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I am a single mother of fiived girls. Currently we live in NJ. It is very expensive to live here. I been given a lot of thought of moving to NH. It is the safest state in America. However, as I did my research on the schools there, it states that the schools are failing. Are schools using 21st century tecnology? As I checked on greatschools.net, it says that Auburn,NH has a great school. I would love to live in the country, but close to the stores.
I would not trust Great Schools. It is a very subjective site and often seems heavily skewed by just a couple of parent reviews.
Income levels of the community is highly linked to achievement. Therefore, those areas with higher rates of poverty have lower performance.
Actually it doesn't use the parent reviews to grade schools. Criteria is based off of test scores in relations to the school size. With that said, you can have some tiny schools with high test scores with a 6 due to not having say all high 90's in terms of percentage or if one subject is below the state average. it is also based upon the state, not on a national level. So, you do have to keep some things in mind.
In my town paper, it said one of our schools failed the NCLB requirements or something. Seems like not enough students showed improvement. What really gets on my nerves is (the article did point this out) that scores of special needs students are factored in with the total. This really pisses me off, because if your district has enough special needs students then of course it's really going to affect the total scoring.
And BTW, Greatschools.net compares schools within a state, not across the country. This was a limitation we found when we moved here from CA.
In my experienced opinion, income level is relative to achievement within a district for three reasons:
1. Some effectively homeschool their own children.
2. Some (gainfully employed with skills or knowledge) share their knowledge/skills and teach their own children at home after school.
3. Some have the means to pay private school tuition or supplement their children's education with tutoring or classes outside of school.
All of the above prioritize the quality of their children's education.
More info on NH public schools:
Thomas B. Fordham Institute - (http://www.edexcellence.net/detail/news.cfm?news_id=358&pubsubid=1308#1308 - broken link)
And remember that each district is unique. If you want teachers who actually teach concepts and methods to mastery and not just 'facilitate' students to learn in vague, creative and non-precise ways (even at elementary levels when a basic foundation should begin to form) ask districts if they use 'constructivism' or 'active learning' directly. Postmodern educational fads which are failing students. When 70% or more of your tax dollars support public education, wouldn't you expect to be informed that teachers were not employed as direct instructors?
I at least respect Amherst's Souhegan HS for publicly announcing their membership with the coalition of essential schools, employing these methods. Other districts, Hollis for example, have sneakily employed them with no respect to taxpayers and parents.
The school around the Upper Valley are good. Also, don't equate technology with good education. I'm a teacher in TX and the state has been pushing more and more tech in the classrooms. In my opinion, it is making kids lazy--if they can't click a button to do it for them, they can't figure out how to do it on their own.
"21st Century Skills" is an educational fad in which students are supposed to rely on computers and even handheld devices - sacrificing basic instruction at elementary levels and cognitive load at all levels. Around the time it was purchased here in Hollis, I had been inquiring about why our elementary schools lack grammar, spelling and vocabulary curriculum.
I was told at a public meeting by a school board member that elementary students do not need any spelling curriculum at all because computers have word processors and spell checking, for example. We are turning out students who pick up these things inuitively along the way, with huge gaps in all areas, especially math/problem solving.
Whenever you see 75 kids on an honor roll it is a red flag that it is not a merit based education.
Still time to bash Souhegan and sing the same old tune!
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