Best school district/county in ATL (Sandy Springs, Roswell: crime, how much, best schools)

[jella]

hello ,

We are considering relocating to atlanta. We have two young children (elementary age). I want the best of all the worlds. Great weather meaning not cold and best schools.

Please give me your input

[ATLienGirl]

It depends, how much are you trying to spend, where are your jobs? Keep in mind that even though most affluent areas seem to have the "best schools", there are some great things going on at schools where money is not so prevelent (excuse the spelling). What exactly are you looking for in a "good school?" There are lots of things to consider; there really is no one "Best District", each has their pros and cons, unless you are considering private school where your money controls the well-being of your children's education (most of the time).

[cool_mommy]

My favorite sites to research the schools are schoolmatters.com, greatschools.net and Georgia Department of Education, where you can look at each school's or county's report card, teacher stats, teacher to student ratio, expenditures, etc. One thing that I did notice is that the scores can change pretty drastically from year to year, I was told this is due to the fact that there is a lot of re-districting in growing areas.

If you are interested in crime reports I like the FBI's web site, Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report, January-December, 2006 (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/06prelim/index.html - broken link).

Sperling's Best web site has some pretty good information as well. I did find some of the information on this web site to be vague, out of date or even incorrect but it is a good starting point.

More than anything else, I found this forum to be a tremendous help in doing my research. Thanks again everyone! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, I'm happy to try and help.

[Forsyth-Online]

School Districts here are based on County and they all have GREAT schools within each District. I don't think there is one particular bad district so determining where your job is and some other factors would be a good start and then focus in on the schools within that area.

[Merin]

Looks like its Cobb County. Looks like they had the most awards.

[TakeAhike]

Originally Posted by Merin

Looks like its Cobb County. Looks like they had the most awards.

I don't know if the # of awards is the best indicator.

Around Alpharetta, Roswell, Johns Creek, Milton--city of--there should be a number of excellent schools --based on the demographics of the area. That might be Fulton or Forsyth or Gwinnett...

[ATLienGirl]

Originally Posted by bhs119

I don't know if the # of awards is the best indicator.

Around Alpharetta, Roswell, Johns Creek, Milton--city of--there should be a number of excellent schools --based on the demographics of the area. That might be Fulton or Forsyth or Gwinnett...

I'd say of the three, Forsyth is definitely the best...not because of test scores, but because Forsyth believes in "equity for all", meaning that if one schools gets something, they ALL do. You don't see certain schools that are shortchanged, such as the differences in North and South Fulton, and North and South Gwinnett. It doesn't matter if it's a title I school or not in Forsyth, the county provides all things for all schools (versus certain schools). For example, EVERY classroom in EVERY schools has a Promethean White Board (an interactive computerized board for learning). When I taught in South Fulton County, I used to go to north Fulton Schools and be in awe...like, wow, why can't we get this, or why can't we get that. It's all about individual funding at each school. Forsyth might be at an advantage because they are smaller, but, you don't have parents going into one school and being like "how come they don't have things like this at my child's school?" If I ever decided to move north of I-20 and teach, I think Forsyth would be where I would want to teach based on this theory.

[TakeAhike]

Originally Posted by ATLienGirl

I'd say of the three, Forsyth is definitely the best...not because of test scores, but because Forsyth believes in "equity for all", meaning that if one schools gets something, they ALL do. You don't see certain schools that are shortchanged, such as the differences in North and South Fulton, and North and South Gwinnett. It doesn't matter if it's a title I school or not in Forsyth, the county provides all things for all schools (versus certain schools). For example, EVERY classroom in EVERY schools has a Promethean White Board (an interactive computerized board for learning). When I taught in South Fulton County, I used to go to north Fulton Schools and be in awe...like, wow, why can't we get this, or why can't we get that. It's all about individual funding at each school. Forsyth might be at an advantage because they are smaller, but, you don't have parents going into one school and being like "how come they don't have things like this at my child's school?" If I ever decided to move north of I-20 and teach, I think Forsyth would be where I would want to teach based on this theory.

It is good to know that Forsyth is idealistic--'Equity for all', etc.

The OP seems to be from out of state and researched GA schools from the FYI provided in other posts on this thread and then concluded that Cobb County was the 'Best' school district because it had the most awards.

There have been some excellent discussions in this forum about the criteria that define quality education--the poster might enjoy reading some of those threads...I don't think we need another one, jmo.

On a number of occasions schools in this area --(Alpharetta-Roswell-Sandy Springs--Johns Creek--Milton--maybe Suwanee and/or Cumming???) are identified as those with higher/highest test scores and programs that are not found in many other schools.

Many transplanted citizens living in this area and many employed in the IT industry--

sls

[ATLienGirl]

Originally Posted by bhs119

It is good to know that Forsyth is idealistic--'Equity for all', etc.

The OP seems to be from out of state and researched GA schools from the FYI provided in other posts on this thread and then concluded that Cobb County was the 'Best' school district because it had the most awards.

There have been some excellent discussions in this forum about the criteria that define quality education--the poster might enjoy reading some of those threads...I don't think we need another one, jmo.

On a number of occasions schools in this area --(Alpharetta-Roswell-Sandy Springs--Johns Creek--Milton--maybe Suwanee and/or Cumming???) are identified as those with higher/highest test scores and programs that are not found in many other schools.

Many transplanted citizens living in this area and many employed in the IT industry--

sls

Yes, I agree; there are many other threads that discuss this. So, it is easier to look at this from an individual school stance as opposed to a "county" stance. Ideally, there's no "best county" in regards to test scores because each individual school is different. Especially in those areas you mentioned (where money is the most prevelent).

[Forsyth-Online]

Originally Posted by ATLienGirl

I'd say of the three, Forsyth is definitely the best...not because of test scores, but because Forsyth believes in "equity for all", meaning that if one schools gets something, they ALL do. You don't see certain schools that are shortchanged, such as the differences in North and South Fulton, and North and South Gwinnett. It doesn't matter if it's a title I school or not in Forsyth, the county provides all things for all schools (versus certain schools). For example, EVERY classroom in EVERY schools has a Promethean White Board (an interactive computerized board for learning). When I taught in South Fulton County, I used to go to north Fulton Schools and be in awe...like, wow, why can't we get this, or why can't we get that. It's all about individual funding at each school. Forsyth might be at an advantage because they are smaller, but, you don't have parents going into one school and being like "how come they don't have things like this at my child's school?" If I ever decided to move north of I-20 and teach, I think Forsyth would be where I would want to teach based on this theory.

This is very true, but I think the school's in South Forsyth might be a tad better than North. I think this is mostly because there have been more people that have moved in to South Forsyth and it tends to be a little more progressive than North. The white boards are something else - very impressive!