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Which school would you pick?

Charly's picture

I have listed several facts about my EXH school district and my school district. I have not told you which district is mine. Based on the following information, which district would you pick?

SCHOOL A

Student/teacher ratio 13:01
TEA RATING Academically acceptable
TAKS met standard Reading (2011) 91%
TAKS met standard Math (2011) 89%
TAKS met standard writing (2011) 96%
TAKS met standard S.Studies (2011) 90%
TAKS met standard Science 90%
Graduation Rate over past 10 years 92%
% of economically disadvantaged students34%
AVG SAT SCORE 995
AVG ACT SCORE 21.5
Participates in the AVID program no
Teaching using technology w.IPADS no

SCHOOL B

Student/teacher ratio 14:03
TEA RATING Exemplary
TAKS met standard Reading (2011) 96%
TAKS met standard Math (2011) 93%
TAKS met standard writing (2011) 97%
TAKS met standard S.Studies (2011) 99%
TAKS met standard Science 94%
Graduation Rate over past 10 years 97.00%
% of economically disadvantaged students 20%
AVG SAT SCORE 1094
AVG ACT SCORE 23.5
Participates in the AVID program yes
Teaching using technology w.IPADS yes

Comments

PeopleAreStrange's picture

School b, unless there is more to the child's specific situation. For instance, my bff in high school switched schools because ours dropped swimming. She switched to one with a better swim team and got a full ride to college.

Charly's picture

Kids are going into 3rd grade next year, so not too involved in sports or hopes of scholarships yet. No special needs.

Confused - I agree. My husband and I are both members of the PTA in our district, my husband is also a member of the program for Dad's at the school. I communicated regularly with both of their teachers this past year, and I completely agree that the parent plays a huge role in their academic success.

overworkedmom's picture

B sounds better, obviously, but A doesn't sound like a "bad" school. It just sounds average. I agree with Confused. Parent involvement is the key to success in school.

stepmisery's picture

To be very honest, in Texas these stats do not indicate a very big difference. Now if one school was low performing, very high rate of low income students or other indicators but I'm not seeing that here.

In fact, School A has a very high graduation considering the greater percentage of economically disadvantaged students.

These schools are about evenly matched with an edge, on paper, to School B.

DeeDeeTX's picture

All else being equal, the courts aren't going to let dad switch school districts just because. Unless there is a pressing reason, they won't want to take them away from where they are performing well and have friends, etc.

I agree with a poster above, though. While B sounds slightly better than A, it's not such a big difference that I think it's really going to matter.

Charly's picture

Someone pointed out that they chose School B based on the SAT scores alone, because to get into a good college, you need to have at least a score of 1000. Thoughts?

Charly's picture

Part of the research is to prepare for the hearing, part is for myself to make sure I am doing the right thing for my kiddos.

Charly's picture

We visited with the principal at the beginning of last year and explained the areas where one kid struggled, she placed him in a class with a reading specialist, which is where he struggled. She was very accomodating.

The previous year, at EXH'S district, they were convinced that something was wrong with him, they tested him for every learning disability in the book and all of them came out negative. It was the end of the year and his teacher decided to try a different approach and his grades started to come up about the last 3 weeks of school....they would not listen to our requests and ideas to try small changes, they just assumed he had a learning disability.

Aislinn81's picture

Honestly, the stats make not one big whoop to a judge...

BM and DH had this exact same fight in court. BM moved to a hoity toity neighborhood across the city because it had the "best" TAKS scores and demanded the kids be allowed to go there.

Judge told her to screw off. The kids have been in our schools since they were in Pre-K. All their friends are in these schools. Their extra-curriculars are at these schools. They both make straight A's. The kids were 7 and 11 at the time.

To be blunt, I think you are wasting your money and causing yourself unnecessary drama. The kids are already in your schools. It doesn't MATTER which one is better and honestly at the end of the day, it's about how YOUR kids perform, not about how EVERYONE ELSE'S kids perform. If your kids are doing fine, a judge isn't going to let your ex move them just because he says so.

Charly's picture

I agree, neither of the schools are bad. They attended school b last year, school a the previous 2 years. They primarily live in school district b. They have friends in both school districts.

B offers more activities and has longer standing programs. Some of the programs at school a (football) just started a year or so ago.

Charly's picture

No, not newer, smaller. They just added football 2 years ago. Haven't asked the kids, worried they will feel like they are choosing between parents. Friends are good at both schools.