One of the more important and difficult decisions you will make as a parent is choosing a school for your child. With the proliferation of private schools, magnet schools, charter schools, and many school districts’ open enrollment policies, parents have more choices than ever before.
The first thing I suggest is a visit to the perspective school you’d like your child to attend. In order to do this, you want to contact the school’s office and arrange a visitation. For an elementary school, you want to visit at the end of a lunch period. Observe how children are playing and watch what happens when the bell rings. In a well-run school, teachers, staff, principal, and students have a mutual respect for one another and the school’s campus. That respect is shown when the following happens:
Elementary Schools:
- Students stop playing when the bell rings.
- You should not see students having to have several reminders from the adults on supervision to return to class.
- The students using balls and equipment should put it away.
- You do not want to see students randomly kicking or throwing balls before returning to class.
- Students should line up in their designated area in an orderly fashion.
- If students pass a tether ball they shouldn’t be randomly hitting it.
- They shouldn’t be hitting one another or rough housing on the way to line or in line.
- Teachers should meet students on time.
- Teachers should greet students and express enthusiasm.
- Listen for positive comments from teachers.
- The lunch area should be relatively free from trash.
- The interactions between students and the adults on supervision should be respectful.
- The adults on supervision should make positive comments to students.
- If a second or third lunch is beginning as one ends, students arriving for lunch should not be out of control running on their way to the playground or lunch tables.
In a high school or middle school an observation of the passing period tells you a lot in five or less minutes about the school’s culture. In a passing period, you should observe the following things in a good school:
Middle and High Schools:
- Students should move through the halls following traffic patterns staying to the right of the hall as they move.
- Students shouldn’t be shoving, pushing, or touching one another as they walk between classes.
- Students should not be running.
- Teachers should greet students at the door.
- Teachers and adults on supervision should make positive comments to students.
- The halls should not be covered with chewing gum or trash.
- The halls should be empty when the bell rings.
After you have visited a perspective school, you want to explore on what the school prides itself. Undoubtedly, the principal will tell you about this when you visit, and you will find additional information on the school’s web site as well as in their advertising if the school advertises.
In looking at the school’s curriculum, schools have two ways to address delivering grade level learning standards to students. You want to look at the school’s math, science, reading, and writing programs. Schools have the option of developing their own programs, or they can purchase a commercially available program which trains the school’s teachers and provides student materials. For the most part, I tend to think that strong schools have subject programs that are developed by teachers. When teachers have been trained to use a commercially available program they often become facilitators rather than teachers, and I feel that students lack critical thinking in that particular subject area. For example, in a school that uses a commercially available writing program I’ve noticed that students are taught to be formulaic in their writing. Students leave the school with the ability to write, but all students’ writing follows the same format. By contrast, In a school that has a strong teacher-developed writing program students tend to learn how to write and think more critically about writing.
In addition, you want to look at the physical education, fine arts, field trips, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), or STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) programs. Schools, especially elementary ones, tend to focus more on left-brained learning (math, reading, writing, and social studies) than right-brained learning (physical education, music, and art). A school with well-developed right-brained curricular programs will also have strong left-brained programs because left-brained programs are developed first. When talking to an elementary school principal, ask about the school’s physical education program. In many elementary schools, physical education is an afterthought, and a school that has a strong physical education program will be strong in other areas as well. Physical education, by the way, is the only curricular area that has state mandated minutes of instruction. In California, students have to have 200 minutes every ten school days grades first through sixth and 400 minutes every ten days for middle and high school students.
Since middle and high schools have elective classes, they give their students the ability of specialize in a curricular area. At the middle school level, some schools rotate students through a variety of elective classes while other schools allow students to choose their elective. In high school, students have a wider range of elective classes in which to choose. Depending upon your child’s interest, you want to look at a school’s elective offerings to see if it is a match for your child. Grade level field trips are another indicator of a strong school.
Do I send my child to public or private school? This is an emotionally-charged question, and if you read the “About” section you will know my bias. I feel there are two considerations that are good food for thought on this topic. First, private school can be expensive, so why spend the money?. I feel money is better spent saving for college or your own retirement than on a private school education. Second, because you are the customer at a private school, they sometimes inflate grades or lower the rigor. Why would one pay a school for D’s and F’s? From my own experience, all private school students who transferred to my sixth grade classroom were under-prepared, but I worked in a school district with high test scores. You should ask a perspective private school how their students compare to other students in the state? What form of assessment is used to determine this?
Schools can be self-fulfilling meaning that a school that has high test scores or an outstanding athletic programs tends to improve. This is found primarily at the high school level. A school with high test scores tends to attract highly motivated students because parents think it is a good school. As more and more educationally talented students enroll, test scores improve. This may or may not be due to the teaching abilities of the staff as much as it is due to the talent pool of the students. We especially see this in athletics, too. Schools with an outstanding football program tend to attract talented football players. Again, is the program strong due to good coaching, athletic talent, or both?
I tend to like schools that are project based or have a dual immersion language program. Project-Based Learning is a program where students focus on a real-world problem that engages them in inquiry and solution building. Students have to apply their knowledge to the solution. It is interdisciplinary, so different subject areas would be themed around the real-world problem. Rather than recognition or recall it helps students apply their knowledge and skills. Project-Based Learning curriculum is not readily available, so a Project-Based Learning school has a faculty of dedicated teachers because they have developed the curriculum. A dual immersion language program teaches students content and literacy in two languages at the same time. This creates high levels of academic achievement. If you choose a school with a dual immersion program, choose it for your child if he/she is at or in a grade lower than third as children under the age of ten have an ability to more easily acquire a language.
In closing, there is something to be said for the neighborhood school. A neighborhood school, especially an elementary school, builds a strong sense of community. Often times it is because of the school that neighbors know and interact with one another. It may be located close enough to your home to allow your children to walk to school which fosters their independence. Some of the strongest, long-term friendships are developed between people who grew up in the same neighborhood and attended neighborhood schools.
You have a lot of choices to consider, and the best choice is the one that works for your child.