Effective Schools
Destiny Howell, Skyler Ross, Catheryn Adams
Whats important for parents to know when deciding if a school is effective?
Parents must understand a vast amount of information about a school to find if it is effective or not. This provides all the questions and qualities a parent should look for while developing an understanding of the school's effectiveness.
Teacher Training & Quality
Quality teachers are necessary to have an effective school. Parents should evaluate all that is provided to train teachers and administration. This information can be gained through teacher evaluations, student and parents opinions, and attending a class of the teacher conduction a lesson. Some questions you might consider are...
- What workshops do teachers attend?
- What process occurs when deciding on new teachers?
- How often are teachers evaluated?
- Do parents play a part in deciding if the teacher is quality?
- How long do teacher typical teach at the school?
- Do you allow students to switch classes if the teacher does not appear to best fit?
Academic Achievement & Curriculum
The parent should investigate the school's academic standards, testing scores, resources, teaching styles and overall curriculum. A great place to gain this information would be the schools website, contacting administration, report cards, and testing score reports. To further develop an understanding, parents should ask the following question...
- What goals are included in your school's curriculum?
- How often is your curriculum updated?
- How does your school's STAAR results compare to other schools?
- What are your teachers doing to achieve higher grades and better scores?
- What extra programs do you have to help children adapt?
- What resources do you have to help children learn?
- Describe a typical lesson and learning environment for a student.
Parent, Student, Community Involvement and Support
The teacher's involvement in a student's life is major and should be investigated when deciding which school is best for your child. Parent involvement has been shown to boost children's achievement so it is extremely important that parents understand the school and remain involved. Teachers also must remain involved to help children develop to the best of their abilities. Parents can gain an understanding of these environments and relationships by looking at the school's website, contacting administration and staff, touring the school on a normal school day, and having the child shadow at the school and get an idea from different students. Questions parents should consider asking while investigating the involvement are...
- What forms of communications are used to talk to parents?
- Is there any communication provided for students for reminders and help with work outside of school?
- What is done to help build relationships between teachers and students?
- Is the school involved with the community?
- Among the students is there a wide range of diversity?
- Is there a lot of extracurricular activities and programs provided for students?
Safety, Security & Discipline
Children's safety should be extremely valued when they attend a school. Parents must assess how effective the schools security and discipline is. Parents can find this information by contacting administration and visiting the school. Questions that can help parents decide if the school is safe include...
- Is the location of the school secure and safe?
- Does the school have security guards?
- Is there programs and lessons in place to prevent bullying?
- Do the students have a certain safe place they can go to talk if necessary?
- How does the school ensure they are prepared for any emergency?
- What discipline is in place for students for any circumstance? and are parents involved in these decisions?
Other Information
Parents must ensure the school excels in all of these areas to decide if the school is effective. Other information they might consider is the funding of the school, the transportation resources, and any problems that have occurred at the school.