1st, 2nd & 3rd Grade

Hi everyone, I'm new here.  I have 3 boys and my oldest ds is a 1st grader, so I'm new to the whole school experience!  I'm wondering how much weight you place on a school's test scores?  Or do you just look at your own experience to judge whether it's a good school?  My ds seems to like school (except every morning asks "do I have to go to school today" which I'm assuming is a normal boy thing???), he has friends there, and his teacher has been fine (but I don't have anything to compare her to since this is my first 1st grader!).  She has 20 yrs. experience w/ a specialization in Reading.

Our school has received low test scores (3rd & 5th grade MN state testing for Reading & Math) for the past 3 years.  They are on some kind of "probation" and now have a special task force to identify problems and improve teacher training and they've offered free tutoring if needed. 

There have been 2 articles in our local newspaper about our school about the low test scores and parents concern.  Yesterday there was a chart in the paper showing just how low these scores are in comparison to other schools in the district and it was shocking.  For example 4th grade Math scores: other schools in the district have anywhere from 2-5% of students that did not meet requirements, our school was 16.4%!!  Others scored 77-86% for Meeting/Exceeding and ours was 59.8%!   Yikes, what is going on!!  Last night I went on the site "greatschools.net" and it showed our school has a rating of 4 out of 10, while other schools has 7-8s.

Would you transfer your child out of a school with these scores?  Do I wait until next year to make the switch so it's not in the middle of the school year?  I'm reluctant to move my ds because he's comfortable there, has friends there, other kids in the neighborhood go there.  And my ds tends to get high anxiety with change, and he wouldn't understand why I'm moving him since he's fine there. 

I can open enroll ds to another school in a better performing district (received an 8 out of 10), but I'd have to drive him daily.  Can't really carpool since our car fits all 3 of my boys and that's it (unless we get a minivan).  I have a friend who's ds is a 1st grader at this other district's school and for example her ds had a spelling test the 2nd week of school.  My ds teacher stated that they will be starting spelling next week.  The difference really makes me worry!

Your thoughts would really be appreciated!  Thanks so much!

First, don't panic! You need to look at other factors besides the scores for any particular school. What is the make-up of the students? Are there lots of low income, minorities, immigrants, other 'disadvantaged' groups? Is there a wide spread among the test scores (i.e. low ones, middle ones, high ones)? Also, what is the "feel" of the school? Are the honestly trying to educated the kids, what is the interaction like between parents, teachers, school officials? Do they offer help for the kids at the bottom and extra stuff for the kids at the top?

My son goes to a Title 1 school in our neighborhood which got that designation because there are plenty of minorities and low income families. Can't really tell you about the test scores, because I didn't look. But the school itself is great about working with the kids and parents and is trying to reach out to the families that need the extra help (many do not speak English well or at all). Since my son is 'advanced', he gets extra from his teacher and even helps some of the other kids in his class. The best thing is that he is learning that not all people are white and/or well-off.

So, before getting too panicked, take a look at the whole picture.

I wouldn't panic or at least yet. Our school has low test score but we also have a large imigrant non native english speakers poplution so yah some of tests will be lower then districts without that and its more about is the district doing to help. We too are a title 1 school which also means we will have the option for them to send him to a different district and it also means they have programs in place to work with students who aren't testing well. Now in comparision the charter school in our town has some of the highest scores BUT they pretty much kick out kids who test low. They make it very hard for kids on Ed plans they don't want to deal with them because they do test low so IMO it does not make them a better school at all.

Also IMO WAY TOO much attention is paid in these standardised tests and some kids just don't test well. I was one of them, I panic, I had low SAT yet graduated a good college with honors, tests don't always make an accurate measure.

Now I'm not saying I'm not keeping an eye on things, I do know where the school has issues and I know what they are doing and I know what I can do to take advantage of them. Liam failed his dibels because of a speech issue while his teachers first thought was test again we decided that teh extra tutoring can't hurt and we are lucky we have that option.

Now my mom's goddaughter's school district is HORRIBLE and they are doing NOTHING about it. Its in a different state so they don't have the same measures but when she noticed her kids so far behind there same age cousins they went to get their kids tested independantly and they are YEARS behind and now there is a class action against the school because other parents followed and tested.

So I'd play it by ear, figure out acedemically well where is he vs others and does there seem to be a big difference or is it just a matter the population in your districts is more of an issue then ciriculm. Like is there a high rate of non native english speakers or what is the education level of parents. We are in a mix probably 50/50 college vs highschool or GED vs some other towns that are majority college or others where most have barely a GED those will all play a role in how kids score

Hi I know that I checked all the schools scores for each house we were looking at when we were buying. So it makes me personally feel better have a better rated school. I know the schools here with lower test scores have a much higher population of ESL students so then in return there is not as much parent involvement with the language barrier. So maybe you can ask the principal what she things the reason is behind this? It could be something that would not affect your student?

I would transfer my student. As for the time of year that I don't know it would depend on how things were currently going. That is me. I know we have lots of transfer students at our school.

Yes, I'd be worried, but the GreatSchools rating, for example, is basically test scores. The question is, why did the school get those test scores? You should be able to access through your district -if not Great Schools- subgroup scores. Are there large numbers of IEP students for example? At our school, one grade had a high number of IEP students and their scores was 56% meeting standards, while overall was 91%. So, the "regular" students must have done pretty well (and I had to laugh, because I had an IEP student in that grade who rocked the test, so some really bad IEP scores must have offset it!). Of course, if there are a lot of IEP students, that might distract from regular instruction, but you really don't know. Most people don't realize that my son has an IEP, and he doesn't really take a lot of extra teacher time. Other students are bad but have a full time aide so they don't take away teacher time either. It is a very individualized decision. Our HS is on warning because they didn't make AYP in two subgroups, but I think my high school senior is receiving a fabulous education - the problem students aren't really in her AP classes. Talk to the principal, but don't make a rash decision. Also, our elementary school is Title I and the extra money and help have really been wonderful. There are actually some benefits to being in a school that is struggling because you get more resources.

Good luck

theresa