OMG, Seattle Public School that horrifying?! Need advice! (Issaquah, Pacific: daycare, how much)

[PacificMermaid]

Well, before I visited this forum, I was happy and ready to choose one of the five schools(Laurelhurst, View Ridge, Wedgewood, Brian, and John International) around UW campus to enroll my daughter for kindergarden August 2012. Now, I need to step back and know more.

We will move to Seattle June 2012 due to my husband's one-year fellowship training at UW.We have two kids, the older one is going to kindergarden next year. Due to my husband's future demanding work schedule, we'd like live close to his work(my job at Seattle is unknown at this point). It is critical that we pick a good school for her, with strict academic requirements, high-quality teachers and good peer environment. Five schools were handpicked by me via pure web research(schooldigger.com), Brian, Laurelhurst, View Ridge, Wedgewood, and John International. They are ranked high(John Internationl is lower than others) among all the WA public shcools based on Math & Reading scores of WA state standardized tests.

But, I were just told by a friend that I should read the rankings with reservations when choosing school, since some schools offer Optional/Talented class(a test required to get in), which is much much better than the rest of the world.

My questions come:

1. Do the five publics school surrounding UW offer "Optional" classes? What is the often-talked-about(good) school in that neiborhood?
2. How bad/good are the Seattle public schools compared to suburb ones? I need some elaborations.
3. An unrelated question...how much is the daycare charge per month for a 2 year old in Seattle?

Thanks.

[benleis]

Originally Posted by PacificMermaid

Well, before I visited this forum, I was happy and ready to choose one of the five schools(Laurelhurst, View Ridge, Wedgewood, Brian, and John International) around UW campus to enroll my daughter for kindergarden August 2012. Now, I need to step back and know more.

We will move to Seattle June 2012 due to my husband's one-year fellowship training at UW.We have two kids, the older one is going to kindergarden next year. Due to my husband's future demanding work schedule, we'd like live close to his work(my job at Seattle is unknown at this point). It is critical that we pick a good school for her, with strict academic requirements, high-quality teachers and good peer environment. Five schools were handpicked by me via pure web research(schooldigger.com), Brian, Laurelhurst, View Ridge, Wedgewood, and John International. They are ranked high(John Internationl is lower than others) among all the WA public shcools based on Math & Reading scores of WA state standardized tests.

But, I were just told by a friend that I should read the rankings with reservations when choosing school, since some schools offer Optional/Talented class(a test required to get in), which is much much better than the rest of the world.

My questions come:

1. Do the five publics school surrounding UW offer "Optional" classes? What is the often-talked-about(good) school in that neiborhood?
2. How bad/good are the Seattle public schools compared to suburb ones? I need some elaborations.
3. An unrelated question...how much is the daycare charge per month for a 2 year old in Seattle?

Thanks.

I think what you're referring to is the Spectrum program for Gifted and Talented kids. Not all the schools you listed have Spectrum. When you test in the district buses you to the nearest school in the cluster that offers Spectrum if it isn't at your school. (Kids from Bryant for example go to Wedgewood for Spectrum) Just to complicate things there is also the APP program which is for the top district wide kids and only offered at 1 school (Lowell for elementary) which you'd also bus to if your kid was admitted. Also none of this applies until first grade so it doesn't sound like an issue for you if you're only here for 1 year and its K.

The Seattle school quality varies quite a bit across the district. The ones you list above are all very good and should offer a comparable education to one you'd get anywhere in the suburbs. The one issue to be aware of is overcrowding. Enrollment has recently started rising and the district is scrambling for space. My kindergartener is in a class of 26 which is pretty common in the North East cluster.

Hope this helps,
Ben

[PacificMermaid]

Ben, thanks for your feedback. I liked "The ones you list above are all very good and should offer a comparable education to one you'd get anywhere in the suburbs"...it is reassuring that we could live around UW...actually we are open to move to suburbs if the gap is considerate.

Instead of lots of people's house-hunting trip, we will have a school-hunting trip this weekend...4 hours and half air time from where we live now...imagine how deep inner land/remote we live now:-)...hope I will have ability to untangle the complexibity of Seattle public school system once I have the visuals... I am expecting 30-40% jump in the living expense... any tips of living frugal in Seattle will be appreciated...for example, I always wonder whether we should get rid of one car...

[texastrigirl]

I think ratios would be something to look at as well as curriculum, though really K curriculum is pretty basic. I find that what I did at home was more important than what he learned at school in K and he was in full day. K is mostly about developing listening and social skills. My kids are in the Issaquah School District and when my youngest was in K they ended up 20 kids in his class after starting at 18. He is in 3rd grade now and has 22 in his class. It's pretty much been between 19-23 kids most years and an aide would often come in to help support in certain cases. The reality is that kids are all over the board developmentally in K, even if they went to preschool. To me, that's where the lower ratios are valuable in identifying if your child needs extra help.

The other thing you may or may not know about is that K classes are only funded for half day in WA State. To get full day you have to get in the lottery for it and then pay extra for it. For us in ISD, that was $300 per month and that was years ago, so not sure if it's gone up. And not sure how it works in SPS. Most people in ISD get full day that want it but it can be a nerve wracking process if you really want/need full day and get waitlisted.

http://www.seattleschools.org/module...&pageid=222322

[PacificMermaid]

thanks. I want to make sure I ask the teach/student ratio question.

Agree with you that home teaching is even more important...One particular reason why I want to check out "optional"/"Spectrum"/APP program is that those kids enrolled usually have very supportive("pushy", even tiger-mom type) parents, thus the little environment is more beneficial for both kids and parents. I have to admit that I have been "lousy" parent...but now it is time for me to change as she is entering real schools.

My daugher can speak fluent spanish(her daycare is a spanish-speaking) and I don't want her to loose it too soon. John Internatonal offers two foreign languages immersion programs - Spanish and Japanese. But I read some very negative reviews on that school...If any one knows anything about that school, please let me know. Thanks a lot.

[tobester]

There are also several very high quality private schools you might want to look at ... Lakeside, Bush, St. Josephs

[Andy]

Originally Posted by benleis

The Seattle school quality varies quite a bit across the district.

This.

Seattle has really good schools and it has some of the worst in the state. Many of the surrounding suburban school districts are superior to Seattle.

[PacificMermaid]

Thanks for the suggestion. The private school is off the table at this point. A top notch private school in my current city is 20k/year, mediocre one 8k to 13k, excluding after school. Wonder about the price tags in Seattle.

[Bill Loney]

I have 2 daughters that attended Whittier ES in Ballard. Both were in the Spectrum Program. Superb school. Great program. A private school education in the public sector. Can't say how it is now since it's been 8 years.

Spectrum was the top 5%, APP was the top 1%.

Generally speaking those schools will test very well as a result.

[PacificMermaid]

want to confirm...Spectrum/APP program usually start from 1st grade? The five schools I mentioned earlier won't have this program for Kindergarden?