This is a post I have been working on for a couple of weeks now. I have found it hard to write, partially because I am so passionate about my child's education, and partially because I found myself worrying that I would offend my friends who have chosen to send their kids to private school.
So I will say at the beginning that there are many, many wonderful reasons to choose to send your child to a private school, or a charter school, or a "school within a school" such as language immersion or a magnet program. You have to do what is right for your child(ren), your family, and there is nothing wrong with your decision.
But SO many people in my socioeconomic bracket are choosing these other options, and opting out of their neighborhood public school, and that is sad. It is sad for that school, because they lost out on a great kid, and great parents who would be involved in that school. It is sad because the more parents who pull their kids out, the more the other parents question whether they should pull their kids, too. It is sad for me because there is only one other kid at our church who goes to his school, and she is several years older than him.
So I am going to focus on my kid's school, and all the wonderful things we have experienced there.
My son goes to a Title I school. For those of you not in the know, that means that more than half of the children at the school are from low-income households. Racially, my son's school is pretty evenly split into thirds: white/Caucasian, Hispanic, and African American. It is a diverse school, in a lot of different ways, and I think that is a wonderful thing.
If you look strictly at test scores at his school, you would wonder if the learning environment was a good one. But when you look at the makeup of his school (high rate of poverty, children whose families that are homeless or transient, English as a Second Language students and students whose parents don't speak much English), you see that test scores don't ever tell the whole story.
When you walk through the school, you will see so much more.
The administration is dedicated. They are in the classrooms, participating in school events, checking up on children that they know might not have a coat for the winter, or something to eat that weekend.
Teachers are doing what they can to help their class succeed. Many of our teachers have children at our school (showing that they believe that their colleagues are going to do a great job with their children). They collaborate with the other teachers on their grade level to share techniques that worked in their classrooms, and share the responsibility of coming up with great lesson plans. They work with teachers at other grade levels to make sure that every child enters the next grade well prepared.
I did an informal survey at the end of last year (Kindergarten), and found that my son (and his classmates) had learned more sight words than any other kid I knew in public school, and at least as many as his friend in private school. Some schools in our district taught Kindergarten students 40 sight words by the end of the year (part of List A). The kids at my son's school learned at least 50 by winter break, and all 100 on List A by March. My son actually went into First Grade knowing most of the words on List C, because his teacher had blown through List A by December, List B by March or April, and started on List C. She is passionate about her kids learning as many sight words as possible because that fosters reading skills, and she is working with the district to implement standards so that all Kindergarten students will learn at least 100 words, rather than 40, in their first year.
We also have incredible "specials" teachers who are dedicated to introducing our children to art, music, computers, physical education, science and the library. We have a choral group, an orchestra, and a small but dedicated PTO that presents fun events for kids and their families, purchases items for classrooms and encourages school pride.
I know a lot of teachers, and they will all say that any student can be a successful one if they believe in themselves. What success means varies from child to child, but I think we all would agree that it would be a better world if all children graduated from high school with a goal and a way to achieve that goal, whether that meant a technical school, community college, or four year college.
How do you achieve that? One way is to start early. At my son's school, they are already talking about college and career preparedness. The 3rd-5th graders visit different colleges and universities, as well as our district's C-TEC (Career and Technical Education Center), where high school students can take classes in fields such as nursing, computer science, engineering, culinary arts and automotive maintenance, most of which are for college credit in partnership with our local community college.
But sometimes, all of this isn't enough. Scores are still low, because of factors that can't be controlled in the classroom, and because a test doesn't always show all that a child has learned. So it is discouraging when you are judged just by a number on test.
That doesn't mean that our school isn't working its hardest to pull up those test scores, but not so that they get a pat on the back. Rather, they want those score to increase because that means that more kids are learning to read well before third grade. It means that the kids who live in households that speak Spanish at home are becoming truly bilingual, and that perhaps their parents are becoming better at English as well. It means that despite all the things that could be holding a child back - lack of food, shelter, and clothing, lack of parental support - our school is doing all that it can to overcome those barriers and give a hand up to a child.
I have more to say on this topic, but I will leave that for another day :-). I will finish with this story:
Last year, a Hispanic parent came to an information session at our school about reading, and asked how she could help her child because she (the mother) didn't read or speak English well. The teachers told her to learn alongside her child, or even have her child teach her. It was a great answer, and, to me, a testament to how much she valued her child's education that she wanted to make such an effort. The teachers followed up with that parent after the session was over, to give her additional resources that could help her and her family with learning English.
Now doesn't that give you a better picture of my son's school than any test score? Parents who are doing their best, teachers who are not only helping the students, but their entire family, and a school administration that invited parents to come learn more about what their children were learning and how they could help them. That is the definition of a good school, and I am proud to be a parent of a child there!
