Best suburbs/schools (Phoenix, Scottsdale, Chandler: low income, transplants, house)

[harmonylife]

My husband just got a job in Chandler. What suburbs are the best (i.e., safest, nicest, best schools) without a long commute? It doesn't seem as if their is a stellar school system in Phoenix, but I may be wrong. I am coming from a phenomenal system in VA, and would love to find the equivalent. What about the charter schools? Are they extremely difficult to get into?

Thanks,

[homesweetazhome]

Chandler Unified, Kyrene (West Chandler) and Gilbert have the best schools in the area. This was in yesterday's paper, " Chandler’s Hamilton High School was recently named one of America’s best high schools by U.S. News & World Report. Hamilton High, which earned a silver medal from the publication was selected from more than 21,000 public high schools and judged on the key principles that a great high school must serve all its students well, not just those who are bound for colleges. Hamilton was also recently designated on the nation’s top high schools by Newsweek magazine."
Housing is plentiful with many desperate sellers willing to negotiate. I have a
Free Relocation Guide to Chandler on my website that might help you out. Good Luck!

[US-Traveller]

There are a lot of very good schools in the Phoenix area. I know Arcadia is very well regarded as is the entire Scottsdale school system, but that might be a longer commute.

[lola8822]

Scottsdale and PV are great school systems....PUSD and DVUSD are also amazing.....

[Ponderosa]

Charter schools are just publicly funded schools that operate outside some of the rules that regulated public schools must follow (mostly financial accountability). All you have to do is sign up - it is a public school and is "free". Some are excellent, some are horrible. You have to do your homework with them same as any school. The rule of thumb here and everywhere is affluent area = good schools, lower income = poor schools. It's not always true but a great place to start. There are also private schools - mainly religious - but they are not that common suggesting that people with money are happy enough with the public education system.

[gsheridan]

I was going to start a separate thread about schools, but since there are so many, I thought I'd just pick up on this one.

I've gotten some great advice on areas/neighborhoods in this forum on another thread, and now I'm starting to think about schools. My list of areas is similar to the original poster on this thread. I'm looking at Scottsdale/North Scottsdale, Tempe, Ahwatukee, Arcadia, Biltmore, and North Phoenix,
but probably Scottsdale/North Scottsdale and Tempe most seriously.

Some posters on the other thread I started about neighborhoods gave me great advice on areas with good schools, but since this thread is specifically about schools, I thought it would be a good place to ask which school districts within the areas I listed above are considered the absolute best.

I found this list of Excelling schools, and that's where I started my search for neighborhoods.

Best Schools in Phoenix - Find a Good School in Maricopa County

Now I'm wondering if there are big differences between the schools in this Excelling group. Also, my wife visited Phoenix recently, and someone living there, who also made the move from the suburbs of NY to Phoenix, told her that even the best schools in Arizona don't compare to the schools in NY. I personally find that kind of hard to believe. I guess anything is possible, but it's not like they're teaching Calculus in the 3rd grade class my daughter's in now. It did concern me enough that I thought I should at least ask, though. And if this really is the case, then I want to make sure we definitely get into the best of the best schools. It would be pretty upsetting if my kids ended up repeating the material they did this year in school, although I doubt that's likely.

Some background....
Next year, I'll have a child in Kindergarten, a 2nd grader, and a 4th grader.
None of them have special needs, and they're all above average students, but nothing off the charts.

I know "the best" is kind of subjective, but that's why I'm curious what the locals think. I don't
do regular research on the schools in my area of NY, but I've lived in the area my whole life - I have a feel for the towns and also hear enough about what's going on with the kids to have an idea which schools are best and which to avoid. For example, there's one high school near me which regularly has pretty high scores on standardized tests, but there's definitely a small, but significant gang element there. I wouldn't pay $50 for a house in that area.

I'm also curious to hear about the experiences of other NY/NJ transplants, and whether you've found the gap in the schools to be as great as some people say.

One last note - I don't need Lilly White - I'm not against it, but I'm not opposed to diversity either. On the other hand, I'm not going to send my kids to a school that has known problems because of low income areas, just to prove I'm open minded. BTW, I realize high income areas can have problems too(like drugs), but attracting qualified teachers usually isn't one of them. It's funny - if you have a single strand of Republican in you, it gets exposed rather clearly when you're picking schools - I see it pretty clearly in myself.

Thanks.

[lyzzard]

I asked a teacher I trust where they would want to work if they could, and where they think the best place for my kids would be. The top two picks were Cave Creek and the Madison districts. Of course, both places I wont be able to send my kids when they are ready, go figure, but I trust their judgment.

I asked about Charter schools, and got about the same advice others have given, do research on them first, especially about where their financing comes from.

However, in the end I don't believe you will get near the same quality here as you would in VA. VA schools are phenomenal compared to here. If we had the chance to put our kids in school here or VA, I would pick VA with no hesitation, but that's just my personal opinion.

[gsheridan]

Thanks for the info. A teacher should know best what's going on in the schools. Cave Creek looks nice, but it might be just outside our range geographically(my wife will be working near the Sky Harbor airport).

Is Madison the district for the Arcadia area? I've heard the district is very good from several sources. My wife is worried about being too close to downtown because of crime? Is Arcadia safe? Is it near areas that are unsafe? The other thing I think I read about Arcadia(or maybe it was Biltmore) is that the lower schools are good, but the high school is not so good. Our kids are still very young, but I wouldn't want to be in an area where the high school was inferior or dangerous.

I've found some great info on schools at these 2 web sites:

Schooldigger.com -- Search and compare elementary, middle, and high schools.

[SIZE=3]GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
The second one has lots of reviews by parents, which was very helpful in getting a
feel for the philosophy of the schools, beyond the numbers.
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]

[observer53]

Originally Posted by gsheridan

Thanks for the info. A teacher should know best what's going on in the schools. Cave Creek looks nice, but it might be just outside our range geographically(my wife will be working near the Sky Harbor airport).

Is Madison the district for the Arcadia area? I've heard the district is very good from several sources. My wife is worried about being too close to downtown because of crime? Is Arcadia safe? Is it near areas that are unsafe? The other thing I think I read about Arcadia(or maybe it was Biltmore) is that the lower schools are good, but the high school is not so good. Our kids are still very young, but I wouldn't want to be in an area where the high school was inferior or dangerous.

I've found some great info on schools at these 2 web sites:

Schooldigger.com -- Search and compare elementary, middle, and high schools.

[SIZE=3]GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
The second one has lots of reviews by parents, which was very helpful in getting a
feel for the philosophy of the schools, beyond the numbers.
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]

This will duplicate my post on the other thread, but Arcadia is not Madison Dist, it's Scottsdale Unified. Nowhere near downtown Phx, or any "undesirable" area. It is neither inferior or dangerous, (ranked #28 of 312 on the site you mentioned) and the elementary schools in the Scottsdale district/Arcadia residential area as described elsewhere) are good. You may be confusing it with some other area, perhaps Biltmore. There, you'd be looking at Camelback High, I think, ranked #212 of 312. The HS dist is separate there (Phx Union HSD) than the elem dists (Madison, primarily, I think).