Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Preface: We have a 4 year old daughter going to Pre-K now. She will be 5 by Aug 31st 2015, so she can go to Kindergarten. We are thinking of sending her to a WCPSS charter or magnet school next year.
I have been trying to read some threads here to get some information, but y'all are throwing around lingo I can't understand.
Some basic questions:
1) What is a "rising" kindergartner?
2) What is an FRL ratio for a school, and why would one be concerned about it?
We really want our daughter to learn a second language and be fluent in it like English. Any opinion on the immersion magnet schools? Some of the other magnet programs also seem to offer a world language instruction. How do those compare? Any opinion on the 'Leadership & World Languages', 'International Baccalaureate PYP', 'Dual Language' schools?
People usually say "rising" over the summer if they're on a traditional schedule. The student is "rising" when they're no longer in 2nd grade (finished it), but haven't started 3rd grade yet. Sometimes people use it to just mean that their child will be in that grade next year, too.
FRL is Free and Reduced Lunch or sometimes you see FARM or FRM, Free and Reduced Meals. The higher the percentage of FRL the higher the number of lower income kids in the school. I wouldn't be overly concerned with it as long as the school is performing well and kids and parents are happy with the school. My 5th grader's school in Chapel Hill/Carrboro has a high percentage of kids who get FRM (breakfast and lunch), but we've been very happy with the school and the teachers and course offerings.
I think dual language programs are great. I can't speak to specific programs in Wake County since we're in Chapel Hill. I didn't put my kids in one because my older daughter had a huge amount of separation anxiety as a little kid and going to school in English was pretty much more than she could handle. We ended up in a private school for the first few years before moving over to public school. By then it was too late to do the dual language for either of my kids. In Chapel Hill you need to start in K or 1st unless you can demonstrate enough proficiency with the language to keep up with classwork in the later grades. The families I have known who have done dual language have been very happy with it.
Preface: We have a 4 year old daughter going to Pre-K now. She will be 5 by Aug 31st 2015, so she can go to Kindergarten. We are thinking of sending her to a WCPSS charter or magnet school next year.
I'm guessing this is not new info for you but wanted to bring it up anyway - just because you would like to send your child to a charter or magnet school does not mean that will necessarily be possible. My family is in DPS so I know less about WCPSS, but typically, both charter & magnet schools require an application and results are by lottery. So it's possible that neither of those options will be open to your family if luck is not on your side during the lottery process.
I'm guessing this is not new info for you but wanted to bring it up anyway - just because you would like to send your child to a charter or magnet school does not mean that will necessarily be possible. My family is in DPS so I know less about WCPSS, but typically, both charter & magnet schools require an application and results are by lottery. So it's possible that neither of those options will be open to your family if luck is not on your side during the lottery process.
This is true and I would add that magnets are open only to those in the district. Charters are open to anyone in the state. For example, Wood Charter has 32 kindergarten slots open to anyone in the state but siblings get priority over new admits so they have a sibling lottery first then the general lottery. Some Charters and magnets are more popular then others.
We are at Farmington Woods IB PYP. We love it and have known several families that have gone through the program and then have been able to choose a middle school magnet program that fits their child. ES tours really help evaluate the school. Feel free to PM me if you want more info on Farmington Woods or other WCPSS ES in Western Wake or magnet ES. Good luck!
Thanks all for the replies so far. I attended the Magnet Mini-Fair today at the Millbrook ES, so I am a little bit more knowledgeable about the magnet school options now. Unfortunately, still a newbie in the charter school space.
Questions -
Is there a separate lottery for every charter school? Do I have to participate in each of them individually? If so, do they all have different dates and procedures?
How do I know if a charter is "legit" (has proper accreditation etc.)? For magnet schools, I can look at the Wake County PSS website, but WCPSS doesn't show charter schools. I found this site. Is this a reliable resource?
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction should have information on charter schools. They are publicly funded, but operate independently of the public schools.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
