Anat0010

Hi, I've been offered a job with my existing employer to move from the Uk to Mountain View CA. But I have 2 children aged 11 and 13, the last thing I want to do is disrupt their education. What good schools are there in the Silicon Valley area? What schools do British expats send their children to in the area?
Given the state of the education cut backs in California, I guess I'm looking at private schools, which is fine, but does anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks.

Michael

The following is a map of the different public schools in the south bay. Click on the symbol to get more information. Schools with the dark blue color are in the more affluent school districts so there shouldn't be too much of a problem with cut backs in those districts. The public school that your children would attend is based on your street address (area map).

http://schoolperformancemaps.com/ca/...90155%2C10%2C2

SanDiegogirl

Check out the Palo Alto school district.

Although the whole area is pricey I have known people determined to move there just to get their children into the school system.

N1cky

We moved from Los Angeles to Mountain View 6 months ago. Our 9 year old daughter has always been in private education until we moved here, but the school results are fantastic here so we put her public. We haven't been impressed with her teacher or the school so far, despite the test results being 95%+. It seems to me the schools put lots of emphasis on the tests but not the all round education, my daughter for the first time has been complaining that she is bored in school and why should she care about her work when the teachers don't.... We will give the school one more term with a new teacher in Grade 4 and hope things improve, otherwise we too will again be looking at private education. There are lots of private schools around.

Lots of parents I have spoken to who have older kids say the elementary schools aren't nearly as good as the Middle Schools which have a better reputation, At 11 and 13 you will be looking at Middle School for the youngest and possibly your 13 year old. We have a friend who teaches at the high school, if all the teachers care as much as she does it will be a damn good school. I've attached the link for Mountain View School District.
http://www.mvwsd.org/index.php?optio...d=12&Itemid=27

There are some excellent school districts in the area, Cupertino and Los Altos, however these are 90%+ asian kids, where their entire life seems to be education. I'm not so sure the schools are great or the parents give the kids little choice...

Cut-backs are as big here as anywhere else. Schools finish at midday every Thursday for a start off.

Let me know if you want any further info on the schools or area

penguinsix

Here is our primer on education you should take a look at:

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/What_d...s_in_school%3F

As others have noted, the school you go to, by and large, depends EXACTLY on where you live, down to which side of the street. It's very important when selecting a house.

Palo Alto and Cupertino have the best reputation for schools but as noted the Cupertino district is probably a majority Asian and they have a strong case of "Tiger Moms" pushing their kids to do calculus on the weekends instead of chatting with their friends, etc. It's led to some 'white flight' where families move out of the district to places like Palo Alto to avoid having to deal with 'machine' academics.

How your children adjust is based in part on the school and in large part on your children--what academic approach works best for them. It could be the critical thinking, or rote memorization, or a more open and creative approach will bring out the best in them. Unfortunately it's kind of hard to match up that exactly when you'll need to do some leg work and check out not only the school's test scores (easily available on the web) but also their teaching philosophy and other parent's reviews.

Good luck.

N1cky

Keep in mind though that if you move part way through the school year your kids will not be placed in their local school if it is full, but given a place at a different school. My daughter is not in her local school, and we are good friends with some other people who also moved here part way through the year, they have 4 schools closer to them than where their kids were placed.

This can especially be the place if the school is extremely good, as people from out of district request places there, if at the start of the school year the school has places available they will be given to the inter-districts. Meaning when people move to the area mid-term no space is available.

Michael

I don't think that is true and have never heard of that happening. On an average, California school districts are 30% funded by local taxes, 13% by the federal government, and 57% by the state government. In affluent school districts more than 50% of the total funding will likely be funded by local governments due to the fact that they spend more per student than poorer school districts plus they get less funding per student from federal and state funding.

If an affluent school district allowed for inter-district transfers, that would mean that the taxpayers of the receiving school district would be paying the majority of costs for out of district students. Besides that the out of district school would lose federal and state funding for that student since that funding is based on the number of students in the school district.

The only time that parents would want their children in a different school district would be if their assigned school district was in a less affluent lower ranked school district. Those school districts normally don't have the funds to pay the high cost to compensate the more affluent school districts to educate their children. Also if this was allowed, the poorer school district would need to lay off teachers instead of the more affluent school district. Either way both school districts lose out since the poorer school district loses high federal and state funding and the affluent school district pays a high cost to educate children that do not live in their school district.

Sally Redux

I don't really understand how the permit thing works either, but they are certainly allowed in our affluent district. In fact, the district is keen to poach kids from other districts as they seem to bring funding with them. I think you are guaranteed a place if you live in the district, though.

N1cky

Yep, thats what happens here. You are guaranteed a place in the district, but not necessarily at the local school.

The other thing they do here, which I don't know if it is State or Country wide is the school district will give you a place in the school if parents work in that district. Which gives us the choice of Palo Alto as thats where my hubby works.

Sally Redux

Yes, they will do that here.

Also, some schools still bus.

It is mostly one-way traffic, but I have come across kids (OK, 1) who have bused (think that's how they spell it) down to rough LA schools, as it gives an advantage for university places.

N1cky

El Camino High had loads of bused in kids, I think because their sports program was so good, lots of athletic kids were bused in.

I've heard of kids going to worse schools to boost their Uni chances too

Michael

I really don't understand how they get funding for inter-district students except through local taxes. For example Palo Alto gets receives so much property taxes that it only gets what is known as "Basic Aid" plus special education aid from the state which accounts for only 13% of its total funding. 83% of the total funding is from local taxes and the Palo Alto unified school district spends about twice as much per student as the poorest school district in California. The following is the breakdown of funding for the Palo Alto unified school district.

Revenue from local sources: $132,311,000
Revenue from state sources: $21,253,000
Revenue from federal sources: $5,394,000
Total revenue: $158,958,000

Sally Redux

I think they can take that child's allocation of money from the other district.

We got a circular telling us that our district was actively seeking students from other districts, which seems counter-intuitive when funds are so stretched but apparently works to their advantage. This is why the 'home' district has to approve permits.

Michael

I suspect it has more to do with the egos of the district manager and possibly pressure by teacher labor unions than with the financial aspects since no matter which way you cut it, $8,000 in funding doesn't pay for a student that costs the district $16,000 to educate. The cost to the district may possibly be less than that since property and buildings are already there and unused but I can't see where the district could possibly be breaking even by accepting a child from another district.

Anat0010

Thanks for the help folks. We're looking into it...