What's a great elementary school in San Francisco? What makes it great?
Read all 2 answers >
|
|
Parent Answers to "What's a great elementary school in San Francisco? What makes it great?"
View 2 answers: Newest-Oldest,
Oldest-Newest Display fewer answers
I find that alignment between the parent community, the school's mission and my own aspirations for my children is the most important factor. As I'm contemplating involvement in a neighborhood school currently rated a "2", I find that fighting low expectations is the biggest problem. What I want should be easily achievable fora group of 300 students with resourceful, well educated parents. And yet...
- Math and sciences is not a priority for most. Instead, parents focus on after school activities, like drama, art and so on. I want that, but let's get the academics in the 70% percentile first.
- Parents will invest significant efforts into creating an immersion track -- why not having a general track with additional foreign language courses -- a choice between the popular (Spanish, Mandarin, japanese), but also the more European ones like French, Latin or German). For a school rated "2" to invest in an immersion track instead of on academics is wasteful. (I know I'll get flack for this statement)
-A solid after-school program should include close supervision, the opportunity of a nap for the younger kids, and a choice of good activities -- which can serve as fundraisers for the school: a quality music program starting early, martial arts, sports (with the emphasis on sportmanship, not competition), museum field trips, science labs, languages. And, of course, that drama class which I dropped earlier from the main curriculum!
- A great social attitude -- establishing a culture of community engagement, building social skills at every level. Conflict resolution, debate skills, mentorship should be pervasive through the whole school.
- Building cultural awareness -- from a great history program to exposure to the world beyond the children's realm -- through parents involvement, museum field trips, guest teachers and speakers -- the goal would be these kids will know the world is bigger than their neighborhood.
Change in a K-8 school is difficult, because the school carries 8 -- sometimes much more years of legacy parenting that needs to be on board with the new direction. Parents who accepted enrolment in a school with such poor ratings may well carry a legacy of low expectations, making it difficult to change direction. Having a program that addresses their concerns for safety as well as the new parent;s concerns for academic success is key.
- Math and sciences is not a priority for most. Instead, parents focus on after school activities, like drama, art and so on. I want that, but let's get the academics in the 70% percentile first.
- Parents will invest significant efforts into creating an immersion track -- why not having a general track with additional foreign language courses -- a choice between the popular (Spanish, Mandarin, japanese), but also the more European ones like French, Latin or German). For a school rated "2" to invest in an immersion track instead of on academics is wasteful. (I know I'll get flack for this statement)
-A solid after-school program should include close supervision, the opportunity of a nap for the younger kids, and a choice of good activities -- which can serve as fundraisers for the school: a quality music program starting early, martial arts, sports (with the emphasis on sportmanship, not competition), museum field trips, science labs, languages. And, of course, that drama class which I dropped earlier from the main curriculum!
- A great social attitude -- establishing a culture of community engagement, building social skills at every level. Conflict resolution, debate skills, mentorship should be pervasive through the whole school.
- Building cultural awareness -- from a great history program to exposure to the world beyond the children's realm -- through parents involvement, museum field trips, guest teachers and speakers -- the goal would be these kids will know the world is bigger than their neighborhood.
Change in a K-8 school is difficult, because the school carries 8 -- sometimes much more years of legacy parenting that needs to be on board with the new direction. Parents who accepted enrolment in a school with such poor ratings may well carry a legacy of low expectations, making it difficult to change direction. Having a program that addresses their concerns for safety as well as the new parent;s concerns for academic success is key.
Many, many great public elementary schools in sf. Lots to be said for picking a school in your neighborhood for quality of life issues - walk to school, friends in neighborhood and at the local playground.
Any contributed content above is the subjective opinion of that member or external author, and not of
GreatSchools. GreatSchools does not check for accuracy in community posts or verify the contributor’s
identity. If you are searching for health-related advice we strongly suggest you seek professional medical
support. View our Community Guidelines for more details.
Local Q&A is brand new! What do you think? Give us your feedback in our feedback forum.
Read our community guidelines and FAQ
