Monthly Archives: October 2011

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Why I Chose Green Woods Charter: 2011-09-25 School Selection Report

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This is a snapshot of one parent’€™s school choice. You can read other parent testimonials and help other parents. Take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

What school did you decide on? Green Woods Charter School

Calendar year your child entered 2011

Grade your child entered K

What neighborhood are you in? NW Philly

What schools did you consider? Greene Street Friends, Project Learn, Houston, Henry, Jenks, Powel, Independence Charter

What factors were most important to you? Public Eduction, Diversity, safety

What first attracted you to the school? The setting

What were the critical factors that led to your choice?  In the end, we got ZERO from the SDP voluntary transfer program and our local catchment school was not an option for us…making the choice between private and charter.  I am a product of public schools, the daughter of 2 public school teachers.  I really wanted public school to work.  So when we “hit the lottery” and got a spot at GWCS this was the next best thing.  Our son was excited about going to school in “the jungle” and we were excited that this guaranteed his younger brother a spot, saving untold $$ for college instead of grade school!

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be  Democrat

Please share anything else about your experience I still have greater philosophical issues with GWCS.  Realizing that admission is a lottery process, the lottery itself and application process are far too complicated and non-transparent for my taste.  Further, I think they could do a far better job with outreach to increase diversity.  Many demographics are simply unable to apply to GWCS given the inaccessibility to the school itself by public transit as well as the convoluted process to even obtain an application.  This does really bother me and it is my hope that as a parent I can work from within to make some relatively easy changes in these areas.

That said, my son is doing fantastic.  He is well above his grade level in math and reading, but far from bored and really exploring things and issues I never thought about in kindergarten!

This is a snapshot of one parent’s school choice. You can read other parent testimonials and help other parents. Take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

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Raising a Child with Learning Differences [EVENT]

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Center School Parent Education Network Is Proud to Present

Raising a Child with Learning Differences:
An Evening of Support and Collaboration

Presented by Dr. Michael Cassano, Widener Child Therapy Clinic

With parent break-out groups facillitated by Dr. Cassano and his associates

Topics will include:

  • Struggling with the fine line between helping and enabling
  • Ways parents can best support their child
  • Effective means of dealing with frustration and other challenging behaviors

Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Time : 7:00
2450 Hamilton Avenue
Abington, PA 19001

Donation: $25 per person
For more information visit centerschoolpa.org
RSVP: Carol Wolf at 215-657-2200
cwolf@centerschoolpa.org

Only 30 people will be able to participate each evening.

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Why I Chose Penn Charter: 2011-09-25 School Selection Report

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This is a snapshot of one parent’s school choice. You can read other parent testimonials and help other parents. Take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

What school did you decide on? William Penn Charter School

Calendar year your child entered 2008

Grade your child entered PreKindergarten

What neighborhood are you in? Center City

What schools did you consider? Friends Select, St. Peter’s, Westfield Friends

What factors were most important to you? Reputation, Teaching Philosophy, School Performance (test scores, success of graduates), Teacher Quality, Principal Quality, Special Programs (language immersion, music, etc.)

What first attracted you to the school? Originally, I was referred to Penn Charter by a friend and fell in love with the gorgeous campus.  But, on further inspection, I was genuinely impressed by the school’s desire to pursue cutting edge research in teaching philosophies combined with the traditional values that the school instills in it’s students.

What were the critical factors that led to your choice?  The teachers and professors are very impressive.  They continue to educate and push themselves and each other to guarantee that they are giving the students the best education.  There is also a high level of energy that is contagious when you’re on campus.

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be  Liberal

This is a snapshot of one parent€’™s school choice. You can read other parent testimonials and help other parents. Take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

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3 Parents Share Why They Chose Greene Street Friends [School Selection Report]

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This is a snapshot of three parents’ school choices. You can read other parent testimonials and contribute your own thoughts. Take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

Parent #1

What school did you decide on? Greene Street Friends

Calendar year your child entered 2011

Grade your child entered PreK

What neighborhood are you in? Fairmount

What schools did you consider? We considered doing the voluntary transfer for public schools and charters.  We looked at other private schools but found this to be much more affordable.

What factors were most important to you? Tuition, Teaching Philosophy, School Performance (test scores, success of graduates), Teacher Quality, Principal Quality, Diversity

What first attracted you to the school? The size (small) and the fact that it is a Friends school.

What were the critical factors that led to your choice?  When we went to see it and met some of the staff, it seemed to be a very gentle and nurturing environment.  Also, much more affordable as it only goes up $100 each year.

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be  Progressive

Parent #2

What school did you decide on? Greene Street Friends

Calendar year your child entered 2011

Grade your child entered kindergarten

What neighborhood are you in? NW Philly

What schools did you consider? Wissahickon Charter, Miquon, Germantown Friends, Perelman, Project Learn, Greenwoods

What factors were most important to you? Tuition, Location, Teaching Philosophy, School Performance (test scores, success of graduates), Teacher Quality, Principal Quality, Diversity

What first attracted you to the school? We heard great feedback from families who went there, plus that they focus on quality education and affordability.

What were the critical factors that led to your choice? Quality education, school values and environment, strong teaching and leadership, relative affordability

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be  progressive

Please share anything else about your experience We love the small school experience of Greene Street, the focus on educating the whole person, the excellent sense of community and commitment to diversity and inclusiveness that a relatively low tuition allows.

Parent #3

What school did you decide on? Greene Street Friends

Calendar year your child entered 2011/2012

Grade your child entered K

What neighborhood are you in? NW Philly

What schools did you consider? Henry, Jenks, Greenwoods, Wissahickon Charter, Project Learn, and Perlman JDS

What factors were most important to you? Tuition, Location, Teaching Philosophy, Diversity

What first attracted you to the school? reputation

What were the critical factors that led to your choice? We wanted a school that was local, diverse, and offered a holistic view of child development. Cost was a factor as well.

Did you relocate in order to choose this school? No

On the political spectrum, I consider myself to be  progressive

This is a snapshot of three parents’ school choices. You can read other parent testimonials and contribute your own thoughts. Take five minutes to complete an anonymous survey to tell PSS and our readers about your school choice!

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Going Where the Road Takes You

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We recently circulated a request to area parents asking them to complete a survey share their school choices.  This is one parent’s response.

By Shauna Bracy

I would love to do the survey, if I felt I actually had a choice with schools.  You see, my younger son has developmental challenges. Not exactly Autism or Aspersger’s, not quite mental retardation, but a little of this and a little of that that creates an imperfect storm of being a socially aware, adaptable, Lego-loving seven year old who has academic deficiencies and  is difficult to understand. He defines the ‘I’ in IEP.

‘Choice’ is a term that makes my blood boil when you have a special son like mine, because it’s only existent to the extent you want to play roulette with your child’s education. I played.  I played charter lotteries. Of course, I’ve entered every lottery since he was 4. After touring many, in my heart I knew that if he won a seat at one of the popular charters, we’d have to pass it up. Despite their or any other charter’s legal requirements to educate any child… some programs just weren’t ideal for my son’s needs. Sometimes you have to look at your hand and walk away.

I played his fate on Catholic school. It was my educational upbringing and the perfect place for my older son. Though I felt like I was sticking a roundish peg in a squarish hole, it was better for him then our local public. Two years in Catholic School proved to be to much for them. They wanted more for him (or their reputation..) then their curriculum could offer.

By now it’s 4 years worth of defeated lotteries, unsuccessful voluntary school transfer requests, school tours, principal networking, budget crunching, contemplating moving; all no dice.  I played his fate in public school. He started Fall 2011 at our neighborhood public school. Despite paving a home-school communication road for 2 years knowing this day was on the back-burner, we still only felt a lack luster sense security in our ‘decision’. So he started and yup we were right. He didn’t like it, we didn’t like it.   And just when you’re in the space between accepting defeat and forming a new gameplan, your phone rings at work and the charter school you’ve had your sights on since he was 4 years old calls and tells me they reached his name on the wait list and they have a spot.

Technically, I didn’t choose that charter school, they chose us and we couldn’t be happier.