How to Choose The Best School for Your Child in Arizona

In my work in the community I often get asked by parents, “what is the best school for my child?”

As with many important questions in life the true answer is, it depends.

Let me explain – it is very difficult to tell parents what is the best school for their child since I do not know their child. I do not know how their child learns, what activities their child likes, etc. Instead of randomly guessing which school would be best, I thought it would be more helpful to provide some insight on how to choose a school and then let parents decide which school is the best fit for their child. The following is some advice for choosing a school in Arizona; however, this advice can apply to a school in any state but the resources used to make the decision will be different.

Know yourself, your child and your options.

It is very difficult to make a good decision about the future of your child if you don’t know yourself and understand what you are willing to do to provide a quality education for your son or daughter.

Here are some guiding questions to ask yourself:

How involved are you willing to be with the school you choose?

Are you willing to drive your son or daughter to school if the best school does not provide transportation?

Are you willing to volunteer to help the school you choose? How many hours/days per week?

Do you have the financial resources to pay for additional activities that are offered?

I suggest you create a checklist of items that you are willing to commit to as a parent because it will make it much easier to narrow your school search.

Now that you have a better understanding of what you can commit to, it is time to jot down some ideas of things that are important to your child as well as things that you think are important to the development of your child. Ask yourself a series of questions about your son or daughter.

Here are some guiding questions to ask your children:

What are my child’s interests? In this section you should also consider what you want your child to be exposed to in case your son or daughter is too young to know what their interests are – the arts, sports, coding, etc.

How does my child learn? Is he/she more apt to project based learning, traditional approaches, etc.

Review and look at schools in your area

Once you understand how much time and resources you are willing to commit to a new school, you then need to better understand your options.

Do you live in an open enrollment state? In Arizona, your child can attend any public school in the state. Outside of district boundaries most schools do not offer transportation, but if you are willing to drop-off and pick-up your child they can attend any school.

What school options are available? In most states, students have the option of attending a public district school, a public charter school or a private school. Understanding the differences between these types of schools will help you make the best decision for your child. It is also essential at this step to know where these options exist. For example, if you decide you are willing to drive your child a maximum of 10 miles to and from school; then the options may be limited to choosing between 10 schools. If you prefer to have your child take a school bus, then you may only have 5 or 6 schools to choose from.

Review websites

My recommendation is to search for a website that allows you to view information about all schools within your state and sort those schools by zip code or city. You can start with a site like www.greatschools.org which has details about schools nationwide. There may also be a website that focuses on schools in your particular state.

For example, in Arizona www.educationevaluator.org has details about all Arizona public schools. The great schools website also allows you to search for private schools; however, keep in mind that you will see much less information about academic results at private schools because they are not required to participate in state academic exams. Don’t worry if you find it complicated understanding academic results, I will address using academic results for your school search in a subsequent blog post.

In completing step one I don’t think it is necessary to create an exhaustive list of items. However, spend some time thinking about what is important to you and your child as this is an essential step to finding the right school.

Feel free to reach out to me, Robert Di Bacco, with questions.