Choosing the Right School: Why Is This Important For Our Future?

Whether it is public, private, or charter school, school choice allows the same opportunities with government funding across the board. But how do you know the right questions to ask when choosing what is best for your family and when do you start looking?

It is never too early to start looking into schools. According to Niche.com most families take six months to a year to finalize a decision for their child. This is not a decision to be taken lightly and can have a tremendous effect on one’s future. When looking into schools, it is important to know what curriculum they are using, is the school accredited, what is the student teacher-ratio, how are students ranked on standardized tests, what resource classes do they offer, and for high schools what is the graduation rate. These questions will give you a beginning insight into the school based on personal preferences. Before setting up tours around different campuses many online sites can give you answers you might be searching for to help streamline your choice. Online searches of the intended area will help you see what the social presence of the school may look like. Many schools use social media such as Facebook and Instagram to highlight daily and weekly accomplishments, where school websites tend to have a much broader look at the school. Looking at reviews on various sites will lend an inside look at how the school is perceived by the families and community.

Students learn from our curriculum and interactions how to address conflict, participate in a community, and become a productive citizen. The effect the school has on a child is not solely academic or intellectual growth, but also character development and citizenship. The right school will have the best positive influence on the whole student, mental, physical, and emotional.

St. Ann Catholic School in Decatur is a three year old through eighth grade school that focuses on our Classical curriculum studies to enhance student’s grammar, logic, and rhetoric skills. These are implemented through our utilization of classical literature to pair with all core subjects. As an accredited school through Cognia, we meet all state requirements and then push students further with our own high expectations. Students consistently score above grade level on our MAP standardized tests. As a private school, we implement virtues, morals, and manners as we help to develop the whole child. Our small class, with an average 10:1 student to teacher ratio, allows for individualized teaching to ensure a quality education. Our enrollment is open all year long and tours can be set up daily – 256-353-6543 – through the school office.