School Decision Beaverton or Lake Oswego (Portland, West Linn: spring break, home, best schools)

[myhmjy]

Husband will be working in Wilsonville, OR. Some friends recommed Lake Oswego as the best schools around. Our 5th grade daughter is currently in gifted program and leaning at 2 grade above in our district. She is also the winner of math competition and essay contest in our district.

My internet search seems indicate Lake Oswego doesn't have seperated gifted program for middle schools, the gifted students will be following regular class with some teacher supports for extra works. And Beaverton has Summa program which my daughter's existing test scores should qualify her for entrance. Parents of gifted kids, do you think Summa will be a better choice. What happens after middle school for those kids? Lake Oswego's high schools are all ranked 10 on greatschool.com. But Beaverton's high schools are not that high ranked. So we are really debating. Of course we can move to Lake Oswego after she finished middle school at Beaverton, but we think that's socially not good for her.

Is the traffic from Beaverton to Wilsonville horrible? Will 30 mins be a good estimate? Thanks a lot.

[Nell Plotts]

I worked on NIKE's campus for a couple years, they have/had a distribution center in Wilsonville. The drive between the two sites was not quick even mid-day. Much would depend on exactly where you lived in Beaverton but 30 minutes would be a good day. Commute-wise Lake Oswego is MUCH better. Don't overlook West Linn.

There is no reason why Lake Oswego schools won't work well for your daughter. You can always augment with parental enrichment if need be. Were I in your shoes I would take your daughter's school record to the school first and see what they say. If you get a brush-off it won't get better IMHO (there is a saying in HR that the recruitment is the courtship, if you don't feel good at that stage it is time to make a graceful exit). There is a public-private school in the area, Riverdale, where you pay tuition if you aren't in their district. That may be an option for you. Those parents expect their children to make the first screen at top universities.. Riverdale district students have the option of attending either their small high school or Lake Oswego High Schools (9-12). Max you would have 3 years tuition at Riverdale if you lived in the Lake Oswego district, it would be a smooth transition socially, and your husband would have a much better commute.

The private school that has an international baccalaureate curriculum is Oregon Episcopal School. Expensive, but in comparison to Riverdale for an out of district student ?

[Twilighter]

We moved to OR 3 1/2 years ago. My kids were in grades 4 and 6 in the state we moved from. Both were also in the gifted program in our home state. We also looked at Lake Oswego for the schools. We rented there for a few months while house-hunting, and the kids attended a primary school. The LO school district at first refused to test my kids for their gifted program. Eventually we did get them to do it, but by then we realized the LO school culture was not a good fit for our kids. We encountered a lot of kids and parents who have more money than kindness. I know that is a generalization, but it is also our experience. I can only imagine how that is played out in high school.

We chose to settle instead in West Linn. The curriculum has kept them challenged. There are advanced placement math classes in middle school and other AP classes in the high schools.

West Linn-Wilsonville School District has nearly the same test scores as Lake Oswego. I suggest, however, that you consider the school culture in addition to scores.

[Nell Plotts]

+ Twilighter

[bkk1057]

BSD's Summa program is quite good. Most of the kids from the Summa program go on to either Westview or Sunset High Schools. Westview in particular has a large contingent of Summa kids. This year they had a number of Intel Science Talent semifinalists. I don't know anything about the Lake Oswego School dist.

[myhmjy]

Thanks for the inf. We will visit the area during spring break. Also see how bad the traffic is from Beaverton to Wilsonville. Unfortunately, both Beaverton and Lake Oswego districts are having spring break in the same week, so we can not visit the schools.

[doggiemama]

I've also heard wonderful things about the West Linn schools.

[Mclaurin]

I hesitate to say this. Teachers will tell you, many kids in Lake Oswego qualify for "gifted" programs, so there isn't much. Not sure it's true about so many being gifted, but the parents seem to think so. Be prepared, your "gifted" kid in one area may not get the same response in LO. Not that child isn't gifted, I don't mean to imply that.

Good things are said about West Linn. It has a rep. of being more developmental in approach for instance in math. Less rote, like LO. I think that is a good thing for a young child.

Your child will likely have peers in any of the schools you mention.

Another option is Catlin Gable a private school. When your daughter is in high school, St. Mary's is also great for girls.

The Portland public schools have some interesting options as well.

Look at Saturday Academy courses too.

[Nell Plotts]

Yes, in LO all the children are above average.

[Twilighter]

One more thing for you to look into and be prepared for is that 6th graders attend middle school in some (most?) Oregon districts. The schools spend time preparing the 5th graders and their parents for this transition. My daughter missed out on this transition and it made the move more difficult than it already was with a pre-teen girl. Wherever you end up, you might ask for help from both the primary and middle schools if you think the transition might be hard on your daughter. LO schools have 6th graders in the primary schools right now, but there is discussion about changing that as they decide about school closures, etc.

I have come to believe that a gifted program is not necessarily a deal-breaker. In some cases it is more of an enrichment program than academic. It's more important that the district and school is flexible in placing students in challenging classes and/or adjusting lesson plans to meet students' needs. I have found West Linn to be very adept at this.