During this week's Lake Washington School Board meeting, Northstar Junior High was featured. Northstar is one of eleven alternative "CHOICE" schools within the district.
Principal Nell Ballard-Jones and staff gave a presentation of their progress to the Board. A few items of distinction were: 1) 97.3% of their 8th graders excelled in reading, 2) a third of the students in 8-9th grade attend high school to study math, music and world language. Northstar is a high achieving school with above average WASL scores in the district and state.
Northstar was founded in1981 and is located closed near Lake Washington High School. Students are not graded and classes are mixed in age with focus on the whole student. As with all CHOICE schools admission is selective and with enrollment limits. A lottery and/or wait list is not uncommon.
Each CHOICE school appears to have it's own niche.
- Family Learning Center (K-12) enriches home-schooled students. 175 students.
- Stella Scolla (6-8) requires two years of Latin and students have the same teacher all day.
- BEST (9-12) takes 175 students behind in graduation requirements, like state reading and writing.
- International Community (7-12) ranks 24 of top 100 high schools in nation by US News & World, with 380 students.
- Community School (1-6) is non competitive with 69 students.
- Discovery School (1-6) is safe and supportive with higher parent involvment.
- Explorer School (1-6) spend time on field trips with parent involvement. 72 students.
- Environmental Adventure (6-9) has 140 students.
Do you know about these schools? I didn't. Do you think you have a child who would want to apply? Many of them almost sound like "private schools" or "charter schools", but they are not. CHOICE schools are supported by property owners within the Lake Washington School District. For additional information contact: kreith@lwsd.org. and visit the district web site at http://lwsd.org/.
by Bob Yoder
My son attends Northstar in 7th grade. He is LOVING it and doing very well academically. Having a small, focused school is proving to be an awesome experience and is making the difficult "middle school" years an easier experience. Highly recommend that parents look into the Choice schools to see if one of the options is right for your own child
ReplyDeleteI'm aware of the "choice" schools, but I don't feel good about my tax dollars paying for these specialized schools. It's almost as if we're paying to send kids to a private school.
ReplyDeleteMany of these choice schools require that students pass difficult entrance exams and provide teacher referrals before students are even allowed to apply to the schools. The schools then hold lotteries because the number of students who qualify ALWAYS exceeds the number of spaces available. The waitlists for these schools can be very long, and students are not allowed to put their names on more than one waitlist. Once a student is admitted, the requirement that "parents must arrange their own transportation" can become an immense burden if the student lives far from the school or bus drop-off point and especially if a family has an additional child or children who attend their home school. My family had a child in a choice school for several years and even with carpooling, I still drove 100+ miles every week just getting our kids to and from school.
ReplyDeleteThere are only enough spaces in the choice schools for 15-20% of the students in any given grade. So for every 15-20 students who get a coveted admission to one of these schools, there are 80-85 who don't. But because the school district offers enrichment in the choice schools that supposedly any child could apply to, they don't bother to offer much enrichment in the home schools, especially at the elementary level. There are also higher administrative costs in the choice schools since the school enrollments are much lower while each school still has its own principal, support staff and facility.
When our children were just entering elementary school, we read about the choice schools such as ICS and Environmental and Adventure School and they sounded like they would be great learning opportunities, but the reality has been that between limited enrollment and excessive travel distance, they were not a choice for our children and may not be for many of the children in the district.
Hi! I'm Anonymous #1 with some further thoughts. I can't speak to the other Choice schools but Northstar did NOT require a difficult entrance exam. And yes, there was a teacher reference required but when I asked about it, I was told by Northstar that it was only referenced AFTER the lottery as a way for the teachers to get to know the student.
ReplyDeleteTransportation is an issue and was part of our decision as a family as to whether or not we decided to proceed with the enrollment. Northstar is a 15 minute drive whereas our neighborhood school is a 2-block walk. But with the carpooling and staggering of school start-times, it's working out for our situation. I specifically did NOT seek out the other Choice school BECAUSE they were further away...and besides the "themes" of the school were not in line with my son's interests and aptitudes.
So all in all, it has worked out for our family situation. But I can see how it would not be workable for many families. But our decision to go with Northstar was based on the whole family situation...schedule, location etc....just like ANYTHING I decide my children will participate in. Piano, Scouts, dance, school...it all works together.
That being said, I do feel very "lucky" that my son won the lottery and ended up in a school that works so well for him.
What I have issues with is that it is indeed like a "private" school. There are definite benefits to the small, intense classes with more focused and indepth teaching methods. My Big Question is: If the school district is AWARE of these methods, then why are they not applied to ALL the schools across the district?
Anonymous #1 - Does carbon footprint impact to the environment ever significantly come into play in school choice decisions? Are small commuter busses or required car-pooling options?
ReplyDeleteActually, Bob, the carbon-footprint issue did come into play for us. One of the reasons we chose our neighborhood to live in was the walkability to the schools. I did go back and forth on proceeding with our Northstar enrollment because of the increased driving we would be doing. We do carpool to Northstar so that cuts down on our driving by half.
ReplyDeleteThere is an inter-district bus system in place already. I'm not really certain why we don't have access to it like the students that participate in Quest. It does irk me that we made big-picture life decisions in choosing to pay a premium to live on Education Hill and now we still need to drive my son to school. I'm just breathing a sigh of relief that the school experience has been so outstanding for my son so in that way, it has been worth it.