Let's Select the Best Elementary School
Dr. John R. Eggers
May 25, 2005
Let’s Select The Best Elementary School
Newsweek magazine just reported on the top 100 high schools in the United States. No school from Minnesota, Iowa, the Dakotas or Wisconsin made the list.
The schools were ranked on the number of students who took Advanced Placement class tests. (i.e. The more students that took the AP tests, the better the high school.) These courses are higher level classes geared for the college bound student.
Don’t feel too bad if your local high school didn’t make the list. Few educators would ever suggest that only AP classes should be used as a determinant for judging the quality of a high school. There are too many other equally important things to consider including, for example, the number of students who study a second language or who participate in a service learning project.
That’s enough about high schools. How about selecting the best elementary school? Here are some things I would consider in choosing the best.
Let’s first recognize that the vast majority of elementary schools in the United States are fine places for students to learn. They have dedicated teachers and administrators who do their best. Every elementary school has something special about it. What if we took the best from each school? What would our elementary school look like?
First on my list would be the degree to which the students enjoy being there. This doesn’t mean that schools have to be about fun and games. It does mean that schools should be about making learning exciting and meaningful. How do you do this? This is what makes a good teacher a good teacher.
Our best elementary school places a greater emphasis on relationships than it does on the required learning. I can’t think of a more important thing in school than teaching the importance of getting along with people. This means that teachers know their students, that teachers work as a team, that students help other students, and that parents feel part of the school.
Speaking of parents, in our best elementary school there is a strong emphasis on parent involvement. They are active participants in making education an important part of their child’s life and they do it by taking part in the function of the school including being part of a Parent Teacher Association.
Because one of our primary goals is for our students to find success in high school so they will find success in college, our best elementary school is a place where students love to read, love to do math and love to write. Every student must experience success in these three critical areas.
Our best elementary school has classes no larger than fifteen. Fifteen really isn’t a magic number but it does remind us to keep our classes small. In small classes teachers have more time to work with students who need to catch up and more time just to get to know the students and know how each student learns.
If any student falls behind in our best elementary school they receive immediate attention until they catch up. This is why we pay little regard to the length of the school year. In fact, our school is a continuous progress school which means that there are no specific grades like 1st, 2nd, 3rd. etc. We also do not give students letter grades like A’s, or B’s. When a student knows a skill, we merely check it off and the student goes on to the next skill.
Notice that our best elementary school is not all bells and whistles. It doesn’t have to be. Programs do not make the difference, it’s good teachers delivering meaningful content in an atmosphere that is comfortable and congenial that makes the difference. Too often we spend our dollars and time learning the fanciest fad when the time and money could have been better spent in just asking teachers, “What can we do to help you?”
Our best elementary school is a safe place and a comfortable place to learn and teach. As soon as you open the door a visitor says to himself or herself, “This is a nice place. I wish I could have attended a school like this.” It doesn’t have to be a neat and orderly place but it does have to be a place where students and teachers want to be.
In our best elementary school students and staff smile a lot. They laugh a lot. They eat together and they play together and they learn together. Our best elementary school could be your neighborhood school around the corner.
If it isn’t why create the best elementary school?
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