The Mesquite Independent School District has been named a 2001 "What Parents Want Award" winner by SchoolMatch. This is the second consecutive year MISD has earned this distinction.
Only 15 percent of the nation's 15,620 public school districts (2,356) have been recognized for meeting the needs of families choosing schools. The nation's largest school selection consulting firm, SchoolMatch, announced the 2001 tenth annual award in a recent letter to State School Leadership Associations.
“With the rapid influx of new residents to the Mesquite area, it is vitally important that people can access information about the MISD from anywhere in the world,” said Ian Halperin, MISD spokesperson. “We are proud of our schools and are always happy to share our success. School Match helps provide this service.”
SchoolMatch, an independent, nationwide service, helps corporate employee families find schools that match the needs of their children. SchoolMatch also conducts educational effectiveness audits of school systems, assists corporations with site selection studies and brings added safety and security to schools through a new five-screen comprehensive pre-employment SchoolCheck background screening service.
SchoolMatch maintains information on every public school system throughout the nation and more than 14,000 accredited private schools throughout the world. The service is offered as an employee benefit by about 600 companies, including Fidelity, United Parcel Service, Ernst & Young, Hewlett Packard, KPMG Peat Marwick, Nationwide Insurance, PSI Energy and The Limited.
More than a half million parents accessed SchoolMatch services through Microsoft’s Home Advisor, Vista Info (the nation’s largest Multiple Listing Service provider) and TransAmerica Intellitech as well as by personally contacting SchoolMatch's office in 1999.
Criteria used for award selection include:
A close match to what SchoolMatch users most often request. Compilation of over 70,000 parent questionnaires completed by SchoolMatch clients reveals parents most often look for school systems that are:
competitive in academic test scores and are academically solid, but not so rigorous as to intimidate their children
accredited
recognized for excellence by a national foundation or by the U.S. Department of Education
competitive in teacher salaries
above average in instructional expenditures on a national percentile basis
above average in expenditures for library/media services on a national percentile basis
known for small class size
Availability of programs at the secondary level. Since relocating parents often focus upon finding a school system that produces a certain quality of "end product" (a high school graduate), only school systems that provide secondary school programs are eligible for the award.
A search of the twenty-two field SchoolMatch Database reveals that only 15% of the nation's public schools consistently provide "What Parents Want" in public education. The SchoolMatch staff of school experts salutes those school districts that are meeting the needs and desires of both students and parents.
Corporations and consumers use SchoolMatch when moving across town, up-grading residences, relocating to a new area, when negotiating child custody issues and for general information about schools.
The MISD maintains its own web site (www.mesquiteisd.org), which provides a wide variety of information about the district as well as links to other educational sites.
For more information on School Match,
please contact William R. Mason with School Match at 614-890-1573
For more information, contact Ian Halperin, MISD Communications, at (972)882-7405. |
