Brand NEW School! -- What are the Pros & Cons?

I’m not quite sure what you’re doing on this board, since all seems to be working out for your kids, unlike the rest of us here.

Barb, I’m not sure why you posted that comment!

Laura posted a message asking for advice to help her AVOID problems for her daughter in the future, cuz she has a difficult decision to make with no guarantees either way of success for her daughter — seems to me that is the exact purpose of this board!

And, while my child still struggles at school and will pass 4th grade only because our system does not believe in retention, he doing very well — and much of his happiness and mine is due to the support of members of this board…

Maybe I misunderstood your tone, but I hope you will re-think or explain your comment.

Best wishes to all parents trying to make the best decisions for their children!

I think I would ask to talk to the principal and/or teacher. SOmetimes the enthusiasm of being in a new setting is good on the teaching end, too. What are the politics involved? You might be able to chat up some teachers… how were they selected for this school? SOmetimes it’s the cream of the crop (though a friend of mine was a teacher in this situation and the “cream of the crop” were actually just the “in group” hwo would never say no to the new school’s new principal… and it didn’t work out as well as one would have liked…)

Gosh, I WISH all were working out….

I didn’t want to be too lengthy in my post. Usually I do post about my LD child, but have been grappling with this new school issue for months now and was just hoping someone here might have experience with having a child or being at a brand new school. I realize all experiences are going to differ in some schools the first year might be a waste while in others it might be very exciting (although just how “together” can a new school be even with a motivated group of teachers?)

And even though my daughter does not have LD’s, there’s still academic concerns. She had TERRIBLE math teachers in 5th and 6th grade. This ended up affecting the entire group of kids that was in that track. Even the most brillant kids had to take pre-algebra because none were prepared enough for algebra. These teachers didn’t use textbooks for the class because they were waiting to replace them with better curriculum (which, of course, came after my daughter graduated).

Then, lucky us, even though we’re at a school that basically has very good teachers, somehow we got an inept math teacher in 7th grade!!! :-( Numerous parents have complained. Apparently the teacher had been teaching the students incorrectly and had never gone over material that was used in the district testing. It has not been until the last quarter that she revised her teaching menthods (due to an unusually large amount of failing students) and has made improvement.

In the meantime I have to try and plug up all these holes in my daughter’s math education while also frantically trying to help my 3rd grade dyslexic son learn how to read before he enters 4th grade next year. She’s definitely easier to help because she’s not LD, but surprisingly, even non-ld kids can have huge difficulties learning math due to years of poor teaching.

Anyhow, I don’t mean to complain, but gosh, sometimes I just WISH everything were working out.

Hi Sue,
I’ve been trying to get the scoop on this new school. Unfortunately, I don’t know too much about the politics. I think it may be a very good school (particularly once it “gets going”).
I’m just worried about “the first year.” And 8th grade being a pretty important year, this makes my choise particularly difficult.

Your idea of contacting the principal sounds good.

Thanks for responding to my post! :-)

Here’s my 2 cents. I don’t know how your district staffs new schools, but I know when our district opened a new elementary school a few years ago (and we are re-opening yet another in Sept), they took some staff (and a principal, I believe) from existing schools, and back-filled the faculty in the schools they took from. I suppose there may have been a few new ones in the new school, too, but in general, it was a staff experienced in teaching, and in teaching in our district. I wasn’t impacted by this, but I imagine that it was a fairly smooth transition this way, and probably didn’t hurt the kids academically. Plus, if the school is “much smaller”, it may actually improve the academic environment.

Good luck with your decision.
dab-nj

This is a tought one!

Regarding the social piece—
My middle schooler moved back to the local school after being in a center based program. It went much better than I expected. He made friends quickly and this is not his strength so think how much quicker it might be for your daughter. As you said, the best thing is that his friends are now are local. Before there just was times I couldn’t cart him off for a visit due to other commitments. Now he can walk or bike and his social life is much richer. But that was to an existing school which wasn’t your question!

Regarding a brand new school—
We opened a new high school three years ago. My kids are younger but some of the neighbors’ kids ended up moving. The kids love it; everything is new, exciting, and up to date. This school appears to be better equiped with computers and audiovisual stuff then the old schools. I haven’t heard any complaints from the parents who moved.

A few kids stayed at the old school. These kids seem happy with that decision but I have noticed that they are a bit isolated from the others as they don’t have the same teachers/events to gossip about. The parents have mixed feelings about if the inconvienance is worth it. As one mom noted, they decided to stay because of the friends but this year her daughter has mostly new friends anyway so they are getting nothing back for the hassle of driving.

Good luck!

Barb Bloom
(Barb is too common of a name!)

Everything is relative, and I’d hate this board to become judgemental about whose problems are more serious/valid, etc!!! It is my belief that if we tested ALL children we’d probably find many more who are technically ‘LD’, but who would do that if their kid was having school success??? Me, I have LOTS of things I’d do if I wasn’t having to repeat 4th grade! (MY second time, not my son’s — and even less fun than the time I did it alone!)

Many of us here have spent sleepless nights wondering WHAT to choose in one parenting scenario or another — so don’t think that one must have an ‘LD’ label to join this crowd — just my opinion, but your topic was very much valid, interesting, and I hope you get lots of opinions and comments to feed your ‘gut’ and make the best decision.

Laura,

I went to a brand spanking new high school many moons ago. It was a great school. They started with a unique, idealistic approach hoping to make it a magnet school. It grew very big and became a terrible school.

Those first few years were it’s best.

I live in a very big school district. My son’s best friend lives 20 minutes away. Play dates are difficult.

I like the idea of having friends close to home.

In our school district, a new (high school) opened 4 years ago. A new K-8 opened 5 years ago. Both are in our neighborhood, so lots of my friends’ children attend. The big benefits were the new facilities. These schools were actually wired for computers. They have PA systems that work. They were designed with adequate gym and auditorium facilities…and lunchroom facilities for the size of the student body. The teachers were largely pulled from within the district, as were the principals, so the schools didn’t have any big first year problems. My kids stayed at their old K-8, because they were happy there. However, high school is next year, so we’ll be going there soon.

One disadvantage was the new high school did not have a well established athletic program. It took it a few years to build up the teams, but after 4 years they’ve got that established also. That probably won’t be an issue at a middle school, but it is a school spirit issue at the high school level.

Having the school walking distance is a great advantage. Having friends close it too. The new schools in our district passed the state mandated exams at the same level as other schools, so there didn’t seem to be any major academic issues.

Good luck!

Kay

We are going through the same thing in our district with a new building. Our district is putting fourth grade back in the elementary buildings and fifth is moving to middle school. Fifth and sixth will have there own building on the campus and seventh/eighth there own. Our building is being staffed with teachers already in our district, there is alot of rearranging going on.

I have been asked this question by numerous people in our district. This was my advice…

1. I would find out who is going to be teaching in the building — depending upon when it opens — most districts know between May and June what teachers are going where.

2. If you have special ed, I would find out who is assigned to that building. I would ask questions how long have they been teaching what previous experience do they have.

3. I would ask around about the general ed teachers maybe your child has a particular learning style.

4. I believe that all children will make friends — your daughter will see her old friends in high school etc., or at the mall, or call and invite them over.

5. Most schools have the same curriculum through out the district.

Good luck and I hope this helps…

I posted that remark because when I read it, the mother said somehting like: “My daughter has lots of friends, should I move her to a new school? She’s very social and has no problem making friends….”

Well, my daughter has learning challenges (LD) and has NO friends. I wish I had this mother’s problem (having too many friends….)

It’s okay. Sometimes you look at other people and their lives seem so much better and easier, and you think you wish you could trade problems. And sometimes I feel really envious and upset too because I think — How come both my kids have problems? How come I couldn’t have one “normal” kid. What did I do wrong?

My daughter isn’t LD, but she does have a chronic illness and has spent years on very strong medications. We’ve been extremely fortunate because she’s been in remission for two years and has had a chance to finally forget her illness for a little while and actually live more normally (Take a bus to school, Not have to worry about hospitals, surgeries, or scarey meds!).

Best of all, I’ve had the luxury to worry about my LD child. Just not having to worry about two kids has been really nice.

Although I’m so used to worrying about both of them it’s hard not to. I guess this is another thing I have to consider with the school. We’ve been extremely fortunate that she has been healthy. since the end of 5th grade/beginning of 6th grade. But if she does become sick, that could make a big difference. It would be much easier for meds or to bring her home, talk with teachers, get work, etc…

I appreciate everyone sharing their thoughts and experiences on this topic!

One more interesting thing about this school is they plan to have a unique schedule. Instead of 6 classes per day, they will be rotating 3 one day and the other 3 the next day. This will allow for more time in each class. I don’t know if this is a good thing or not, but it’s something to think about. The classes will be longer so they will be taught quite differently.

The principal told me they are planning to have a very “hands on” approach to math (like counting M&M’s, or creating models, etc…).

I answered about the three classes a day on the Teaching board. My unequivocal opinion is Don’t Do It!! (details on other board.)

As far as hands-on math, well, there are two sides to that story. On the one hand, absolutely yes, math IS about money and measurements and all that, and there should be lots of measuring and drawing and so forth. On the other hand, in the hands of less-than-perfectly-capable teachers, this is the world’s greatest time-waster. You can spend all year playiong with m&m’s and never once do any ac\tual math. Seen it done.

I get particualrly antsy about the m&m’s for several reasons. (1) Family with severe allergies. If you feed m&m’s to my daughter, I swear I will come to the school and force-feed an equal number of pieces of Ex-lax to you — the results would be the same. And then you can come to my place and wash her underwear. It is not funny. And what about the kid with diabetes, the overweight kids (now epidemic), the kid with ADD on a diet plan, and all the rest? Teachers are supposed to be alert to these things nowadays, and they go blithely on planning m&m lessons anyhow. (2) I keep seeing bright young, badly misinformed, teachers popping up on the math board and telling people that all their problems will be solved if they just give the kid m&m’s to count with. This does little to solve the math problem, and shows complete ignorance of all theissues above as well. (3) I deal all the time with distractable kids, my own earlier and my students. The LAST thing a kid with a distractibility problem needs is the smell and/or aftertaste of chocolate; the kid will never be thinking about the math.

So when someone tells me that they have a wonderful math program and that they will be counting m&m’s, I head in the opposite direction to a school that has some sort of academic grounding and not just a few superficial games to fill time.

I couldn’t find your comments on the teaching board on the block schedule approach…could you post a link?

I’m curious why you don’t like it. It’s being implemented widely in our school district, and we haven’t heard complaints. It’s mainly in the high schools, and allows for things like enough time to actually do a science lab in one class period. At the high school level here they’re doing block schedule 3 days a week, and a regular 8 period schedule 2 days a week. The kids don’t seem to mind, nor do the teachers.

Thanks,

Kay

Hi Kay,
I’m curious to learn more about the block schedule. Do you happen to know if there’s any research indicating it’s effectiveness (or ineffectiveness?). It will be brand new in our district. I can imagine positives and negatives, but would be really interested to learn more.

Here’s a link that talks about pros and cons:

http://7-12educators.about.com/library/weekly/aa122102a.htm

I guess what our school district is doing is a modified block schedule…it’s not cramming a year’s class into a semester length. I can’t tell that it’s better or worse than a regular schedule so far. In our school, periods are 45 minutes long, so with blocks they are 1 hour and 30 minutes, which doesn’t seem an unreasonable class length.

Good luck with your decision about your daughter’s school.

Kay

The problem is that very few people can keep their mind on task listening for more than 45 minutes — and even fewer teenagers. We had a psychology lecture about this back in 1970 so the research isn’t exactly new …

A block schedule is fine for the occasional science lab, nice for studio art classes and home ec, wonderful for shop, very difficult for English, extremely difficult for foreign languages, and an absolute disaster for math and physics and all those things.
What happens is simply that the teacher teaches for the usual 45 minutes that he can hold the class’s attention, and then gives seatwork assignkments for the rest of the time. The kids basically get half the teaching they should get, and do extra homework in school. The class tends to get watered-down badly.
One problem with rating systems is that they are averaging out over all types of subjects and all ages and all difficulty levels, so the fact that the block schedule is worst for specific kinds of classes — and the specific ones that are the highest goals of high school — can get lost in the overal rating. Then there’s always the question of the bias of the raters, who tend to know what their results are before they do the study.

In the school district my daughter was in, some schools had entirely semestered their classes for some years, and comparing them to others with the usual schedule, the school board decided to have all new schools stick to the traditional schedule as it was more effective.

I attempted to teach for a while in a school that had a modified block schedule, a six-day rotation with short and long and very long classes for each group on various days at various times. Frankly, it was chaos. The problem is that most high school teachers have several classes of the same subject, and you want to keep them all working in parallel. So one group has an eighty-minute class and one a thirty-five minute class and one a fifty-minute class, and you can’t keep track of who is where. If you give a test on the same day it’s unfair, but if you give it on different days that’s unfair too, and open to cheating.

The longer I work in the teaching and tutoring business, the less I like myself or others to be guinea pigs for somebody’s latest experiment.