If a parent wants to find the best possible school for their children then asking the following question would be a great idea in order to get valuable information. Don’t forget to bring a pen and paper to take note of the answers.

•What is the school’s philosophy?

•What is the school’s code of conduct?

•Does the school offer conflict resolution? •What are the guidelines for suspension and expulsion?

•Does the school have a strict dress code? •How do the students interact with the teachers?

•Does the school have a diverse student population?

•Does the school have an accelerated or gifted program?

•What is the criterion for having your child tested or admitted into a gifted program?

•What is the average class size?

•Does the school have reduced class size? (Are the reduced class size only for particular programs?)

•Does the school offer an integrated curriculum with full inclusion of all learners?

•What are the school’s academic standards?

•How are the school’s test scores?

•Have the scores fluctuated or have they been steadily improving or declining?

•How does the school prepare its students for higher education?

•What programs are offered in the school?

•Does the school support English Language Learners?

•How long has the administration been in the school?

•Does the school provide teachers with professional development?

•Does the school have a strong PTA or PA?

•Is an after school program offered?

•Does the school have an Emergency Evacuation Plan? If so, is it plan given to parents?

•Does the school have a website?

This list can be very useful, but parents should also ask whatever questions they may have that are not listed above. You can also share those question in the comment box for other parents to read.

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. — At this remote ski resort, going to “boarding school” means spending as much time in a snow-packed terrain park as a high school classroom. The students at the college preparatory school here even wake up in a hotel and spa that once housed a Club Med, a location that gives the skiers among them slope-side access to some of the most famed expert terrain in the country.

But for the 70 youths enrolled at Crested Butte Academy, the similarities to being on vacation end there.

On a recent day, those who live on campus rise before dawn for a mandatory breakfast appearance before joining the day students at a nearby building for an hour of strength training with their performance coach.

Brendan Gerard, a shaggy-haired 17-year-old and four-year academy veteran, arrives last because he’s been scraping the wax off the bottom of his snowboard. He’s soon groaning alongside two dozen other teenagers, some of whom begin stripping off their ski caps and tossing them aside with the parkas, boots and other layers of clothing that already sit in piles around the perimeter of the dimly lit room.

The students listen up as Bud Keene, who coached snowboarder Shaun White to Olympic gold in 2006, enters the room to put strict limits on the use of portable music players on the slopes. Keene, who joined the academy last spring as director of snowboarding and freeride skiing, allows a split-second for any questions.

“Everybody got that? Cool.”

The new iPod edict comes as a blow to some of the kids in the room. But the change is just a tiny tweak compared with the complete turnaround in the school’s once lax standards and near-bankrupt status.

The school’s reversal of fortunes gained momentum when the school was absorbed last year into the IMG sports and talent agency, the behemoth that has operated in 30 countries and represents big names such as Tiger Woods.

Its far-flung business now includes widespread media and entertainment interests and a division that operates a dozen sports-specific academies aimed at churning out future greats.

The winter sports emphasis at Crested Butte Academy filled a gap in IMG’s diverse portfolio of schools, some of which cater to tennis players and golfers, even future trophy fishers. The deep-pocketed IMG has allowed the academy here to do more than just keep the doors open. It has moved from aging quarters and dilapidated dormitories to relatively posh resort digs that have it claiming to be the only ski-in, ski-out private school in the country.

Its recruitment efforts — the school has almost doubled its full-time enrollment in a year and now brings dozens of youths in for weeklong training sessions — have been aided by its ability to lure big-name coaches.

A typical day also involves four hours on the snow and four hours in the classroom. There are three daily meals designed by a nutritionist, stretching, strength-training and mental-conditioning programs, as well as a two-hour study hall in the evenings.

The intensive athletic and academic experience comes at a price: $34,000 a year for tuition, room and board.

The cost doesn’t include multiweek summer training camps that often involve international travel.

The academy was founded as an alternative high school for local kids whose parents wanted them to attend high school in town rather than down the valley in Gunnison.

It went out of business briefly in the middle of the 2003-04 school year, only to be revived as a nonprofit, sports-focused prep school several days later. It lacked enough coaches to support the new approach. And the purchase of a new building eventually put the cash-strapped school over the edge.

“This was a third-tier boarding school — a school that survived by admitting everyone they could,” says Graham Frey, who became the school’s headmaster just before the start of the 2006-07 school year. “It was a mess.”

About three months after arriving on campus, Frey boarded an airplane bound for Bradenton, Fla., home to IMG Academies and the campus of its biggest and best-known sports academy programs.

“If this place was going to make it, it needed a strong financial partner,” says Frey, who made a pitch that eventually led to the IMG deal.

Despite all the time spent on the mountain, the highly structured lifestyle and all of the rules can prove daunting.

“You do lose a lot of your freedom. And it’s definitely not part of snowboarding society to be restricted,” says snowboarding student Gerard, who spent the early part of his youth in Cleveland. “I miss out on the whole party scene, but how can I be bummed when I get to snowboard when they’re in school?”

Read the resource article here.

The Independent School Entrance Examination (ISEE) is a three-hour admission test for entrance into grades five through twelve. The ISEE has three levels: a Lower Level for students currently in grades four and five who are candidates for admission to grades five and six, a Middle Level for students in grades six and seven who are candidates for admission to grades seven and eight, and an Upper Level for students in grades eight to eleven who are candidates for admission to grades nine through twelve.

Q: How much is the test?
A: The online or mail-in registration fee for the ISEE is $78. There is an additional charge of $20 for phone or fax registration.

Q: Are walk-in tests available?
A: Yes, walk-in registration is available at a limited number of test sites and dates. Walk-in registration is on a first-come, first-served basis and cannot be assured due to limitations on test materials and staff. There is an additional $30 fee for this service. If you are a candidate for walk-in registration, you must call the test site directly to see if you can be accommodated. If so, you must bring the following to the test site:
• a completed Registration Form. • the test fee plus the additional $30 (check, Visa, MasterCard or American Express).

Note: Test site supervisors will not accept cash and scoring will be delayed if your Registration Form has not been properly completed. Allow two extra working days for score reports and telephone reports.

Q: Can I make changes to my registration?
A: Yes, contact the Operations Office at 1-800-446-0320 immediately to make any changes to your submitted form. Some changes, such as rescheduling a test date, may result in additional fees. Check the ISEE Student Guide for more complete information.

Q: Where is the test offered?
A: The test is offered in over thirty metropolitan areas across the country. The list of testing dates and locations is found in the ISEE Student Guide available through the school to which the student is applying or online.

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The Secondary School Admission Test, or SSAT, is an admissions test administered to students in grades 5-11 to help determine placement into independent or private junior high and high schools. Despite its similarities, the SSAT is not related to the SAT Reasoning test and is not administered by the College Board.

There are two levels of the test: the Lower level for students in grades 5-7 and the Upper level, designed for students in grades 8-11. The SSAT consists of two parts: a brief essay and a multiple choice test that includes Mathematics, Reading Comprehension and Verbal sections. In all, there are five sections.

The test, written in English, is primarily administered in the United States and Canada at various test centers, which usually are independent schools. However, there are also test centers worldwide.

Reference and picture credits.

The National Coalition of Girls’ Schools (NCGS) is a leading advocate for girls’ education. Believing that girls’ schools are the most powerful, transformative learning environments for girls, NCGS seeks to document the unique qualities that best define the girls’ school experience.

To this end, NCGS conducts research, promotes best practices, supports public outreach activities, and sponsors academic conferences with a focus on girls and learning. It serves its Member Schools as they prepare young women to be the visionaries and leaders who will make the world a better one for all.

Reference.

Q. When do I apply?
A. Applications completed by February 15 will receive priority consideration. If you miss the deadline, you may still apply. We will evaluate applications on a rolling basis after our first round of acceptances. We may still have openings available in late spring or early summer.

Q. How is the application process different for international students?
A. Because Dunn School does not offer ESL, all international students must submit a TOEFL score of 500 or above. We do offer vocabulary and grammatical support for international students in our Non-Native English class. If you need a student visa, we will issue an I-20 form only after a student has been accepted and enrolled. International students that are accepted to Dunn must have a guardian residing in the United States.

Q. When is the application process complete?
A. The Admission committee will only review an application when we have received the following:

>> Your formal application
>> Teacher and personal recommendations
>> Transcript of current and past grades
>> Tour and personal interview
>> Score results from the SSAT or ISEE

Q. What are the SSAT and the ISEE?
A. The SSAT and the ISEE are tests that are widely used by independent schools to assess a candidate’s academic potential. When you take these tests, you will have the opportunity to have the results sent directly to Dunn School. Our school code is 2914 for the SSAT and 051 863 for the ISEE. You can find testing websites for dates and locations in the Admission Resource section.

Q. What is your Learning Skills program?
A. The Learning Skills program accommodates a select group of applicants with minimal, diagnosed language and learning difficulties. Students who qualify for this program meet individually with an LS teacher for fifty minutes four times per week. Instruction includes strategies and skills for coping with and compensating for a learning difference.

Q. How does divorce or separation affect the financial aid application process?
A. The Financial Aid Committee considers the financial resources of both parents and any stepparents. Both the custodial and non-custodial parents are required to complete financial aid applications.

Reference.

Cate School, established in 1910 by Curtis Wolsey Cate, is a four-year, coeducational, college-preparatory boarding school in Carpinteria, California, United States.

In addition to an academic curriculum that features a combined thirty-eight Advanced Placement (AP) offerings and honors courses, all students participate in an extracurricular program that includes athletics, drama, music, dance, community service, and an extensive outdoor program. The class size averages between ten and twelve students.

The student body of 265 students (83 percent are boarders) comes from twenty-three states and thirteen countries and is both academically talented and diverse.

Some Quick Facts:

Cate’s student body is recognized as much for its talent—academic, artistic, and athletic—as it is for its warmth and vitality.

Admission

> Inquiries received yearly for admission: 2,000
> Interviews conducted yearly for admission: 450
> Applications submitted yearly for admission: 450
> New students enrolled yearly: 75-80
> General median SSAT total percentile of new students: 80th

Student Body

> Total students: 265 (220 boarders / 45 day)
> Boarding students from outside California: 43%
> Boarding students from abroad: 19%
> Students of color: 41%
> Students who receive need-based financial aid: Almost 30%
> Financial aid allocated for 2006/2007: $2,000,000
> Foreign Nations represented in student body (by home address): England, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Macau, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand
> States represented in student body (by home address): AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, ID, IL, LA, MA, MD, MT, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, TX, UT, VA, WA

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Owen Meany is a dwarfish boy with a strange voice who accidentally kills his best friend’s mom with a baseball and believes–accurately–that he is an instrument of God, to be redeemed by martyrdom.

John Irving’s novel, which inspired the 1998 Jim Carrey movie Simon Birch, is his most popular book in Britain, and perhaps the oddest Christian mystic novel since Flannery O’Connor’s work.

Irving fans will find much that is familiar: the New England prep-school-town setting, symbolic amputations of man and beast, the Garp-like unknown father of the narrator (Owen’s orphaned best friend), the rough comedy.

The scene of doltish the doltish headmaster driving a trashed VW down the school’s marble staircase is a marvelous set piece. So are the Christmas pageants Owen stars in. But it’s all, as Highlights magazine used to put it, “fun with a purpose.” When Owen plays baby Jesus in the pageants, and glimpses a tombstone with his death date while enacting A Christmas Carol, the slapstick doesn’t cancel the fact that he was born to be martyred.

The book’s countless subplots add up to a moral argument, specifically an indictment of American foreign policy–from Vietnam to the Contras.

To read more reviews about the book, please click here.
To know more about the author, please click here.

Phillips Academy (also known as Phillips Andover or P.A. or simply Andover) is a co-educational University preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9-12. The school is located in Andover, Massachusetts, north of Boston.

Phillips Academy is the oldest continuously running incorporated boarding school in the United States, established in 1778 by Samuel Phillips, Jr. Phillips Academy’s endowment stood around $670 million on June 30, 2006, the third-highest of any American secondary school.

The academy traditionally educated its students for Yale (and to a lesser extent, Harvard and Amherst), but students now matriculate to a wide range of colleges and universities.

Among other notable alumni, Andover has educated two American Presidents, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, four Medal of Honor recipients, inventor Samuel Morse, and author Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

The Phillipian, the school’s student-run newspaper, is the oldest secondary school newspaper in the US. Likewise, the Philomathean Society is the oldest high school debate society in the nation, established in 1825.

Reference and picture credits. 

Probably one of the most influential films about the boarding school industry is Dead Poets Society.

Dead Poets Society is an 1989 Academy Award-winning film directed by Peter Weir. Set in 1959 at a conservative and autocratic boys prep school, it tells the story of an English professor who inspires his students to change their lives of conformity through his teaching of poetry and literature.

The story is set at the fictional Welton Academy in Vermont and was filmed at St. Andrew’s School in Middletown, Delaware. The script was written based on the author’s life at Montgomery Bell Academy, an all boys preparatory school in Nashville, Tennessee. A novelization by Nancy H. Kleinbaum (ISBN 0553282980) based on the movie’s script has also been published.

Whether you consider the movie a commentary, entertainment or reality, it certainly made an impact. If you are curious about how boarding schools are portrayed around that time, it is recommended that you get hold of film’s copy.

Reference and picture credits.