This fourth and final guide in a series of volumes addresses parents who desire assistance in selecting the appropriate school for their child. The guide provides narratives and "real life" descriptions of actual occurrences in schools that advertise themselves as emphasizing a particular style or philosophy of teaching or curricular emphasis. Daily activities are sketched in 10 schools in 6 school districts in Massachusetts and New York. Section 2 of the guide describes fundamental, "back-to-basics" schools: Burncoat Preparatory Magnet School, Worcester, Massachusetts; and Bridge Alternative Concept School, Community School District Four, East Harlem, New York City. Schools described as using a "continuous progress, non-graded, individually guided" approach to school organization and grouping profiled in section 3 are Hernandez Two-Way Bilingual Magnet School, Boston, Massachusetts, and Mill Swan Communications Skills Magnet School, Worcester, Massachusetts. The Montessori developmental or "open" education type of school is modeled in section 4 by Bennett Park Montessori Center, Buffalo, New York; Graham and Parks Alternative Public School, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and City Magnet School, Lowell, Massachusetts. Described in section 5, "Schools with Curricular Specializations," are Arts Magnet School, Lowell, Massachusetts and Isaac Newton School for Science and Math, New York City. The final section briefly discusses degrees of parental involvement that can accompany any of the options. (CJH)