Choosing a School for Your Child

How to Choose a School

How can you choose a good school? Clear research exists on which indicators are most important. Here’s the quick list, with details below.

School size
Teacher/student ratio
Parent Participation
Appropriate accommodations for students with special needs

School Size is Most Important

First find out how many students attend the school. Kathleen Cushman on school size: “Today’s public schools grew large in an era that regarded their task as producing large numbers of educated citizens as efficiently as possible…. Schools not being factories, the product often disappointed.”

In other research, Kathleen Cotton analyzed 103 studies relating school size to student achievement. The issues included attitudes toward school, social behavior, ‘belongingness’ versus alienation, attendance, dropout rate, college acceptance and completion, quality of the curriculum, and costs. She found that “small schools do a better job than large ones on virtually every measure of student attitudes and achievement. Teachers like them, and their curricula don’t suffer. They don’t even cost more, it turns out.”

How Big is Too Big for a School?

How big is too big? The literature I reviewed showed that elementary and middle schools should not exceed 300 students. They functioned even better when kept to 100-200. The tipping point for high schools was consistently 400. Larger schools become an organization instead of a community. With bigger student bodies, the costs per student actually go up. Extra money is spent on discipline problems, need for counselors, need for guards, vandalism, and waste.

In New York, the Center for Collaborative Education (CCE) dismantled several of the large public high schools into small autonomous schools occupying the same building. Amazingly, student performance and teacher satisfaction rose. The smaller size meant that teachers worked as a team, and knew every student in their school. It reduced gang mentality and increased personal responsibility.

Class Size is Important

Class size or teacher/student ratio places second in importance when picking a school. When teachers have fewer students each day, they build better relationships. It is a simple matter of time. Well-managed schools gladly supply parents with information on class size. But, surprisingly, the class size, though important, does not make as much difference as the total number of students at the school!

Accommodating Special Needs is Important

If your child has a learning difference or disability or is gifted, or both, find out how the teacher would accommodate your child. The best way to get the real story is to talk to parents and teachers. And since no one knows your child as well as you do, don’t be shy about asking for any reasonable accommodation he or she needs.

Computers are fun and libraries are wonderful but don’t be dazzled by technology. Think about the best educational experience you ever had. Almost certainly it related to an excellent teacher, not high-tech equipment. So look for teachers who are allowed to teach. Teachers with adequate prep time and reasonable class loads usually connect with students creatively. When overloaded for too long, even the best teachers eventually go into “survival mode.”  When a teacher is in survival mode, no energy remains to individualize the curriculum for a student with special needs.

Parent Involvement is Important

Finally, find out how parents are integrated into the school. This is important for two reasons. First, involved parents know what’s really happening at school. Second, parent volunteers effectively raise the teacher/student ratio by adding adults to classrooms. Is there a parent-teacher organization? Is there a volunteer coordinator? Do you know a teacher who can introduce you to other teachers to help you gain trust and respect? You need a way to be part of your child’s school so that you can get to know the people who will be teaching your child. By volunteering, you raise the quality of education for all students.

by Yvonna Graham, M.Ed.

yvonna@dyslexiakit.net

@GrahamYvonna