9 Best Ways To Pick The Right School For Your Kids!

Last Updated on December 10, 2020

As a parent, it’s only wise to plan carefully while picking the right school for your child.

Making decisions about which school your kid will start going to is both very personal and very challenging. That’s why it’s normal for parents to feel anxious about making the right decision.

The first thing you should do before going through the basic steps of choosing a school for your kid is to think about what will work best for your child’s interests, needs, strengths, and personality. You should also consider the way a school’s values and culture would fit with your family’s values and lifestyle. And keep in mind that you want a school that can offer the most rewarding educational experience for both your child and you.

To make the right decision, here are 9 pieces of advice you need to follow to find a great school for your little one.

9. Do not enroll before attending the school’s PTA meeting

Don’t worry, no one is going to ask you to leave! So, just go ahead and make sure to meet other parents or even get their phone numbers so you can discuss how good you all think the school is for your little ones.

In case you happen to actually like the school, don’t hesitate to join the PTA as an active member even if you aren’t a resident yet. In fact, your endorsement and participation will make other parents of already-enrolled students grateful and comforted that they’ve picked that school for their kids.

8. Have a informative conversation with the school’s principal

To get well-informed about the school, you’ll need at least a 30-minute conversation with the principal.

While some principals won’t have enough time to meet every parent and answer all their questions, smarter parents play another card and ask for an interview.

So just be one of the smarter parents and once you get to see the principal, don’t forget to ask about the curriculum, learning goals, and the school’s strategies and techniques to achieve these goals.
By the end of the meeting, you should have a clear idea about whether the school fits your child’s needs or not.

7. Take some time to observe a class

Sometimes, parents are having crazy schedules or simply have no idea what to search for exactly. In such situations, parents are recommended to politely join a class and sit quietly while observing and analyzing for at least 60 minutes so they can get as much information as possible.

The most important thing a parent should pay attention to is whether the students seem interested, engaged, comfortable, and productive.
Keep in mind that some schools don’t welcome this practice while others embrace it.

6. Examine the neighborhood and the school corridors

Even if they don’t let you attend a class or spend much time there, most schools would gladly offer tours. As a parent, you should take advantage of this chance to check the school’s cleanliness, tidiness, and level of engagement.

But that’s not all, you should also take note of the way you’ve been received by the school’s administration, as well as the overall behavior of the students and how the staff is responding to them.

You may also want to consider driving by the school during schooltime, and non-school hours to monitor the surroundings and see if that environment would be safe and comfortable for your child.

5. Prepare yourself for a variety of options

Keep in mind that even the most selective private schools have some kind of flaws. During the search for the perfect school, parents are expected to come across places with good learning techniques, extremely boring places, or highly chaotic places, and these are just a few examples.

What’s truly important is that parents should judge by themselves and ignore any mainstream critique unless there’s resourceful information to confirm it.

Parents should check out the playgrounds during recess or hallways during breaks and look for things like interesting boredom or controlled chaos.

4. Look for fellow parents who are also neighbors

There are various blogs and websites that you can use to look for other parents in your neighborhood, such as the DC Urban Moms and Dads. Once you’re on the school’s website, search for the name of the state or district, then click on the school report card to stay tuned.

Some experts don’t recommend blindly trusting the DC school surveys concerning the communication level between teachers, students, and parents. This is simply because the rates of response can be anywhere between 2% and 99%, making it impossible to have an idea about the results’ accuracy.

3. Do not rely on demographics to make a decision

Some parents may think that it’s important to combine ethnicities and income levels, but they really need to think again. In fact, each district has schools that host huge numbers of kids from low-income families, yet they deliver good results. Additionally, some of the greatest public schools that act independently of the district have a vast majority of poor students who maintain achievement levels as excellent as students at affluent schools. This means there are good chances that your child would thrive in schools with large numbers of low-income children thanks to the high-quality of teaching.

2. Visit washingtonpost.com to check the local high school ratings

The Washington Post High School Challenge is totally worth checking because the ratings it offers are based on participation in challenging tests and courses. Moreover, it also offers very practical and valuable comparisons of how far your kid is going to be.

The vast majority of high schools consider getting students to graduation as their ultimate goal, which they try to reach by all means, however,they’re still highly concerned about how much is going to be too stressful for an average child to handle. The point is, parents who have average children should better avoid this type of school.

1. Follow your instincts

A parent’s instincts never fail. So once you’re done checking all possible sources, both online and offline, you should simply trust your instincts to make the final decision because you are the real expert when it comes to knowing what’s best for your kids. If you have a bad feeling about a school even if many people praise it, then look for another one.
As long as you have doubts, neither you nor your kids will be able to adapt properly.

We all want to ensure the best education for our children. Please leave a comment if you have any valuable information or parental advice that you’d like to share. We always enjoy reading (and learning) from you.

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