J Larry Newton School

My experience with this school has been outstanding! Both my children attended K-6 grade and we had excellent teachers throughout.

Below average and lacking in many areas.

Fantastic, I was a student there when it first opened and I’m proud that my child is starting her school career here.

We moved from a school in another state that had a rating of 9 and it was one of the worst schools. We came to J. Larry Newton and my kids loved the teachers and the other kids. The teachers are caring and have high morals and values. I can't wait to see what they do this year.

This is my daughters first year at Newton. We moved here from another state. When deciding where to live in the area, school was our top factor. We had an excellent school before, and it only had a 5 Great Schools rating, so I had high hopes/expectations for Newton. They have missed the mark by far! Everyone is very friendly and the school has good testing scores (based on state standards). Beyond that, there is nothing at this school that warrants a 9 rating. The teaching philosophy focuses on rote learning vs. conceptual learning, there are no extra curricular options (our previous school had chess, drama, garden club, kindness and compassion club, Spanish, running, and more for grades 1-5), there does not appear to be any importance given to personal character, world culture or community involvement. I attended Open House expecting to learn about my daughters typical day and about her teachers instructional approach, but only got a quick 'meet and greet'. The criteria Great Schools uses does not give a true representation of the quality of education of a school. Schools should encourage out of the box thinking and a global responsibility, not just memorization for testing.