Give your local public school a chance

My advice to parents who are bombarded with information -- positive and negative -- about their local public school is to simply give the school a chance. What I mean by this is that you must consider the source of the information you are receiving: ask if this person who is giving you their strong opinion actually sent their own child to the school, and when? Are they telling you their opinion based on their own direct experience with the school, or are they repeating a story that they heard about the experience of a neighbor's child 5 years ago? Know that a lot can change at a school, for better or for worse, in 5 years or even 2 years, and do your own direct investigation.

Take a school tour; contact the principal and ask to meet with him or her; speak to the PTA President. If you have time, volunteer in a classroom or as a reading partner to a child. By all means, look at the test scores, but don't insist that your child can attend only public schools that are already scoring above 800 in the API. Know that your children, if they are reasonably bright and you care about their education and get involved with their school, will almost certainly score in the 800s!

Know that spending time in a truly diverse -- ethnically, culturally and socioeconomically -- school is a tremendous gift to your children. And finally, know that nothing is set in stone. Try the school for a year, and see how it goes. You may be very pleasantly surprised. And if you're not, make your voice heard. You may find that the principal is extremely responsive, wants to attract and keep neighborhood families, and will accommodate whatever you ask, within reason! If it really isn't a good fit, you can move your child or children somewhere else next year. Don't worry that your kids will be scarred. Chalk it up to a life experience and talk about what was good and what wasn't so good with your children. Above all, they will learn that it's good to try new things.

So, give your local public school a chance!

Parent Comments on "Give your local public school a chance"

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i am the father of 10 yes ten children from 18 yrs old to new born .
if theres one thing i have given to public school is a chance to do the right thing.
i lived in a small town called westmoreland tennessee there we gave them a chance to take care of the problems that arose several times as in students fighting ,the stealing of shoes during nap time ,the bullying of the smaller children by the bigger children riding on the bus, and when a 13 yr old was raped on the bus by a 16 yr old i removed my children from that school. we were victims of the macon county tornado so we moved to robertson county and since we were so close to the school we figured we would GIVE public school a chance once again (we were also told by others that these are the best schools in the state)
but now we are having even more trouble because not one school official will do any thing about the problems we are now having.
SO GIVING THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS A CHANCE is not recommended by me.

just PLEASE look at some of the others and maybe save yourself some time and pain

give them a chance to put more stress in your life is more like it

you may be right however i have had a horrible experience with my local public school my daughter has been in private school all of her life we recently moved out of state and when we moved back we didn't have the money to put her back in a private school so we decided that our only choice was to put her in public school she has always been the highest in her class and does so so well and never got into trouble but once we put her in the public school we had been finding out how bad they actually were one day my daughter came home and told me that a group of 5th and 6th grade girls were cutting them selfs which was appalling i was stunned that 11 and 12 year old girls were like this but the worst part was that they didn't tell us the principle didn't want to deal with any problems or listen to what any of the students had to say she just gave them detention i believe that you should give them a try but know that it wont always work my daughter is know in the crystal cathedral academy a local church and a wonderful amazing school

As a parent and that is very involved in the school. Almost too involved, In fourth grade you will see a different in maturity. The level of teaching changes also for most teachers at this time are working on getting them ready for Jr and high school. This is when allot of disabilities are really being found. This is when the boyfriend and girlfriend thing starts or is happening and that is the great impact on learning. It most likely has nothing to do with the teacher.? This is when the kids are spreading there wing or testing the waters. Things that I did in 9th grade are starting much younger. It is hard on a teachers. Get involved in the class, back the teacher and ask questions. If your child knows that you are backing the teacher and what the teacher says is the gospel truth. You will have a happy child that will learn and the teacher will be happy to know that you are there for them too. There are to many "perfect" kids in this world, and no one is at fault so it must be the teacher. I have heard this and have seen this. Don't ever cut the school or teacher down in front of the children. You don't have a clue what can come of that. Another thing you can do, is go to another school and interview the teacher and see what s going on there. Then make the conclusion on your questions. Oh if you can't help during the day at school, take a load of the teacher. Help with decorating the class room for holidays correct papers ect. Have them out for supper or lunch. Get to know them. They are people too.

We went and visited our local public school and toured it with the principal. We had high hopes for it as it is a new school and two blocks from our house. However, the principal was not looking for any parent involvement and the philosophy of the school seemed totally geared towards teaching to testing well. It was just not what we were looking for in a school. We were lucky enough to get into a public charter school geared towards the arts along with a lot of parent involvement.

Love the January 14, 2008 comment. Why can't we ever see something like this on the home page of great schools - why is Bill always trashing public schools?

If "give your public school a chance" means that you'll investigate and study it as a possible school for your child, that's great! But if the notion is to "give the public school a chance" by experimenting with it for a few years with your child, then a serious change in thinking is needed.

But HOW do you evaluate a local school, public or private? Ah, that is hard indeed.

Some quick tips:
- State test scores tell you more about the input to the school, that is, the kinds of kids in the neighborhood and the preparation they are getting from their families. Sorry, but you have to actually study what goes on in the classroom and whether whatever it is seems like the right thing for your child.
- Beware of curb appeal decisions: Gleaming new buildings, shiny computers, and airy atriums tell you nothing about what actually goes on in the classrooms.
- Are the kids having fun? Well, they would have even more fun at a circus but that doesn't mean you want to register them there. You want your child to be happy with his/her school, but also to be learning.

So, what's a parent to do? Well, there are some "gold star" and "red flags" things to look for on a school tour. Kudos go to a school where classrooms look orderly, where teaching and learning are in progress, where even early grades have specific topics to be learned, and where the fundamentals of reading and math are honored. Beware the school that emphasizes "word recognition" and "cues" in reading, or calculators in math, or where there is so much hands-on science that learning is minimal. For more tips, see www.illinoisloop.org/choosing.html

I agree. My son actually attends the same local public school that I went to. I've always loved the school... then and now. While it's definitely more modern now and the teachers are much younger, I've noticed that the kids seem eager to be there and eager to learn.

As a single mom with a full-time career, it's sometimes difficult to be as involved as I'd like to be in my son's school. I guess that's why it helped that I still knew much of the staff when he started. Some of my teachers were still there!! Well, they've all retired now, but it gave me enough time to get to know the new teachers. I try to keep as informed as possible about what's going on at school. I talk to my son every day about things at school, I ask for any "mail from school", I attend all open houses, report card pickups, and as many special events as I can squeeze into my schedule. I've also made it a habit to volunteer as a chaperone for field trips (which gives me some extra time with the teacher).

Another thing that has helped is that the teachers now give out their email addresses to the students and the parents. So, if there are any questions or concerns, you can always communicate that way. In this day and age, every little bit helps.

While I've heard and read both negative and positive comments about our school, I've simply kept them in the back of my mind while doing my own "investigation". In my personal experience, the positive has always outweighed the negative.

Our local school has suffered greatly from rumor. I've heard outrageous gossip about it. It certainly has it's problems, but they are completely different that the rumored ones. It's very sad that families have moved basing their decisions largely on uninvestigated reputation.

I agree entirely that parents should visit the school while it's in session, talk to the principal and a variety of parent whose children attend the school. Also consider the children themselves. Do they seem bright, happy and well-behaved?

Another idea is to host a parent information night. Invite past, present and prospective parents for an open and honest discussion of the issues at the school. Go to a few PTA meetings too. An active, involved parent group can wield a lot of power and make direct impact on the atmosphere and policies of the school.

It's true that things can vary tremendously from year to year. Changes in politics, curriculum and enrollment variations can all make a huge difference. So people may be having great experiences with the upper grades and lower grades, while the middle grades are going through a nightmare.

I totally agree with everything you've said here. (here comes the however part) However our son has been at the same school since kindergarten and we were really thrilled with the school and the staff. This year, he's in 4th grade and it seems allot different. They are not what they used to be. Now is this the parents fault? The teachers? The principals? The county? I'm not sure about exactly why our son's school has left us wondering if we really made the right choice 4 years ago. I don't like having to wonder "if" we made the right choice. About the only advice I can give to a parent that is contemplating a public school is this: Get involved in the school as much as you can. YOU, as a parent, need to know what's going on in the school on a daily basis, because it can change at a moment's notice. That would include 'any' school though, not just public.

Final note: I know see why so many parents have chosen to home-school their children. This is an option.

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