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School And College Ratings
School and college ratings have become an important, if controversial, part of choosing the right school for your child. Ratings are particularly important when looking at pre-school and elementary educational choices. After all, since these experiences represent your child's first encounters with the educational system, you want to be sure that the initial experience will be a positive and rewarding one.
By using school ratings, the popular belief holds that you will be able to make a more informed decision about where to send your child to school. This may be factual on some level, but on other levels you may want to think twice before utilizing school scores and ratings to make your choice. Not all ratings are created equal, and some ratings can be decidedly misleading when it comes to implying suitability for your child.
For example, some rating systems look only at a school's curricular offerings. However, at the elementary level, you will also be quite concerned with class sizes, teacher-student ratios, and social environment. After all, your child will not appreciate that the textbooks are state of the art, but he or she will appreciate that there is one teacher per four students attending to his or her personal needs.
Thus, it pays to look at what ratings are really measuring. This can give you a much better idea about whether or not the school will deliver on your expectations. A school may be highly ranked according to a local system, but still be rotten in absolute terms. You will want to determine on your own what criteria matter the most to you and your child.
Once you have determined what the most important factors are for your family, you can use ratings as a real tool. Find metrics that account for the items you value, and compile your own score. You can use multiple ratings sources for this if you wish.
With a score of the factors that are most important to you, such as affordability, class size, or availability of developmental helpers, you will be able to make a much better decision than simply using off-the-rack ratings. You will feel more comfortable explaining the decision to your friends and to your child as well. Even better, on the first day of school you will be able to send your child out the door knowing that you have made the choice that is best for them based on your unique values and their individual needs.