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thanks guys! still freaking.

still freaking! it's a resurgence of freaking. attempting to check entire school systems through high schools.

so arts, sciences, what else?

AP classes, world languages. you should also be able to find ACT/SAT scores, dollars per student, etc. if you're interested in all of that.

thanks!

People also usually look at graduation rates and percent going on to four year colleges. Dollars per student is sometimes useful, but sometimes misleading, especially in states where poor-performing schools get state $ - but it should be obvious if that number is way out of line with all the other numbers.

thanks!

my new current numbers revolve around class size. the graduating glass of the high school in one district i like was 64 this year adn 240 in a different one. my graduating class was around 300 so i'm not sure how i feel about a small class and a limited selection of kids

Whoa! All of that will change by the time it's needed!

Don't drive yourself crazy with this. Find a good kindergarten and elementary and don't stress about later.

Boundaries change, admin changes, schools switch from AP to IB, budgets change, etc.

The school I teach in doesn't meet AYP, but it's still on the best schools in the US list. I don't really get it. Grade inflation? Large course offering? Who knows.

In the end, I think it comes down to the parents: read to your kids, take them to museums, do fun science stuff with them, etc. no matter how good a school is, if kids don't get enrichment activities at home, they lose out on the biggest boost. Anything you can do to keep a kid's curiosity going is good. By the time I get kids in high school, so many have no curiosity or interest in anything. Half my kids were super uninformed about space and NASA and had never been to the air and space museum (it's free and fun and 30 minutes away!)

You can pull up school report cards from the dept of education site for your state. These list things like crime and discipline problems as well as test scores and how they compare to the state average.

I teach in a ginormous school. Most of the kids still seem to know each there because they end up in the same classes. They get a much broader choice of electives, languages, AP, etc.

thanks lava! that helps. must. chill. out. i just called the school i'm leaning towards (which has the 64 kid grad class) and they're already setting up K classes and she said to let them know sooner than later and I told her I was still trying to find a place to live and then I could register. and again, it's a pretty good town - I used to live in probably the worst part of town and it was (with the exception of 1 crazy guy my first week there who got drunk and threatened to kill cops) totally fine.