it doesn't matter, as they'll all be changing friends and teachers shortly anyway :-)
My daughter was never going to struggle socially, but the academics worked out ok - the school was marvellous, and allocated her a lot of one-on-one pullout time for the first few months to bring her reading and writing up; now, at the end of 3rd grade, she's completely at grade. I can't fault at all the efforts they took with her.
If you decide to go public school, I'd recommend finding a high school you like the sound of, with the sort of programs/ electives that're likely to suit your oldest, then identifying the best middle school that feeds into it, then the best elementary - they all have their boundary maps online, so then it's just a question of renting or buying a house in 'that' square mile or so, and you're guaranteed a place.
The following is anecdotal and hearsay - take with as many pinches of salt as you like:
Charter high schools - I know a couple of families who chartered for elementary, but wouldn't consider doing it for high school (they moved their kids into public middle schools as a transition). The issue seems to be that in a small school, there's simply no breadth of electives and choices, and even outside of the sports that don't interest you, they can struggle to provide things like well-equipped science labs, woodworking, etc. Small year groups can also cause problems socially - tricky if, for example, in a class of 15 there's only a few boys or girls, and the others are all sporty or you've just fallen out with one - and academically, as there aren't enough kids to make up streamed sets or honours/ regular classes. You'd need to pick very carefully, I think, and make sure it wasn't an academic hothouse; the ones I know of around here pride themselves on drilling the basics relentlessly and giving immense amounts of homework, and an averagely bright student might be swamped and struggling.
My impression - again, from talking to others and asking lots of questions as we're also new to the US system - is that once you move from elementary and liking charters for small classes or the sense of parental control, then charters for the older kids are operating at the fringes: kids who are very accelerated by public school standards, or kids who struggle with attention in larger groups, or kids who only want to do arts, etc. I wouldn't rule charters out, but if it was me, I'd also want to be living in a neighborhood with an excellent public school as a back-up! Of course, the reverse applies - you could try the public school, then move him if it wasn't working out. Kids seem to come and go all the time throughout the school year; there seems to be an awful lot of trying out a school for a year, just to see...
Lots of information to take in, seems so overwhelming. When you talk of feeder schools, if I want a specific high school, do high schools only accept you if you came from a specific elementary school ?
Do most kids at an elementary school all go to the same high school, with some exceptions ?
Arizona has open enrollment. You can choose any school you want, with the caveat that you must provide your own transportation if you are outside the area designated for a school, and that people who live within a school's boundaries have priority over others if there is a waiting list for the school. Yes, children in an elementary school tend to end up going to the same middle school and high school but there are plenty of exceptions due to boundaries, school choice, people moving, etc.
FYI one of our boys went to a charter school that was 6-12 (now 5-12) so if this is a huge concern to you there are options.
Sorry, I meant 'feeder school' in an unofficial way - as pbenjamin said, AZ has open enrolment so you can pick any school that has a place anyway. Excelling ones DO fill up - my kids' elementary is a 10/10, A+ rated one, and they wanted to see a lease agreement with a boundary address before they'd even bother giving us a tour, to avoid wasting everyone's time.
On the other hand, it largely seems that once you're in, you're in; we've just bought a house that's out of boundary for the elementary, but in boundary for the middle school my son now attends and the high school I want them to go to, and it's been completely fine for my daughter to stay in her existing school. I have to fill in a boundary exemption each year, but the office lady says she's never heard of an existing student being turned away (and daughter has just been accepted for 4th grade). And worst case, she'll have to move to what's now our neighborhood school, which is almost as good, and where her new neighborhood friends go - it wouldn't be a disaster anyway.
In my area, all the kids I know of go to the default middle school (which is excellent and one of the reasons families choose to live here). Only one boy in my son's graduating 6th grade class didn't move up to the middle school, and that was because his family moved away during 6th grade, but had been driving him across the city so he could see out elementary in the same school.
My kids have been in school systems in 3 countries (UK, Switzerland, US) in 2 languages; my 12 yr old son is on his 7th school. I've come to the conclusion that there's no point fretting about the 'perfect' school - anywhere that's a 'nice' neighbourhood has a 'nice' school, and a child's experience there is at least 75% based on their individual teacher, which you simply can't know from the outset and changes year on year. We triangulated 'decent neighbourhood with houses we could comfortably afford to buy' with 'good work commute' and 'good high school with a wide range of academic and vocational programs', and it's all worked out fine.
I would very much recommend trying to pick the right community, then keeping kids in a nearby school, unless there's a compelling reason not to. My husband was sent to an out of boundary school, and consequently was very isolated during his teen years as he could never see his friends out of school hours and missed out on the informal bonding of drifting round to X's house to work on that project, or popping over for an hour without it having to parentally scheduled, like a toddler playdate.
Having a local school also encourages more independence from an earlier age - LOADS of kids at my daughter's elementary walk, or scoot, or bike, many more so than are brought by car. It's all very pleasingly 1950s.
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