I need information on the Oregon Coast, please. (Grants Pass, Newport: stores, refinishing)

[Steve Pickering]

Or it could be for many it is ideal.

[Mermaid~Tears]

Husband & I both retired but on a fixed income of approx. 2-2100 a month. We are currently considering Corvallis, Coquille and the Brookings area. There are two elementary school aged children living near/with us as our daughter wishes to move/relocate too. She is a pharmacy tech...we provide care for our grand children. While I have traveled to & love Brookings...Ive only been in the area in Fall when we used to travel more and I can't seem to get a clear handle on weather...I know its considered to be "banana belt" warm BUT I also know they get their fair share of rainy days too, particularly in Winter. Am I wrong? The grandkids need outdoor nature opportunities, decent schools and a reasonably safe environment. Our daughter needs an area with retail pharmacy opportunities for work. Near as I can find? That means walmart in Crescent city, CA Fred Meyers in Brookings OR...going way inland to areas like Bend...etc
We are open to suggestions...I haven't written off Corvallis or Coquille but am having a hard time locating objective info for suitability of area for raising young family.

[oldtrader]

You want good schools for the kids, and low rent.

The coast is not known for low rent.

For schools go to GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community which is considered by professionals as the best place to judge schools. When you go to Coos Bay as an example you see the Junior High is only a 2 out of 10 with 10 the best. The high school is only a 4, which shows they are not very good schools to prepare kids in the 21st Century.

On the other hand, Bandon Oregon schools are all rated as 7 which is starting to get pretty decent for schools.

Go inland, to Grants Pass as an example, and you find the schools greatly improve over Coos Bay

Great Schools Org is the place to find the quality of schools anywhere in the U.S.

If good schools are important to you, stay away from Coos Bay. Coos Bay is headed for even bigger problems as they are losing Xerox as a major employer which is taking 300 jobs away from the city where 300 jobs will cause a real upheaval and as families move for employment and the money to the schools goes down, the schools are certainly apt to get worse.

[crazyme4878]

I really, REALLY wouldn't trust GreatSchools. They are only based on test scores and do not allow any negative reviews of the schools. Perhaps it is a place to start, but I cringe whenever someone recommends that site.

[Steve Pickering]

If you go by Test Scores, that would make Powers Oregon the number one choice.

[oldtrader]

I really, REALLY wouldn't trust GreatSchools. They are only based on test scores and do not allow any negative reviews of the schools. Perhaps it is a place to start, but I cringe whenever someone recommends that site.

What would you use to rate schools. We are in an age. where jobs are changing and becoming more technical and require a much higher knowledge of math, and science which are major factors in rating students. Students that can pass tests, have a lot more knowledge than those that cannot. Students in school today, are being educated for jobs of the future, not the past. If a student cannot pass tests on those subjects they will have difficulty getting into a decent college or trade school, as they are selecting the students that have proven they can pass tests and they pass tests due to the amount of knowledge they have on the subject. Getting scholarships is nearly impossible if a student cannot pass tests.

Keep in mind, that experts tell us that 50% of the jobs that people will be working at in 10 years have not even been invented yet, and those jobs will require more education than the jobs of the past.

Example of Change: In your Oregon Tillamook Cheese plant, just a few years ago they had a large number of strong men, that used big paddles, etc. to make cheese in vats. The moved out the vats, and installed stainless steel machinery with big sealed tanks. Instead of a lot of men doing hand work, they had 3 people in lab coats running it from computer stations. One man caught the cheese as it dropped out at the end into plastic bags, and placed them on a cart to go to the ageing room. Those in the lab coats, were technicians, and some were small women. That is what is happening to the jobs of the past, and are being replaced by people that can pass tests in math and science, etc. People that cannot pass tests will not be getting jobs in the future.

Years ago they talked me into teaching business in college which I did for one year. I learned first hand, that those that could pass tests in K-12, were able to handle college, and those that could not did very poor often dropping out. Remember the real good jobs go to the top half of the graduates in college, and the rest take anything left over. In today's economy, the lower half are often finding it nearly impossible to get decent jobs.

I spent 10 years in the corporate world with a large national company. I worked up to Division Sales Manager of half the country. I interviewed well over a thousand of people over the years. We would give them a simple test, that anyone with good basic knowledge could pass. You would be surprised how many failed. We found if they could not pass a simple basic knowledge written exam, would not be able to do the job, from everything from working in offices, to sales managers. This is true for a lot of companies, whose management told me the same thing when we met at conferences around the country. I took numerous tests over the years myself.

The good schools educate students giving them enough knowledge to pass tests in subjects needed in their field of future work. Those that just push the kids through school, and they are unable to handle tests as they have insufficient knowledge to do so, are setting students up for failure. Depriving them of scholarships.

Oregon in the area of the state we are discussing in this thread, are not schools with a handicap of a lot of foreign students, and illegal alien children who do not speak English. They should all be educating children well enough to be in at least 6 and above in Great School ratings.

If you disagree with me, then show what should be used to judge the quality of the schools, and the education system.

[crazyme4878]

As I said, it is a place to start, however, "teaching to the test" does not educate children, yet it provides excellent results on reporting sites like Great Schools. You need to talk to parents of children already in the school system, and preferably visit the school and sit in on a class, talk to the teachers and principal to get a full picture.

The extremes that some schools go to pass the tests can actually be detrimental to the students and actual learning.

However, this discussion is better suited to the education forum.

[Steve Pickering]

Powers Elementary passed 100% because they have no foreign nationals and each student gets individual attention in a fairly conservative town where discipline in the school is expected. They were the only school statewide to do so.

[oldtrader]

As I said, it is a place to start, however, "teaching to the test" does not educate children, yet it provides excellent results on reporting sites like Great Schools. You need to talk to parents of children already in the school system, and preferably visit the school and sit in on a class, talk to the teachers and principal to get a full picture.

But not being able to pass tests, not having the knowledge to do basic math, not understanding basic English, etc., is a problem waiting to happen in the future. Just passing kids through school, does not prepare them for the future. Getting them to have enough basic knowledge is what is important, and tests are the only way one can grade to see if they have the knowledge to compete in life, to be able to do work, and passing tests is the only way available to evaluate them. I have seen too many normally intelligent people, that just went through school as they were not forced to learn, and could not compete in the job world.

Powers Elementary passed 100% because they have no foreign nationals and each student gets individual attention in a fairly conservative town where discipline in the school is expected. They were the only school statewide to do so.

This is the ideal learning environment, and prepares kids for the future. Put too many foreign nationals without basic knowledge of English, not having the basic understanding of the classes they are put in. This is a disadvantage to the other kids, that want to learn but are neglected trying to get the foreign nationals educated. None of the students get a good education.

The adults that cannot pass basic tests in the world of employment with high scores, do not get the good jobs. Those go to the ones that can.

[RWolfen]

My son and I are moving back to Oregon in 2 months. We are going to the coast first, but are looking at other places as well. I was raised in Grants Pass, and only visited the coast, but it has been so many years, my information is out-dated. Can't wait to get back to Oregon though! Definitely having second thoughts about settling on the coast after all these comments. Looking for somewhere to start a small business out of, so it has to have a decent economy. I school at home so schools aren't too much of an issue.