What Makes a Great School?

I have been a student, a teacher, and the parent of a student. My family has earned degrees which range from business to education to medicine to engineering. We value great education. Here are some things we look for when selecting great schools:

1. Does a school allow for student creativity, exploration, and thinking?
2. Are the teachers able to both manage a classroom and nurture children?
3. What types of extra curricular activities are offered?
4. If a high school, how many AP courses are offered and what is the pass rate?
5. How is the overall school environment? Is it welcoming and inviting? Or is it stale?
6. Do the teachers have energy and are they knowledgeable in creating great lessons?
7. Does the staff behave professionally towards students and towards each other?
8. Are the walls bare or full of examples of student work?
9. Do they win on the athletic field?
10. Does the school have a thriving arts program, i.e. band, orchestra, art, and theater?
11. Are there examples of hands-on learning?
12. Is the school based on test prep or founded on teaching critical thinking?
13. Are activities developmentally appropriate?
14. Does the school have a history of strong student expectations? In other words, do students leave a school being more than prepared for their next step in education or life?
15. Does the administrator of the school take time be visible?

As a youngster, I had the privilege of attending the top private school in Knoxville. At the time, Knox Co schools on the west end were not great. They are really good now, but not then. The school was based on Montessori methods. We took one standardized assessment per year, and I don’t think anyone actually cared about the results. Though, I have no doubt those results were great. Learning was the focus. Our field trips were awesome. Our teachers read children’s novels each day. We were expected to know basic skills in both reading and mathematics. We had lots of project based learning. Our teachers were fantastic, and our learning environments were exceptional.

I eventually moved to Florida at the end of fourth grade. It was a shock. I was in a public school for the first time in five years, and was a minority as an English speaker. Roughly 100 students per grade level were jammed into a giant learning center which was composed of four classrooms with no walls. Only bookshelves separated each classroom. We were drilled in test prep. Thankfully, I had a great art teacher my first year – I loved art then and still do now. (I could spend hours in an art museum.) But overall, I count my experience in Orlando’s school system as subpar due to its test prep approach. On a very positive note, I learned to live within a diverse environment of people. Many students had recently arrived from Cuba. I grew to appreciate the toughness that it took children in order to survive in an urban school environment.

I would end up in three different middle schools in grades 6, 7, and 8. I was in two different states, and three different school systems during those three years. It wasn’t until my university experience that I would again have a consistent learning environment that I so enjoyed during my early private school years.

I eventually would teach in public schools for 18 years which included two different school systems in Appalachia(pronounced Appalatcha). I have raised four children through public schools.

So, I have pretty high standards when it comes to learning environments. I have seen what works, and what doesn’t work. There is no better teacher than experience.

A commonality in learning environments which I absolutely despise – those are data driven. I hated those learning environments. They were stale and lacked flavor. They were lost years.

At the top of learning environments which I greatly enjoyed – they were focused on learning great things. They almost always involved great teachers and administrators who cared. My best teachers had high expectations, and they rarely gave standardized assessments. Their assessments were a combination of projects, open ended questions, and almost always made me think. Great assessments give students a chance to show what they have learned – portfolios, rubrics, good questions, projects, and some multiple choice sprinkled in for good measure.

At my private school, I met astronauts, took great field trips, had teachers read to me, and learned how to think mathematically. We had great recess times which were full of freedom and sports! The school day was short. I went to school from 9:30-3:30. I looked forward to school each day.

So, when I became a teacher I remembered those all of those experiences – the good and the adversity. I have great compassion for students in poverty having moved around a lot myself. I wanted a classroom which was inviting and not stale. My assessments were often portfolio and rubric based. We did a lot of projects, and used Dinah Zike methodology quite a bit. I hung works of art from Van Gogh, Kandinsky, Picasso, and Monet on my walls. We listened to music. I had high expectations, and believed that impoverished students could compete with anyone, any where. We were able to compete with just about any school in regards to test scores.

And here is what all of that did for me. I can pretty much walk into your school or school system and know within about five minutes whether you offer a quality learning experience. Great learning environments are obvious from the moment one walks in the door. Poor learning environments are also painfully evident as soon as one walks into the door. I have yet to find a data driven classroom which encourages creativity and thinking. Student conversations are also very different in data driven buildings when compared to stronger learning environments which teach both thinking and basic skills. The richness of conversations is just better in buildings which have great balance and focus on learning and not test prep.

When you think about your best experiences in life, are they data driven (standardized assessments and mind numbing benchmarks)? Or are those best experiences things like hiking in the Sierra Nevada or fishing at dusk on the west coast of Florida or viewing an actual Picasso in the Museum of Modern Art or canoeing on an empty lake in Maine, or walking through a souk in a Jerusalem market or sipping coffee in a duck blind? The easy way out is data. The more rewarding way to teach is via experience, exploration, and learning to manage information.

Would Steve Jobs survive in a data driven classroom? I highly doubt it. He was building computers in his garage and re-imagining how computers could be used by every day people. Would Walt Disney’s creativity be allowed to flourish in a data driven classroom? I highly doubt it. He was a dreamer and needed freedom to create art. Would Pablo Picasso survive in a data driven classroom? I highly doubt it. He was someone who thought outside the box. All of those exemplars would likely be bored out of their mind in the data driven classrooms of today. It begs to ask the question, “Are we seeking to cultivate innovative, competent students or are we trying to build robots?

Parents, I encourage you to not be afraid to expect great things from your schools and school systems. Vote in BOE elections. Ask candidates what their beliefs are on a wide range of topics. Go to BOE meetings. Talk with building administrators and get to know them. Ask to take a tour of your child’s school. I have found that great educators enjoy being around people. And don’t be afraid to take your child to a better school or to request a different learning environment. Not a single year can be lost in a child’s education.

Teachers, find jobs in great schools with great administrators. Work in schools which build the capacity to learn through information management, teach via project based learning, and don’t ignore basic knowledge needed to do more complex tasks. Go where you are treated like family, where your time is respected, and where you aren’t expected to run a data mine instead of a classroom.

Students, we want you to love coming to school. It isn’t always going to be easy. The best learning is often tough. The best teachers will make you do more than you expect of yourself. When the dust settles and the school year is over, you will know you are better for it. Learn to follow the rules, and seek not just to acquire knowledge, but also the wisdom to use it for the greater good.