On Tue, 9 Sep 2003, lizzard woman wrote:

"Mary E" wrote in message
...
Where do I go for statistics about schools in my area? I've got 8 private
grade schools (son will be starting kindergarten next year) that would
work
for me as far as location and reputation (that I know of) is concerned. I
also know student to teacher ratio and enrollment figures.

You have *8* private grade schools near you??? Let me guess... you live in
either Florida, Mississippi, or Louisiana, si?

What I need to know is how the students perform. How does the teaching
stack up against other schools locally and nationally?

I have a small amount of experience with private school in Puerto Rico but
that is a different world is oh so many ways. That school published the
college acceptances but I have never seen them publish results form
standardized test scores. I would imagine that a provate school should be
very willing to show you the average, median, etc. test scores from their
students on standardzed tests which you can then compare to published scores
for your public school district, city, state, and country.


Some private schools, which are normally exempt from these requirements,
do not do the tests or do not do the same tests the local public schools
do. Indeed, some private schools are pretty closed-mouthed about
these things altogether -- oddly enough.

Many do, however, belong to an accrediting organization which might
be able to provide some assistance (in addition to asking each of
the schools). I'd also request demographic info about the students
so as to be able to compare apples to apples instead of oranges.