Share Brown School Experiences???

[deemqueen.livejournal.com]

I checked the "schools" tag for info on schools close to Davis Square. There weren't any postings I could see. I know this isn't exactly a topic for hipsters but ... would anyone be willing to share their experiences (either positive or not) at the Brown School? We'd really love to stick around Davis AND send our child to Somerville public schools.

We had an appointment with the principal today ... and frankly didn't
get too much of a sense of what the school is all about. Maybe we
didn't ask the right questions. What else could we be doing to make
an informed decision?

Comments

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely interested in this thread, since I'm pregnant and I just bought a house a block from the Brown school :). (Although I teach at another school which I'm very enamoured of. But it's all-boys and expensive, so it may not work out; don't know if I'm having a boy or a girl.)

Anyway. I can tell you some things I would do to evaluate the quality of a school, though honestly I'm weak on elementary school; I'd find it much easier to evaluate 7-12 (I teach 7-9).

What you're doing, trying to find out parent satisfaction (or lack thereof), is huge, so do that in as many fora as you can :).

If you know some elementary school teachers, ask them what they think a quality elementary school should be doing. Is there any particular kind of work the students should be producing? Are there particular skills or content they need to be acquiring? What markers would these teachers look for to decide if a school was outstanding, adequate, inadequate? See if you can find those at Brown. (In higher grades it's easier because you can look at things like the variety of courses offered, the pacing of the math and language curricula -- stuff that most schools have on their web sites these days. But elementary school curricula are fuzzier and a lot of elementary school is about acquiring less tangible skills anyway, and it's outside of my specialty, which is why I say to ask elementary teachers what they'd look for.)

Ultimately the only way to really know a school is to spend a lot of time there, but this is hard for people with, you know, jobs and lives. If it's posisble for you to visit a classroom, do so (it may not be; many teachers will feel really uncomfortable with this even if you can schedule it). Look for whether the students are engaged, interested, learning cool stuff. Look for the rapport the teacher has. Or you could look into volunteering at the school if you have a *lot* of time to spend learning about it...this will really show you what's going on, what people are happy and unhappy about, etc.

You've probably already done this, but if your child has any special needs (learning disabilities, gifted, socially awkward, medical conditions, talents you particularly want to nurture...), make sure to ask what kind of support the school has for those. Not merely the content of the answer but the wy it's delivered will tell you a lot.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Oh, and if you know or can find any substitute teachers who work in Somerville -- the subs know *all* about which schools are good or bad and why.