Small family moving to Boston and need advice on a good elementary school with a balanced approach (Newton: house)

[sparty8888]

Hi,
We are a small family of 3 that will move to Boston this summer from California. My son currently attends a school which has a focus on "whole child education", which means hands-on and project-based learning, lots of parent participation and community building, and emphasis on socio-emotional development rather than good test score. The academic is good, but that's not the school's focus. We really, really love this school, so it's really hard for us to leave the school and the community.

I know that public schools in the suburbs such as Newton, Brookline are academically strong and have high test scores. However, do (some of )these schools take a progressive approach and value community building? Dear son is 6 and will be entering 1st grade in the fall.

Thanks ahead for your feedback/suggestions. We don't know anyone in Boston, so hopefully we could get some useful info on this forum.

[Dm84]

My experience has been that the only "good" school districts in MA are the ones with the highest test scores. People tend to look down on school districts with scores that are not the best, even if they are doing well otherwise.

[Scriptkitten]

Doesn't one of the acton elementaries have an alternative learning setup?

[SalamanderSmile]

Massachusetts in general is very "whole child" unfriendly with its monomaniaical focus on testing. It is a very strange environment because the same progressive parents that want holistic, nurturing, progressive, nature-based or waldorfy preschools want verifiably assessed and codified "good schools" when it comes time for real schools. The so-called "good schools" can only establish that they are "good" (and therefore worthy of inflated housing values) with testing. So these same parents that would rather eat paint than to send their sons to kindergarten before they are at least 6 have no problem handing them over full-day to an institution that sacrifices recess and lunch time for test prep at the kindergarten level.

It was when I called around to the "good schools" asking about recess and lunch and art,music, gym and library that we freaked out. There are bigger fish to fry than "how do they develop the whole child" when it comes to evaluating a town's schools in MA- is the library open more than once a week (Framingham, Natick?) is there a cafeteria/hot lunch (Newton), is there more than one 15 minute recess a day (Arlington), is lunch more than 15minutes long? Some really really basic questions that you would never think to ask need to be asked. The school we were zoned to was actually awesome compared to the answers I got from the "good schools" a.) had a luxurious 20 minute recess once a day after a 30min lunch b.) recess was 90% indoors due to topography/flooding at brand new building c.) art on a cart had replaced a dedicated art room, but they had art weekly d.) had a full time librarian and full time open library d.) gym was supposed to be twice a week but having all recess indoors had made gym not happen due to space e.) gifted intervention started in kindergarten with a program run by the librarian (turned out this was a special literacy program to support native speakers of english in an environment where they were in the minority and treated as "gifted".) f.) housed/mainstreamed the entire city's population of of kids that had proven themselves to be discipline/behavior problems in the city's other schools, so (in the case of that particular year of kindergarten) 30% of the whole kindergarten was part of this behavioral integration program.

If you do not succeed in finding a specifically progressive program at a public school (cambridge elementaries purport different learning environments you could look into them if you can afford to live in cambridge) I urge you to call/tour/rigorously query your short list of towns before signing on the dotted line.

And as I always I hold the excellent schools of Newton as an example.
[vimeo]58028843[/vimeo]
[vimeo]58028843[/vimeo]
https://vimeo.com/58028843

[00na]

McCarthy Towne, Merriam, or Douglas in Acton might fit your needs, but elementary school assignment is lottery. If you move to Acton, you are not guaranteed to get a spot at any particular school. However, from what I have observed, McCarthy Towne tends to have more space than the other schools in town.

[sparty8888]

Thanks so much everyone for your kind reply! SalamanderSmile, vow, you're really an expert on the local schools and I've learned a lot from reading your post. Thanks a lot for the video, too!

From my own research I found a school called "John D. Runkle" in Brookline, which seems to adopt a progressive approach. The greatschools rating is 9, which I think is good enough. Love the ethnic diversity too. Has anyone heard about or have any experience with this school?

I'll need to do more homework, and will visit some of the schools when we come for the house hunting trip. I'll update after I do that.

00na, I may skip those school that goes through a lottery system. I already feel both excited and nervous before the big moving. Thanks for the suggestions though.

[Tripngirl]

Originally Posted by sparty8888

Hi,
We are a small family of 3 that will move to Boston this summer from California. My son currently attends a school which has a focus on "whole child education", which means hands-on and project-based learning, lots of parent participation and community building, and emphasis on socio-emotional development rather than good test score. The academic is good, but that's not the school's focus. We really, really love this school, so it's really hard for us to leave the school and the community.

I know that public schools in the suburbs such as Newton, Brookline are academically strong and have high test scores. However, do (some of )these schools take a progressive approach and value community building? Dear son is 6 and will be entering 1st grade in the fall.

Thanks ahead for your feedback/suggestions. We don't know anyone in Boston, so hopefully we could get some useful info on this forum.

I know the town you need to check out. HOLLISTON - It's a town over from where the Boston
Marathon starts. The community is real...Boston Magazine has numerous times mentioned them.
The school system is awesome. Kindergarten you have a choice of French Immersion and/or
Montessori. This continues in the school - plenty of activities for the kids and family to enjoy
together. You don't say where you/husband will be working but there is a commuter rail to
Boston in Ashland, Framingham, and Southborough, - all towns nearby. Change is hard and your
6yr. old will feel welcome - as well as yourself. Home prices maybe a concern - but closer into
Boston the prices are higher. Natick maybe another town to check out...wish you luck!

[sparty8888]

Thanks so much for your reply! My husband will be working in downtown Boston.
Holliston sounds great! I just checked the google map and saw that it is on the West side. The commute may be a little long though. Will see...

Originally Posted by Tripngirl

I know the town you need to check out. HOLLISTON - It's a town over from where the Boston
Marathon starts. The community is real...Boston Magazine has numerous times mentioned them.
The school system is awesome. Kindergarten you have a choice of French Immersion and/or
Montessori. This continues in the school - plenty of activities for the kids and family to enjoy
together. You don't say where you/husband will be working but there is a commuter rail to
Boston in Ashland, Framingham, and Southborough, - all towns nearby. Change is hard and your
6yr. old will feel welcome - as well as yourself. Home prices maybe a concern - but closer into
Boston the prices are higher. Natick maybe another town to check out...wish you luck!

[Tripngirl]

Hi
Just checked in on the site...
Did you make the move? If you did the temperatures
In the 70's will seem like California. Let me know if I
can answer questions. Love to help if I can.
Nancy