Help with U.S school system

[AandD]

Originally Posted by proudestmonkey

You'll find the system here is very different. In Massachusetts especially people basically buy their way into good schools through the town they live in and the schools can vary greatly from town to town because it greatly depends on the funding from the town.

So true! I've always said I'd rather live on the fringes of the best town eating beanie-weanies, rather than have the best house in a lesser community, just so my kids can get a better education.

While there are exceptions everywhere - in general you pay for a higher quality education, even in the public school system.

[proudestmonkey]

Haha, just read my post again and I apologize for the poor grammatical marking and redundant wording, I had a 1 year old crawling on me!

[maggiekate]

Originally Posted by brenda107

Hi we are moving from Ireland to MA at the end of the month. My husband will be working in Marlboro and we are looking for somewhere nice to live close by with good schools. We are going to rent until we are sure where we want to settle. I have been on greatschools website a lot but I really do not understand the school system yet. We do not have any site like this here for national school. Do I trust the ratings ? How do they work ?
Also we are planning to visit schools next week does anyone have any tips on what kind of questions we should be asking?
In Ireland children start school at the age of 5 they do 2 years called junior and senior infants, from there it goes from 1st to 6th class when students finish this school and go on to post primary school where they finish after 6 years usually at the age of 18.Can anyone explain how the school system works in the U.S. I am a little confused we do not have middle schools here.
Here kids learn to read and write in junior infants at the age of 5. My 7 year old is in first class and has a reading age of 11 this is quite common here. On some of the posts I have read here people have said that kids do not learn to read and write until 1st grade. Any advice here would be greatly appreciated. My main concern with moving is all to do with schools. Don't think the budget will stretch for private yet. Are they as expensive as people say? We have two school going boys aged 7 and 11.
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Natick is near however the schools not so sure.
My advice is to really contact the schools and then do decide. Also if not in the best school you also could help them.