Hi deacongirl,
It depends on what you are looking for. Some things to note about AZ.
1) AZ has open enrollment so you can attend any district regardless of where you live. You will have to drive.
2) There are very strong charter schools in the state that outperform district schools.
3) PVUSD and SUSD have a large range of quality between schools as these districts span different sections of the city. i.e., the schools in the north have better results due to the high SES in the area.
PVUSD and SUSD are in the central to the north part of the area. Chandler and Kyrene are in the south.
As I live in the northern part of town I can comment on PVUSD and SUSD. If you are looking for the schools with ther best academics these are the top schools in descending order.
BASIS Schools - Charter (in Chandler and Scottsdale)
GreatHearts Schools - Charter (See Scottsdale Prep and Chandler Prep)
Benchmark School - Charter
Cheyenne Traditional - SUSD magnet school
Grayhawk - PVUSD
Pinnacle Peak - PVUSD
Copper Ridge - SUSD
I would stay away from Kyrene and I know little about Chandler.
If you are looking for self contained gifted in a district setting, than Sonoran Sky is your best choice. The self contained gift schools in SUSD are not that great.
Bottom line, while AZ does rank low nationally of education, our state offers the most choice with open enrollment, charters, online schooling, vouchers, and homeschooling. You will not be stuck with your local district if you are unhappy or want a bigger challenge for your children.
Thanks for the info. Dh would be working in the Biltmore area. I was thinking Chandler would be a good option for us (not realizing how bad the traffic is) due to (relatively) more diversity for dd4 (born in Vietnam), more house for $ etc. Chandler also has self-contained gifted. But I am thinking the commute would rule out Chandler.
I did contact some professionals with expertise in this area, and it seems PVUSD's gifted program would be the best bet. Unfortunately I think Sonoran Sky's self-contained program is full for 2011-12, but there is another school that offers it in PVUSD. It is good to know about the open enrollment options--but if we could live in the neighborhood of the school the kids would go to it would be great. It might be ok for dd10 to be at Sonaran Sky in the regular class with daily content enrichment/replacement with the gifted specialist for the end of 5th, and then for 6th grade maybe be in the self-contained program.
It is difficult to figure this out from the East Coast, so I appreciate your sharing your experience! Thank you.
