This is a questionnaire covering parents' issues to determine the quality of your child's school. Not only is parent involvement in education useful for verifying school excellence, the questionnaire be placed before policymakers to remind them that one of government’s major education issues is removing barriers within the school.
How do I use this questionnaire? There are several ways to use it. You can take it to the school, interview over the phone, or give it to a teacher, principal, or school board member for self-grading and return.
Whom do I ask? Ask the principal and teachers at your local school, members of the school board, the superintendent and other administrators in your school district for answers. Also approach students in the public schools (including your child).
For an even broader overview, you can question your legislator, members of the state board of education, a university department of education or official in one of the statewide school lobbies. Those lobbies include the teachers’ union, the association of school boards and your state PTA.
How do I recognize a problem? Don't assume that the data-gathering and grading process will be easy. Collecting your information may require a persistence bordering on rudeness. But persist! If you get conflicting answers from different sources, that tells you something. If some people you approach cannot provide the answers, that is a significant answer in itself.
The grades marked by each parent will be somewhat individualized, but your evaluation of your school or district is not less valid for that reason. You are quite capable of giving a classroom the sniff test, recognizing quality or mediocrity when you see it.
As former U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett wrote, “The American people can be trusted to fix their own schools.”
Good luck!
1. Work and Discipline. Many highly successful individuals have above-average but not extraordinary intelligence. Accomplishment in a particular activity is often more dependent upon hard work and self-discipline than on innate ability. Do the activities and atmosphere of this school send each student a strong message that his or her achievement depends mainly on hard work and self-discipline?
2. Responsibility. Belief in the value of hard work, the importance of personal responsibility and the importance of education itself contributes to greater success at school. Does this school hold each student sharply responsible for treating education as precious, for deriving its full value to his own benefit and for contributing to an atmosphere where others can derive its value?
3. Mom and Dad. Parental involvement helps children learn more effectively. Is there concrete evidence that this school is doing its utmost to maximize involvement of mothers and fathers with their own children's education and running the school?
4. Storytelling. Telling young children stories can motivate them to read. Storytelling also introduces them to cultural values and literary traditions before they can read, write and talk about stories by themselves. Does this school effectively use storytelling, especially for the youngest children, and does it do so in a way that dramatizes cultural values and literary traditions?
5. Phonics for Reading. Children get a better start in reading if they are taught phonics. Learning phonics helps them to understand the relationship between letters and sounds and to "break the code" that links the word they hear with the words they see in print. Does this school make full use of phonics with all beginning, lagging and remedial readers?
6. Context for Reading. Children get more out of a reading assignment when the teacher gives background information beaforehand and follows with discussion. Do the teachers at this school bring each reading assignment to life by setting it in context as recommended by the research?
7. Writing Must Be Taught. The most effective way to teach writing is to teach it as a process of brainstorming, composing, revising and editing. Does this school emphasize the teaching of writing throughout all the grades, utilizing the four steps recommended?
8. Math the Right Way. Children in early grades learn math more effectively when they use physical objects in their lessons. Although students need to learn how to find exact answers to arithmetic problems, good math students also learn the helpful skill of estimating the answers. This skill can be taught. Do math teachers at this school aid beginners with physical objects? Do they teach the skill of estimating?
9. Science in Action. Children learn science best when they are able to do experiments, so they can witness "science in action." Do the science teachers at this school engage the children with active learning through experiments?
10. Expectations Drive Results. Teachers who set and communicate high expectations to all their students obtain greater academic performance from those students than teachers who set low expectations. How high are the expectations at this school? Are they made applicable to all the students? Are they clearly communicated and consistently enforced?
11. Time on Task. How much time students are actively engaged in learning contributes strongly to their achievement. The amount of time available for learning is determined by the he teacher's skills and the school administration's priorities. What percentage of the day at this school (without regard to the overall length of the day or the year) represents the students' actual time on task in academic subjects?
12. Direct Instruction, No Guesswork. When teachers explain exactly what students are expected to learn and demonstrate the steps needed to accomplish the particular academic task, students learn more. Do teachers at this school clearly explain the desired learning outcomes and patiently demonstrate the steps required?
13. Tutoring by Students. Students tutoring other students can lead to improved academic achievement for both student and tutor and to positive attitudes toward schoolwork. Does this school take advantage of these benefits in having students tutor each other?
14. Learn It by Heart. Memorizing can help students absorb and retain the factual information on which understanding and critical thought are based. Do teachers at this school place appropriate emphasis on memory work?
15. Thinking Skills. Student achievement rises when teachers ask questions that require students to apply, analyze, synthesize and evaluate information in addition to simply recalling facts. Are students at this school required to learn the specific skills of effective thinking?
16. Study Skills. The ways in which children study influence strongly how much they learn. Teachers can often help children develop better study skills. Are children at this school required to learn the specific skills of how to study?
17. Homework Load. Student achievement rises significantly when teachers regularly assign homework and students conscientiously do it. Well-designed homework relates directly to classwork and extend students' learning beyond the classroom. Homework is most useful when teachers carefully prepare the assignment, thoroughly explain it and give prompt comments and criticism after studentscomplete it. Does this school require regular homework assignments? Are they well designed and consistently supported by teachers?
18. Monitoring the Progress of Students. Frequent and systematic monitoring of students' progress helps students, parents, teachers, administrators and policymakers identify strengths and weaknesses in learning and instruction. Does this school conduct frequent and systematic monitoring of students' progress?
19. Cultural Literacy Required. Students read more fluently and with greater understanding if they have background knowledge of the past and present. Such knowledge and understanding is called cultural literacy. Do the teachers at this school demonstrate an urgent commitment to equipping students with background knowledge of the past and present?
20. Historical Vacuum Unacceptable. Skimpy requirements and declining enrollments in history classes are contributing to a decline in students' knowledge of the past. Does this school require meaty history courses and lots of them? (Mushy "social studies" curricula are no substitute; look carefully at what that generic wrapper really contains in your particular school).
21. Foreign Language for the Long Haul. The best way to learn a foreign language in school is to start early and to study it intensively over many years. Does this school act accordingly in its courses and requirements?
22. High Schools Should Aim High. The stronger the emphasis on academic courses, the more advanced the subject matter and the more rigorous the textbook, the more high school students learn. Subjects that are learned mainly at school rather than at home, such as science and math, are most influenced by the number and kinds of courses taken. Does this school (if a high school) really pour it on the students as recommended? If an elementary or middle school, is it pushing kids to ready them for a rigorous high school?
23. Be Scholars, Ladies and Gentlemen. Schools that encourage academic achievement focus on the importance of scholastic success and on maintaining order and discipline. Is the total atmosphere of this school designed to challenge all students to be scholars, ladies and gentlemen or is there a rationalization for low standards?
24. Rules that Liberate. Schools contribute to their students' academic achievement by establishing, communicating and enforcing fair and consistent discipline policies. How good is the discipline at this school?
25. Attendance Improves with Parents' Help. Unexcused absences decrease when parents are promptly informed that their children are not attending school. Does this school phone or write parents with a same-day notice of truant students?
26. The Principal as Skipper. Successful principals establish policies that create an orderly environment and support effective instruction. Is this school captained like a ship with high morale and in fighting trim or is the leadership loose and drifting?
27. Teachers as a Winning Team. Students benefit academically when their teachers share ideas, cooperate in activities and assist each another's intellectual growth. Is there concrete evidence that the teachers at this school work together?
28. Knowing the Boss Cares. Teachers welcome professional suggestions about improving their work, but they rarely receive them. Do the teachers at this school receive attentive, constructive, supportive supervision from administrators?
29. Job Readiness is More than Vocational. Business leaders report that students with solid basic skills and positive work attitudes are more likely to find and keep jobs than students with vocational skills alone. Do the curriculum and culture of this school contribute to all-around job readiness for all students, including the low achievers?
30. The Very Best Schools. The most important characteristics of effective schools are strong instructional leadership, a safe and orderly climate, school-wide emphasis on basic skills, high teacher expectations for student achievement and continuous assessment of pupil progress. Does this school act as though it places highest priority on these principles, or is it bogged down with distractions and excuses?