Voice of San Diego is pleased to launch our inaugural issue of A Parent’s Guide to Public Schools. It’s a free magazine-style guide created to provide a tool for families to use when making decisions about a child’s education. Not only does it provide an overview of every public school’s performance in easy-to-read charts, the Guide also answers your questions about local public school options, like what is school choice, what is a charter school, or is transitional kindergarten available for my child.
Download our free guide to San Diego public schools.
It also showcases several innovative approaches some schools are trying and includes a checklist to support you as you explore your options.
Voice of San Diego has distributed more than 40,000 copies of the Guide throughout the county. If you didn’t receive one, check your local library. Copies are also available through community partners like Neighborhood House, MAAC, Voices for Children, and Barrio Logan College Institute.
Or download a copy here. It’s available in English and Spanish.
You can also check out our interactive map and filter for special distinctions, charter schools, dual-language opportunities and more.
Most of the data in the Guide comes from the California Department of Education as of December 2017. We included demographic information about each school’s students, like the percent of students who are eligible for free or reduced lunch, which is a commonly-used indicator of poverty in education.
Other data comes from the state’s new California Schools Dashboard, which reports information about the level and trend-line of the test results of each school. We’ve taken the step of converting the state’s color codes to special symbols. And of interest to many parents, we have also indicated which schools offer popular programs like dual-language immersion and the International Baccalaureate program.
Laura Kohn, the director of Communications and the Center for Local Income Mobility at the San Diego Workforce Partnership was instrumental in pulling this together. UC San Diego Extension’s Center for Research on the Regional Economy helped us organize the data. Map and data visualization by Ashley Lewis.
If you have questions or comments about the guide, email info@voiceofsandiego.org. We look forward to your feedback.
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