Dealing with family/friends opinions on school choice/need assurance

[Anonymous]

I sent my son to a school like this last year and he won’t be returning. He was not academically challenged at all. I can’t tell you the number of meetings I had with the principal and his teacher to encourage them to give him harder work. He’s a fast learner and was not pushed at all. The school did not have the same resources as other schools had and after touring many other schools, I realized he could get more opportunities at another school. Luckily, he got into s different school. Whatever you do, be an advocate for your child.

[Anonymous]

My kids attend a poorly rated title 1 school and as others have noted there are pluses and minuses. One positive- class sizes are small. My daughter’s 1st grade class has 18 kids, and specialist teachers spend at least 3 hours a day supplementing the teacher working with lower level kids.

Our school is poor performing largely due to an immigrant population just learning English. As a result my kids have learned a lot about the world first hand just by being friends with kids from all over (my son learned to say “poop” in 7 languages in 4th grade, lol). It’s an experience that would probably be hard to replicate otherwise and offsets any concerns I have about not being as academically above grade level as other parts of the county.

[Anonymous]

My son is an incoming 3rd grader at a Title 1, rated 5 though. the only drawback I see is that there are not enough kids "like him" to choose from to be friends. But then, maybe it is more about my kid than others, he is introverted and doesn't make close friends easily. he does have a couple though.
They have less extracurricular stuff than other schools, but what they have is free or very low cost. He has free aftercare, had free coding classes, free STEM club, free swimming lessons with the city, and will have free drama and guitar next year. he also gets a free backpack and free summer camps (for about 4 weeks) just by virtue of attending this particular school. It comes in very handy as we are poor but we don't look poor and do not apply for any benefits.

[Anonymous]

I am in a similar situation with DD but for 1st grade, not kindy, and the school is rate 5, but around 5 years ago, when we first moved, it was rated 7 and had the same principal. It is such a small school that I think, statistically speaking, only a few kids can move the test scores dramatically. We are giving it a shot and hopefully will not regret it, but like the other pps said, it is one year and if it goes badly we will try something else.

[Anonymous]

I am a teacher and lived in a nice neighborhood that bordered a neighborhood from hell and they shared the school with our neighborhood. My child was very advanced and I had meetings with the principal in K and my DD went to the next grade for Reading and Math. The peers were fine bc that grade had a group of great families. The kids by 3rd grade were a mess though. I pulled her out in 1st grade and moved her to a GS 9 school with half Asian population. She grew by leaps and bounds! She did Compacted Math and a Math Enrichment club and had challenging reading groups. But, the difference in service bound population and college bound population was vast.

[Anonymous]

Some people consider it child abuse to put your children in awful schools when you have the means to enroll elsewhere and so will tell you how they feel. But by awful I'm talking about the worst of DC or Baltimore schools not the GS 3 out in Fairfax.

[Anonymous]

We also send our kids to a Title I but it has some balance socioeconomically and my kids have a cohort that they fit in well with socially and academically. For a couple of years, some of the brightest kids have been a couple of girls who receive free lunch and whose parents likely did not attend college FYI. We had hesitations about our school also and have always been ready to make a change if needed (either seeking out an option school, private, or even moving) but we never felt we needed to change - everyone's needs have been met.

[Anonymous]

We did the opposite.

We bought a TINY house near a 10/10 school.

My kid had a high IQ. He was outcast from day 1. He's not perfect, but some families were so intense and competitive they sought out kids who were more "whole package" friends.
The pressure to do thing perfectly (waste-free lunch, volunteer all the time, make travel soccer/lacrosse/badminton) was overwhelming.

We wound up leaving.

I was jealous of my friends with nicer houses who had their kids in title 1 schools. A lot of them were placed in the GT program (with lower scores) because it was another way to get class sizes down.
Also, a lot of the after school programs and special events were free for all of the students enrolled.

I felt like a made a dumb choice. We wound up going to parochial school where there was more a balance. Tuition + mortgage - square footage in the home.

Just material for the argument in your head.

[Anonymous]

"I've visited the school. I liked what I saw. We are going to give it a try, and if we don't feel like it's a good fit we will look for another school."

I think of myself as pretty independent, but the peer pressure is real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child will enroll in the Fall in a Title I school that has been identified as a "Priority School" by my state and is rated 1/10 on greatschools. My relatives are absolutely outraged about this and think I'm making my child into a "social experiment." I have thought long and hard about this choice and just ethically, logistically and financially I think it's the right one for my family. But I have my own anxiety about the school and hearing all this pushback from my family is making me doubt my choice. How do I remain confident in my decision? I've blocked the relatives from communicating with me for now. But the doubt still remains. I guess my question is will an otherwise engaged and happy 5 year old fare fine in any school or does rating really matter?

OP, at the end of the day, you need more information than the GS number and Title 1 status of the school to figure out how your child's experience will be at the school. People can weigh in about their children's experiences in schools with bad GS rating and Title 1 status, but unless you name the school, no one is going to say anything specifically about your school and literally no one can tell you what your child's experience will be.

Your relatives are out of line. You made your decision based on what you feel is best for your family. If it does not work out and you notice that your child is not thriving at school, you can re-evaluate your choice, but in DC school only just started and in MD, school hasn't started yet, so maybe give it a few weeks before freaking out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child will enroll in the Fall in a Title I school that has been identified as a "Priority School" by my state and is rated 1/10 on greatschools. My relatives are absolutely outraged about this and think I'm making my child into a "social experiment." I have thought long and hard about this choice and just ethically, logistically and financially I think it's the right one for my family. But I have my own anxiety about the school and hearing all this pushback from my family is making me doubt my choice. How do I remain confident in my decision? I've blocked the relatives from communicating with me for now. But the doubt still remains. I guess my question is will an otherwise engaged and happy 5 year old fare fine in any school or does rating really matter?

I don't know OP, I think you're being incredibly naive and should listen to your family. Don't gamble with your child's education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I send my kids to a Title 1 school. And to tell you the truth- I constantly battle whether this is the right decision or not. But my kids- they are happy, have tons of friends, and are thriving academically.

Some of the best things that have helped me with some of my nagging doubts are talking with friends who send their children to so-called outstanding schools. To be honest, they are dealing with their own doubts and fears. I worry my child wont be sufficiently challenged academically... and that might not be their concern.... but trust me, they have something to worry about. I don't want to generalize, so I wont go into details, but I get the sense that no matter where you send your child to school you will deal with a unique set of issues, concerns, and fears based on that environment.

As parents, I think we will always wonder how the choices we make will impact our children, and whether they will "turn out ok." But at the end of the day, I think most of us want our kids to grow up to be happy, healthy, independent adults... living their best life. And I am confident that there are plenty of different ways to get that outcome.. including sending them to schools that are not highly rated.

Gee why not just send your kids to a school where most of the families are in the same socioeconomic range as yours?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids attend a poorly rated title 1 school and as others have noted there are pluses and minuses. One positive- class sizes are small. My daughter’s 1st grade class has 18 kids, and specialist teachers spend at least 3 hours a day supplementing the teacher working with lower level kids.

Our school is poor performing largely due to an immigrant population just learning English. As a result my kids have learned a lot about the world first hand just by being friends with kids from all over (my son learned to say “poop” in 7 languages in 4th grade, lol). It’s an experience that would probably be hard to replicate otherwise and offsets any concerns I have about not being as academically above grade level as other parts of the county.

Ok, this may be cute now. But trust me, come middle school these are NOT the kids you will want your son to be close friends with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids attend a poorly rated title 1 school and as others have noted there are pluses and minuses. One positive- class sizes are small. My daughter’s 1st grade class has 18 kids, and specialist teachers spend at least 3 hours a day supplementing the teacher working with lower level kids.

Our school is poor performing largely due to an immigrant population just learning English. As a result my kids have learned a lot about the world first hand just by being friends with kids from all over (my son learned to say “poop” in 7 languages in 4th grade, lol). It’s an experience that would probably be hard to replicate otherwise and offsets any concerns I have about not being as academically above grade level as other parts of the county.

Ok, this may be cute now. But trust me, come middle school these are NOT the kids you will want your son to be close friends with.

You don't want your children being friends with immigrants? Why is that, other than that you're a racist?

[Anonymous]

OP, I enrolled my child in a 2 and here's what I'd suggest FWIW. I'm also a teacher.

- volunteer early and often. A GS1 school doesn't get a lot of parent volunteers. You'll get a sense early and frequently of how the adults treat the kids. I've taught in 2-4 schools and often these schools have kids with low scores because they are still learning English, but they are good kids and the schools really care a lot and they've put in services and relationships to boost levels.

- Schools with very low ratings get a lot of criticism from the county administrators. That in turn can lead to principals and teachers being stressed and getting frustrated with the kids due to low scores.

- A GS 1 school is different in different counties because it gets different amount of support from the county administrations.