Need advice on schools and moving (Fort Worth, Denton: 2013, apartments, home)

[kblume]

Hello,
I need some advice on moving and the schools that are in the North part of Fort Worth. I am a beginning teacher that is looking for a teaching position. I have interviews coming up, but if I do not recieve a teaching position I would like to substitute teach.

I have been to the Forth Worth area twice and fell in love with the area that is just North of Fort Worth (Justin, Denton, Ponder, Roanoke, and some others). I have interviewed for Northwest School District and would love to be a substitute for them. If you know of any other schools let me know. Also let me know if there is a school that I should stay away from or if there is a really great school let me know that too. I need all the help I can get.

I love the small town life, I come from a town of 5,000. My dream town would be a small town outside of a big city so there would be things to do that are not far away and live in a good school district.

I'm a 25 year old, white, single female that would love to move to a safe, fun town. Any advice on schools, neighborhoods, housing/apartments, things to do, etc whether it is bad or good, please let me know. I would like to make the best informed decision that I can make.

[Guingirl]

Welcome!! Im not a teacher but a parent of a future Northwest ISD student and the reasons you mentioned is the reasons we chose the particular area. There is a lot of growth in the area and they are building a lot of new schools in the district.

Keller ISD is also growing, but they have had a lot of issues, I think mostly growing pains. The District office itself is going through a lot of changes from my understanding. It is still well thought of and with any job, career etc., there are highs, lows, changes and adjustments. The area is still drawing a lot of people to it. It maybe more suburban than you may want.

[loves2read]

check out the region XI web site--there is link there that gives teaching openings that you can search

http://www.esc11.net/823100920135138/blank/browse.asp?a=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&c=51976&8231009 20135138Nav=|&NodeID=170

have to cut and paste but it should work and you can check it towards start of school if you don't find a job now--lots of things happen with people moving right before and sometimes even the first week of school....

one thing I discovered from my teaching (and it may be strictly within the last district I taught at) but they were not always ready to hire the people who did their subsitution work--there were sometimes people who were fairly regular about subsituting in my dept--some of them would have liked full time jobs--sometimes they really never got interviewed--think the mentality on some admins part was if they were subs, they weren't the best choice or they would have had a job---I don't agree with that--but I saw it several times--and I also saw them hire a sub w/o a teaching certificate or any experience beyond subbing for a G/T job (a cream puff job) and he was a lousy pick--more charm than teaching ability and just too lazy to really be demanding of quality...they loved him but he was a "wuss" in the classroom...

good luck

[hypocore]

It will depend somewhat on what level you teach and what you are looking for in a school as to where you may really want to be.

For a general idea of a school check out GreatSchools.net They have some simple statistics for comparison such as ratings, average years of teaching for the teachers, average class size (usually one grade only listed). They also list percentages of ethnicity, english proficiency, gifted students and amount on free/reduced lunches. That can give you an overall idea of what the school demographics is.

Then check out the district website and get a feel for how they run the district. Top admin can make a huge difference for the general way a district is run, but there may be a fantastic principal that makes a particular school a great place to work as well.

All school districts here have preferred schools to teach in and that will vary based upon individual opinion. My oldest is a 4th grade teacher and loves the school she is in, though it's not the most sought after one in the district.
My second daughter will graduate next year and will be looking for a teaching position in a high school teaching math and already has an idea where she wants to be. They will likely end up in different disticts. haha

I also have a daughter going into 4th grade and one of the teachers in her school began as a substitute after moving here and then was hired mid year when another teacher left. She will begin her second full year teaching this next August.

Good luck with your search!

[DFWHall]

I just had a client who purchased a home specifically to work in Northwest ISD and she moved here from Kentucky. Word must be spreading the NWISD is the place to be.

It seemed like up until this year, people wanted Keller ISD (many neighborhoods in that part of the county are split between K and NW ISD's) more often than they wanted NW. I am seeing the shift occur and I have to agree with one of the previous posters that the issue is growing pains. Keller went from it's infantcy into adulthood with a burst of activity and it appears that they weren't quite ready for the growth. Keller is still a great area with access to everything you can imagine, but NW ISD is making a strong comeback--not that NW declined, but more that Keller perhaps has. Our local schools have changed from year to year recently and my thought is that when making a decision such as this it might be better to go with those that are on their way up, rather than those on the way down...my two cents.

[kblume]

Thanks for all of your info. I've been thinking of subbing for maybe 4 districts in a particular area to get a feel for where I would want to go before I decide. I was thinking for sure Northwest and Keller, and thinking about Denton, Ponder and a couple of others close by. Any others I should consider that are not too far of a commute.

Also, I need advice on apartments/housing that would be reasonable and maybe a part time evening/weekend job that I can do to make sure I have income coming in.
Thanks again.

[loves2read]

there is post on the dallas side with interesting ratings for districts with low-income/free lunch type students and district TAKS scores--(not separated by schools and sometimes certain schools have really high % of free-lunch vs district so it is not as accurate as it could be)
from what I see on rankings...
Northwest should be doing much better TAKS-wise based on low % of their free-lunch students....and ratings will probably get worse because of large numbers of students moving in to district who are all on different levels initially--not familiar with district curricula--maybe from out of state as well...

HEB is doing very well considering how many free-lunch students it has...

Highland Park because of so few free lunch and high TAKS scores ranked 1