I am completely and utterly lost in choosing/ranking the schools
Ok. here we go. Sasha starts kindergarden next year. We decided not to look into private schools and just
go with Stamford PS system.
We're choosing from a local school that we're assigned to and four magnet schools we can apply to.
The process is the following.
Stamford has four magnet schools to which you can apply and get into via lottery system.
Every magnet school has their own "specialty".
1. Local neighborhood school is 5 minutes walking distance and doesn't seem like a bad school but
it's nothing to rave about, I will actually know more about it next week when I go for open house there.
2. Westover Magnet School : quite a distance from home, about 15 minutes drive. This school is considered THE best elementary school in Stamford. A lot of people appply and so the chances are low.
Parents rave about the school, they have great programs, a lot of personal attention to children's needs. Very good stuff. Concentration is on arts/music/drama etc. Staff is deeply committed to the idea that schools need to teach children THINK rather than pass the tests. With that said, their test scores are high.
Every Kindergarten classroom has 2 teachers. Looping is used: same teacher in grades 1-2, and 3-4.
Grouping is used: children are groups for math/reading into different groups by their abilities/level.
Grouping is flexible and assessment is done frequently.
Great administration in school: very organized, principal and vice principal especially are amazing.
3. Toquam Magnet School: mixed reviews, school is very close, 5 minutes drive. They use Bank Street Model,
this is a social studies school. My personal review from the open house I went to: the school didn't make a good impression, administration is poor in my opinion, the principal lacks enthusiasm and professionalism.
4. Hart Magnet School: science and technology school. 10-15 minutes drive.
very mixed student population (although this is more or less the same in other schools).
Principal is amazing. School is small and they have the smallest Kindergarten classes in terms of number of children in class. I met several K teachers there and they made a good impression on me.
A LOT OF special programs/clubs/etc
5. Rogers School. Here's the most interesting school in my opinion(the farthest school, probably 20 minutes drive from us). I went there yesterday and I was blown away. Great presentation, sharp principal, great teachers and PTO. I haven't heard much about the school before, but they are an International Baccalaureate school. They have very unique program. The building they are in now is very old and rundown and the school is not in a great neighborhood.
The classrooms are open - no doors etc. This is the first time I saw something like that in Stamford Public schools. They do loop children (1-2 grade and 3-4 grade have the same base teacher).
The do group children by their abilities for math/inquiry/reading classes. The groups are flexible and
they make sure that the kids that excel do not get bored. for example: they explained that for a group of 5th graders that are above 5th grade level they are using different program(teaching different material) than for everybody else. This school is moving to a completely new Environment Magnet school building next year, (in the same neighborhood, 20 minutes from us) and is going to be a DISTRICT magnet school from Pre-K to grade 8. I am not sure if that's good or bad to be in such environment. For the International Baccalaureate school they have to be certified with some organization in Geneva etc etc.
I was wondering if any of you my friends know about the curriculum like that?
My head is exploding with all this info and the decision making that needs to happen.
I have to rate the magnet schools on my application. I have to do it by March 2nd.
I am yet to go to our neighborhood school and see what's going on there.
Yesterday me and Dima started looking at CMT(Connecticut Mastery Test results on
https://solutions1.emetric.net/cmtpublic/index.aspx ) as a measure to compare schools.
The question arises:
Do I just compare the schools? this seems very general to me.
Then do I just need to group by the ethnicity/advantaged/disadvantaged/speci
al/non-special add/subsidized lunches/not scores.
Ok, then I will see what scores middle class families children have within the schools.
But is that better? If the children are grouped then it's one thing, and then yes, I can assume
that my child is going to be studying with the group that is kinda her level.
And do I take into consideration the ethnicity distribution within the school?
E.g. some schools have 38% white population, some %59.
can I believe this statistics?
Yesterday at Rogers school I saw a lot of white kids, although the stats have only 28% there.
Working with numbers myself and not trusting the numbers...
Should I go with my gut feeling?
Damn, it's so difficult to make the decision.
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