What is a “good” school?

[skeeter]

Our daughter is coming on a year and a half. We have a while to go before we start worrying about schools, but we are starting to talk about our options.

Many of our friends have moved to (or stayed on) the Eastside because “the schools are good.” But we like it here in West Seattle.

What is a “good” elementary school? Is it a school with good students? Or a school with good teachers? I honestly don’t know – I’m not trying to start a flame war.

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[Bostonman]

No matter what school your kid goes to there will be good kids and bad kids, kids who want to be class clown and kids who study during every break. The teachers all teach so the kids progress along the state tests they give out. Whenever I go to the teachers meetings everything presented is this is how your kid did in reading compared to the average, this is how he did in math compared to the average.

A good teacher is engaging, informative, can get students to understand concepts, they can take the lowest performing kid in class and make him a performer.

The most important element that can’t be found at a school to help the child learn is you. Are you involved with his school work every night. Helping them read, do math, science and other things. Challenging them and promoting self worth and self esteem. Those things can’t be found in the school and in my opinion is the most important element in the development of your childs education.

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[Bonnie]

I agree with Bostonman. It is entirely what you make of the experience. I can say that years ago when my son was in preschool he qualified for Developmental Preschool through SPS. (great program btw) I was scared to death to send him to Roxhill. Why? Because I listened to what others told me. But Alki was full so I was ‘forced’ to go to Roxhill. (I actually live closer to Roxhill) When I went to Roxhill I found the best teachers and great kids. I was very happy. But I was scared to go because I heard it was *bad*. My son went to preschool and transitional kindergarten there and then went on to Arbor Heights where we were happy too (Arbor Heights is our reference school). I now have one child at Arbor Heights and one at Pathfinder. But I am glad I got over that phobia of Roxhill because otherwise I never would have met some wonderful people and my son would not have had a wonderful experience.

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[rnmetty]

I am in the process of writing an article on this topic. As an educator, I am always interested in hearing families perspectives on different schools and what is considered good. As a parent and preschool owner, it is always helpful to know how parents feel about schools and what they consider “good”. What I have found over the years is that families will say a school is good, and for some that is enough. For me and others like yourself, I want to know what about a particular school makes it good. So I always ask more questions and I find that many families aren’t sure or don’t really know. This year I took time to visit many West Seattle (both public and private) as well as schools outside of the city. I had several reasons for spending the year visiting schools one of which was to assess schools and report back to my enrolled families. The other was to see what these “good” schools look like. My plan was to do a little write up of each school and hope to provide families with enough information that would allow them to make the right choice for their child for elementary school. What I realized half way through my tours was that my passion for learning and how children learn far outweighed the ability to remain unbiased. So I decided to write an article on what constitutes a good school and what parents should be seen in a school.

Good means different things to different people and it certainly is interchanged with “good enough.” So instead of categorizing a school as “good or bad” and deciding what you feel is good, I invite parents to look at schools through a different lens. What you should see when you look at schools…

The most important thing is that the school has similar values to your families

Schools should have an open door policy and allow visitors at anytime (within reason)- Pathfinder is a great example of this

School should have a mission and vision and all staff should be on board with that mission and vision

Children and staff should be enjoying themselves – they should be engaged with their peers and adults

Outside time, music and singing, movement in the classroom is a must

Children should have the ability to move around the classroom throughout the day

Children should have opportunities to work in groups and individually

Activities and lessons should be developmentally appropriate

Emphasis on process not product

Emphasis on how they are learning not what they are learning

Tone in the classroom should be positive and encouraging (different than praise)

Adult language to children should be accepting, open to different ideas

There should be a focus on social and emotional development

A focus on internal motivation – no sticker charts, fuzzy jars and external type motivations

My goal is to keep this list positive but I did see in one school where the teacher was writing names of children on the board who were talking or not paying attention – not a huge confidence builder

Also, look at what is considered excellent work – many times I have found children are not given enough credit so the expectation level is much lower than it should be

Some of this stuff may be obvious, but I was surprised at some things I saw at “good” schools. This is only a brief sampling and the topic itself goes way beyond this post, but I hope it helps. Oh, and to echo Bostonman – teachers and dynamic can change from grade to grade, but the biggest indicator of success with a school is how involved a parent is with a child’s learning both at home and with the school.

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[Irukandji]

For us, ‘good’ has meant finding a match of temperament to environment, and confidence in the adults who are involved in our kid’s school world. I love having the opportunity to volunteer at the school, but also know that even if I couldn’t be there that my child would be known, respected, encouraged and engaged in his school life. We see our hopes, goals and passions reflected in the school’s curriculum, activities and communication.

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[Julie]

I would recommend people evaluating schools take most seriously rnmetty’s point: “The most important thing is that the school has similar values to your [family’s.]”

You need to be able to support what is happening in your child’s school. You don’t necessarily need to agree 100% with every lesson, every teacher, and every policy–children benefit from watching adults disagree but respect each other’s point of view–but if you disagree enough that you undermine the message your child is getting at school, you are putting him or her in a terrible position.

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[skeeter]

Thank you for all the posts! The thoughtful responses have given me a lot to think about.

My family lives in Highpoint. We love it here. It’s safe, quiet, walking distance to library and plenty of parks. The “assigned” grade school is West Seattle. I looked up the test scores, and I couldn’t find another school with poorer scores. 88% of the students receive free/reduced meals.

There are a lot of poor people in Highpoint. But it couldn’t be 88%. No way. So my guess is the middle class and wealthier families are either (a) sending kids to private school or (b) getting their kids into other public grade schools through the petition process. So I don’t know what to make of this.

Again, we’ve got some years to come up with a plan, but time is flying so fast we need to keep thinking about this.

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[Bonnie]

Skeeter, I’m pretty sure that is what is happening. People are either doing private school or trying to get into another school so they don’t send their kids to West Seattle Elementary. I have a friend who sends her kids there and they are very happy. A few years ago the school was having a lot of problems (from what I hear) but they got a new principal and things have gotten much better.

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[Bostonman]

Agree with most everyone here. I went to public schools my whole life in an area of Boston that was not safe. All the way from Elementary to high school. We would up with metal detectors at my high school the year I finished but my parents were always involved in my education. I think I turned out right. A school can look bad on paper (test scores) but tests only say so much and it certainly doesn’t wind up representing the students who bring the score up.

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[evergreen]

A good school is one in which you feel energized and happy to attend. A bad school is the opposite. Overall test scores are irrelevant.

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