The Virtual Library:
Choosing Schools

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Checklist for Evaluating Schools. By: Susan Jacobson. This handy procedural guide is perfect to help you prepare for a school tour. The author gives not answers, but questions you can use to evaluate the schools you visit.

Educated Consumers. By: Ann Bradley. Source: Education Week, March 26, 1997. "Meet some parents with an attitude. They shop for schools the way they shop for minivans, demanding solid information and plenty of it." This is a smart, insightful look at a fundamental change in the self-perception of parents of school-age children. They are becoming educated consumers.

Parents Crave a 'Zagats' for Picking Schools. By: Laurel Shaper Walters. Source: Christian Science Monitor, May 5, 1997. This is a page-one feature about the emergence of regional guidebooks to public schools. It's happening in Cambridge, San Francisco, St. Louis and New York.

Getting the Public School You Want in California. By: Kristi Hein and School Wise Press™. You have more rights than you may know about when it comes to choosing schools here in California. This includes the right to turn down your assigned school, and tell your district your preferred alternates. This will help you navigate the state's laws on what is called limited public sector choice.