What would you consider a good school? (home, school district)

[AztoORegon]

We all talk about how bad or how great the school system is or how well a particular school is doing. But what makes us come up with these answers? Yeah we can talk about lower class, under educated students. What concerns me is when my daughter comes home with ONE piece of homework for the entire week? Are you kidding me? When I was in school and even my nieces and nephews were in elementary school they would have a 10 to 15 page packet every week. Is this what we call a bad education? When I visit schools on my trip to Oregon, what should I be looking for besides student to teacher ratios, their ratings ( which are score based). Obviously I am moving to Oregon for a better future and want to make sure we pick the right area and go from there. But school to me is important as I am sure it is for everyone with children. Do we trust the ratings online that other parents give? Are we now to make sure our kids are learning more than they are at school? I still give my daughter extra work every week to make sure she is ahead but when the teacher stops giving her homework for 3 months what do you do? Do you assume they are learning what they need to know in class? HELP please

[Yankeemama]

It will be hard for you to pick a school from another state, though we did based on test scores on the pps web sites and gut feeling, really. We are quite pleased and i do believe our elementary students are well prepared for high school. Our parents do pay a lot for extras like music, dance, art, langusge classes outside of public schools. Prepare to donate to your foundation at your better schools here as foundation money pays for P.E., art, music, technology at these schools. Good luck.

[AztoORegon]

Thank you for that information. I do have my daughter involved in music currently and sports. My son is jsut almost 2 so we are preparing him as well. But for my daughter we are having issues now with her school and want to avoid that in the future. No reading logs, no math homework, literally nothing comes home. Now I can be the mother who sits back and does nothing and complained when her scores are not to par but I am not that type of person. The class was expected to only get 60 out of 300 on their first attempt on the first test, my daughter got 298/300 she even shocked me. She was put in A gifted program since. But even then she doesn't come home with anything.

While I am in portland and surrounding areas we are looking at distance to schools but great schools or good schools. We want to make sure we locate our selves closest to the schools that we like. Hope that helps. Any school names or areas I should look into?

[Nell Plotts]

Were I moving to a new community I would look at results. I had a nephew who never took 'homework' home. He did his assignments either in class or on the school bus. At the end of his sophomore year the school district told his parents that there was little more they could offer him. His choice was to attend college or find another school. Was he attending a 'good' school, not really. He was (is) very smart. The upshot was that a highly selective private high school gave him a scholarship.

Would I call the school that accepted him 'good'? Well yes in the sense that their graduates knock the socks off the SAT, but they only accept students with that potential.

If I were looking for a good school I would start by looking at the high school SATs. From there look at the feeder grade schools and their test results, then I would look at parent reviews on line with a grain of salt (every school gets a PITA teacher or principal for a while). When looking at hs SATs consider both the scores and the % of students who take the test. The % lets you know the portion of the student body who want to go to college. College attendance isn't the be all and end all but if that is your goal for your child you want them to be around students with similar goals.

[Yankeemama]

Thanks, Nell for some helpful advice. I have heard great things about Rieke in NW and Chapman has a good reputation, also on West side. East side i have friends whose kids go to Alameda, Beverly Cleary, Laurelhurst, Buckman and all parents are pleased with homework load and preparation. Check out PPS website and look at school info. That's how I did it and things have been very good for us. The parent involvement makes a huge difference.