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Parents, Part Two


Parents, Check List (Part 3)
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Making All Schools
Great Schools    Part 2 


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The Perfect School?


That's for you to decide!  Zig Ziglar, Anthony Robbins, and all those other motivational fellows say the same thing: You can't hit a target that doesn't exist. It's true for school improvement teams as well. Making goals and plans for achieving them is the heart of any plan.

Seven years ago I had the privilege of being on staff at the highest-rated middle school in the history of SAC. Part of my job was ensuring that we score high on our five-year reaccreditation. We knocked the socks off the thing! We started that school year by getting all stakeholders together    and deciding what our perfect school looked like--then we set out to accomplish our goal. You can do that at your school.
Dennis Yuzenas
      
How to use this article:
Six suggestions for rating your school are listed here. Be honest, yet fair, and rate your school. Where the school falls even the slightest bit short of perfect presents you with an opportunity for improvement. You've got an item for your School Improvement Plan.  Once you've got a plan, double check your work! If you achieve your goals, will your school be the school you really want?   
      
The word
du jour is accountability. In years past the role parents played in schools was a minor one. If a parent was found in a school they were usually room moms, field trip chaperones, or fund raisers. Oh how times have changed! Now parents have become empowered. Good schools are accountable to parents. Great schools make parents a part of the learning equation. 

Parents have more choices than ever before.  That means that parents need more information about precisely how to look for and find the school that best meets their child’s needs.  Here are six criteria used to judge a good school. These are the things to look for in the school your child’s attending right now.

1. Parents Matter!

Effective schools take parents very seriously and allow them a wide variety of choices with and among programs.  Do you feel welcome and encouraged to make inquiries?  Is there more than one route to make a suggestion, to plead your case, or to have concerns aired?  Do you have power? Who are the teachers and administrators and what have they accomplished at this school and at other positions they may have held? 

Growing research demonstrates that a teacher’s effectiveness has everything to do with how well children learn; which is also dependent on their knowledge of the subject matter.  Is the math teacher qualified?  Has the school tried to attract the best and brightest from math and science professions, from universities, and even from among other professions?  What are the rewards for successful teachers?  How does the school measure teacher success?  In high achieving schools, teachers are evaluated using student performance as one barometer, and mediocrity is   not tolerated.

What role are parents encouraged to play?
Every school has a PTA/PTO, check it out. Talk to people! As fine as the PTO president might be, remember that her or his role is much like the head of the local Chamber of Commerce: public relations!  So talk to other people. A great source of information are the parents at the bus stop or car drop-off area.

     
2. A Rigorous Workout.
Good schools have clear standards that tell you what children should know and be able to do at every level. Parents should ask:  are there standards in every grade? What is it that your child is going to be expected to know and how will that be determined?  You want to know concrete things being taught, not “your child will learn to be a productive citizen.” How can you check your child’s progress? Does the school provide challenging courses for all children? What does the school expect from parents?
     
There’s growing evidence that schools pre-select which children get advanced coursework, yet all children benefit from higher standards.   Studies show that children who don’t take rigorous courses are less likely to succeed in college, and earn less afterwards.  Does the image of your kids living in your basement when they’re 40 years old because they didn’t take the right classes in middle school scare you? Effective schools set the bar high for everyone and work to help them achieve their goals.      
         
     
3. What’s Taught--What’s Not?
Great schools make the curriculum and tests used relate directly to their standards. What kinds of testing or assessments are done?  Some states— like Michigan and Virginia— have knowledge-based tests that require students to pass in order to be promoted.  Other states, like Florida, have tests that are so ill defined and poorly designed that they serve as little more than a mental drain on
students, parents, and teachers, and a monetary drain on taxpayers. Is the test your school uses norm-referenced?  If so, your child may be above the national norm, but that doesn’t tell you he or she is learning.  Your school may even get a letter grade based on performance. It’s meaningless!
     
At many schools it’s as though the students learn in spite of the teachers! If your school spends weeks in test prep--that's a problem! 
     
What are the results of the textbook or programs the school uses? When is the last time any of the materials and approaches teachers use were put to the test to determine whether the school is using the best proven methods possible? 
     
Homework. Is it part of a behavior management system (what you don't finish in class is homework) or does it really serve to polish skills obtained in class. How much is too much? Do teachers coordinate assignments and lessons?     
    
4. Size Matters! How big is the school?

School size is a critical factor in a school’s ability to build community and to handle the unique needs of all its children.  Elementary schools with more than 600 children are too big.  Experts say the ideal high school is between 600–800. The argument that larger schools can provide more programs doesn’t hold water anymore. 

Small schools can handle the arts, music, computer, and sports in a creative and sometimes more focused way and small schools allow children more opportunities to participate in leadership roles.  If your school has a “portable farm” where the soccer field is supposed to be, that’s a red flag. Portable classrooms, those double-wide trailers that act as additional classrooms,  mean overcrowding. Overcrowding means too many students for the number of bathrooms, size of the cafeteria, and a myriad of other infrastructure items that the school was designed for. Find out how administration plans and handles those “extra” students.

5. The Use of Technology!
Go online and do a Google search!
[www.GOOGLE.com] Type in the name of your school and your city and stand     back! Try typing in the name of the principal and your child’s teachers.  If there is something that troubles you, print it out and schedule a conference.

Check out the school website. Great schools have websites that are extensions of the school. There should be a good bit of bragging along with a state of the art approach to using the web as a teaching tool. Need an example? Go to
www.MSOA.com and check out what one of the top middle
schools in the country is doing. (While you’re there, mouse on over to the social studies link and click on Mr. Y’s site.)
     
Since this is the Information Age, how is technology integrated into each and every subject area? Are students at your school designing web pages, making PowerPoint presentations, and designing their own electronic portfolios? Is there a Homework Hotline website or phone bank that students are encouraged to access? If there isn’t, then the school isn’t employing the latest proven techniques for delivering their curriculum.
    
6. The Physical Plant.

Great schools look great! Student work is proudly displayed. The front of the school is inviting. Hallways are clean, well lit, and have appropriate signage. The front office is set up for people—chairs, copies of the latest school newsletters and student newspapers, a “brag wall”, and smiling people that make you feel welcome.

Quick Victory:
Instant gratification and instant achievement.  Psychologically, any group that is involved in change needs a quick victory. There is no better way to make the school improvement team shine than to plant a few flowers or paint a mural on a wall. That's surface stuff--but it also servers to spur the troops on! It's also a way to involve more people in the process. The person that is reluctant to join a sit down and read committee might just love putting seeds and plants in the ground.
     
Don’t discount the bathrooms! Paper towel and soap dispensers that actually have paper towel and soap to dispense speaks volumes about how the administration is administering! Graffiti is a graphic warning sign.
     

Landscaping matters.
Visit the finest private schools and notice the flowers and shrubbery. The well maintained lawn and sculpted hedges scream, “Someone cares!”

There will always be other concerns and issues to address when trying to develop the most effective school for your child.  These six items will get you started in the right direction and let the school know that you plan to be an informed and effective advocate for your child that they can count on. 
    
Last--Take a Field Trip.

Notice that not once was higher test scores mentioned as a school improvement goal. Why? When all the other items on the list are found in a school, their test scores are invariably through the roof. Find a high achieving school and take a field trip, run through the six criteria and see for yourself.  If you haven't already done so, access the suggestions that students made for their perfect school--you may be surprised.

Revelation Time:
Every school can be turned into the perfect school. All it takes is commitment and desire. WhatDoYaKnow.com can help!  Visit the “Parent eBook on CD” to see how Duval County got a core group of parents involved in the school improvement process.

To obtain the CD and the full checklist, order the CD using the coupon at the back of this booklet.

Ask for free marigold seeds – supplies limited to what we can grow, so send an email soon!


Go to
www.WhatDoYaKnow.com to order the CD for this "guide to building a great school" written especially for parents and volunteers.


Go to
CHECKLIST



Yes, you can visit an award-winning "A" school on the web... see how an "A" school makes its web site inviting and makes visitors feel welcome:  A MAP on the main page!
Some of the kids who helped to create the www.msoa.com web site...

...and who worked to make the "technology inthe classroom" work for themselves and for the school.