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What to look for in a search for a Middle School

1K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  IdentityCrisisMama 
#1 ·
I am searching for the best middle school for my children for when the time comes. I have a year and a half to make a decision. I have started my search. Our base school is unacceptable. The best schools are in areas that we cannot afford in regards to housing.

How has your middle school experience been? Please share your opinion on important situations to look for in my search.

Thanks a lot!
 
#2 · (Edited)
What I learned during our search is that no matter how poor or how fancy a middle school is, they all have the same problem... they are all filled with middle school kids! It's a difficult age no matter what setting you put them in. SO, our own search landed us at our local middle school who had free before and after "care" masked as free enrichment classes (not that my own kids needed the care but it meant that kids were engaged before and after school... the community isn't over-run by middle school kids at the fast food joints after school due to lack of supervision.) They offered a host of electives including music, dance, art and an accelerated science program so lots of places for my quirky kids to find a niche. They had an experienced staff with a sense of humor in a district we already knew supported flexibility. A very middle to lower-middle class area with a high ESL population. Great schools.

My eldest loved middle school. My youngest didn't love it but he finished whole and ready for high school (which he DOES love.)

Good staff, strong elective choices, extended supervision... that's what I looked for.
 
#6 ·
What I learned during our search is that no matter how poor or how fancy a middle school is, they all have the same problem... they are all filled with middle school kids! It's a difficult age no matter what setting you put them in. SO, our own search landed us at our local middle school who had free before and after "care" masked as free enrichment classes (not that my own kids needed the care but it meant that kids were engaged before and after school... the community isn't over-run by middle school kids at the fast food joints after school due to lack of supervision.) They offered a host of electives including music, dance, art and an accelerated science program so lots of places for my quirky kids to find a niche. They had an experienced staff who picked middle school teachers with a sense of humor in a district we already knew offered supported flexibility. A very middle to lower-middle class area with a high ESL population. Great schools.

My eldest loved middle school. My youngest didn't love it but he finished whole and ready for high school (which he DOES love.)

Good staff, strong elective choices, extended supervision... that's what I looked for.
Great advice. What I see in my town is that it's important to have a strong principal at this level (well, all levels really) with a clear stance on what is acceptable and what is expected of the kids. "A very middle to lower-middle class area with a high ESL population." also describes our middle school, but it's now widely considered the best middle school in town largely because the principal takes care of business and has a strong team of teachers, too.
 
#4 ·
Flexibility.

Our son is in middle school and I ended up picking this middle school because it is where they planned (and since have) putting the full time gifted program. It begins for the grade after my son and will extend each year after. Even though I knew my son wouldn't benefit by being part of the program I hoped that an overall understanding of giftedness would be more likely at that school.

Instead I wish I'd interviewed several principles and just gotten a feel for who was the most open, adaptable, and flexible. I'll move my son next year to a small rural school that takes advantage of lots of online classes to add the variety that their small size cannot offer and is planning to do phase most of their classes to self paced curriculums. They've already moved to self paced math.

I can't tell you yet if the move flexible smaller school will be better. But I hope it will.

I'd meet with lots of principles and float lots of situations for off the wall scheduling at them such as taking an independent study for a class, taking more than one science or ss class, taking an online class, ect. and see how they react.
 
#7 ·
Flexibility.
I'd meet with lots of principles and float lots of situations for off the wall scheduling at them such as taking an independent study for a class, taking more than one science or ss class, taking an online class, ect. and see how they react.
JollyGG- What are some examples of questions you wished you had asked? I'm trying to figure out how to word my questions, and if you could tell me how you would have articulated your own questions, it will help me develop my own questions better. Facing this decision in 6 months, and flexibility is proving to be an issue that I must assess, but can't figure out how to do when I talk to the prinicpals.
 
#8 ·
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned yet but by the time we were picking a MS with my DC, she was really one driving the bus. She and I sat down and we put together a system for comparing schools. Out of about 8 factors (that I can remember) only one was something I insisted on being on the list and that was location. I was also the one concerned with tracking (putting advanced or general kids and etc. in different classes). Other than that, DC was concerned with things like where her friends were going, school size, academic reputation, homework expectations, interesting opportunities, whether the school went through to HS (I cared about this as well), school culture, lockers (yes, this was a factor, ha, ha!), uniforms and just her overall impression when vising.

Behind the scenes I also looked into things like administration and teacher retention, test scores (and whether schools had a reputation of teaching to the tests), and all the rumor mill type stuff that I picked up in the process.

FTR, we were only looking at public schools (and there is a great deal of choice for students in our district). I imagine if there was the option for choosing private, we would have a broader set of criteria.

Now that DC is mid-way through 7th I think important factors for her personality are: high expectations, unique opportunities, good classroom management, prioritized love of learning, diversity in students and staff, kind teachers, a size that is not too small or too large, a school that supports kids to get into a highschool of their choice (in my area that means supporting kids in testing), support for learning outside of class (coach class and etc.), a school that has a nice balance of support and growth in this interesting time of development.
 
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