Private Catholic Vs. Public School

[Embrodak]

My oldest child will be attending Kindergarten this fall. My wife and I are trying to determine if we will be sending my son to the Elementary School down the street or to North Tonawanda Catholic.

I have been able to find a few items on the internet, but nothing that would provide information to get a direct comparison.

I found a link that said

North Tonawanda Catholic School ranked 17th out of 93 schools in the 2004 Business First Ranking of Western New York Private Elementary Schools. All schools in the ranking are required to administer NYS Standardized Tests among other criteria.

But I have no idea if it is better than the local public schools or not.

I was able to find The New York State School Report Card
http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/repcrd2005/home.shtml
But have no way to compare it to the Private School.


Can anyone point out some references they have to compare the schools?
I do not want to go with the assumption that the Private School must be better than the Public School. I would like some facts to make an informed decision.

Thanks in Advance.

[Linda_D]

"Better" as applied to schools has a shifting definition, sometimes defined by the parents, and sometimes defined by the quality of the local school district. As with most schools, the "quality" has a lot to do with the socio-economic level of its students.

North Tonawanda is not Buffalo; its public schools are decent (my neices both attended and graduated from there) but not on the level of, say, Amherst or Williamsville (nephew and neice graduated from there). Much of that has to do with there being more economic diversity in NT than in the Amherst districts, although I think that the level of public support for the schools is higher in the Amherst area than in NT.

Achievement-wise, NT Catholic is probably not on a par with the Cathlic schools in Amherst, either. So, if your only reason for sending your child to NTC is concern about public schools, you have to judge whether it's worth the extra cost. Keep in mind that if your child has special needs, the Catholic school, with very limited resources, might not be able to offer much. If you have religious reasons for sending your child there, then the question is moot.

I would suggest you find some parents of who send their children to both schools and ask them what they like and dislike about their childrens' schools.