The son of a former tennis partner of mine called and left a frantic message on my phone last week. I called him back the next morning to find out what he wanted. Like so many others before him he was trying to get my relatively informed advice about where to put his child in school. He recently moved into the San Jose Unified District.
Of course, I understood the urgency in his voice. This is one of the most important decisions a parent can make. Most times the decision is made due to geographic boundaries solely, and the parents have little voice. He asked if I knew any tricks of the trade to get his son into a school that’s not in his immediate area.
His wife was worried about the local elementary school and its low Academic Performance Index (API) score compared to other elementary schools also in close proximity to their new home. My advice for him and all those searching for the best schools for their children:
1. The API is only one small indicator of a school’s effectiveness and culture. Look at all factors first: program Improvement, subgroup (Hispanic, African American, White, Asian) success in API; art and music programs; cleanliness; a feeling of caring and warmth. It’s also wise to look into a school’s technology integration/plan; world language opportunities; before- and after-school sessions; library; and physical education opportunities. Review the schools website.
2. Interview the principal. Find out if you are comfortable with the school’s instructional leader. Is he/she welcoming? Does the principal take time to answer your questions thoroughly and thoughtfully? Ask to review the school plan. Is it current? Are goals quantifiable? Do things look orderly and organized around the office?
3. Get information about the teachers in the particular grade level for which your child(ren) will be enrolling. Where did they complete their undergraduate and graduate work? How many years experience do they have? How do the teachers communicate with the parents? Website? Weekly report? Regular phone calls home? What do other parents say about their child(ren)’s experiences with these teachers?
I underscore the advice in #3 for I know the teacher is the most important and vital link in how successful a school year will be. It is the teacher that makes learning come to life; it is the teacher who develops a warm relationship with the child; it is the teacher who has the smile and words that make the world a safe place; it is the teacher who shows enthusiasm for learning. It is the teacher who makes the content interesting and connected to the world in which we live; it is the teacher that makes everyone want to come to school each day, even when sick; it is the teacher who manages a classroom like Toscanini conducted an orchestra.
The school is only the institutional shell with an address on a particular San Jose street. It is the teachers at a specific address that make the school. Of course, as a retired principal I must say that the quality of the principal as an instructional leader is paramount, too. Oh, and let me not forget about the vital role of office managers, custodians, psychologists, counselors, librarians, instructional assistants, and food service workers in making a school exceptional.
The API can never be a real indicator of overall quality. It is the people who come to work each day at the San Jose Unified school address that make school and learning incredible.
Your friend failed the CST (common sense test). He should have called you BEFORE he moved, found the right schol based on your advice, and only then begin looking for a house…in proximity to that school.
Cleanliness and a warm and caring feeling will never get you into college. The API reigns supreme – the rest is mere fluff.
A warm fuzzy feeling will not get a student into college, however providing an accepting environment will motivate a student to learn!
There is no doubt that cleanliness and a warm and caring feeling alone will not get anybody into college. In my opinion, however, these are important factors. Why would a child even care about a test when he/she hates the teacher, the school, etc.? If anybody thinks that test scores are what it’s all about, then I beg to differ. Yes, it is important to do well on tests, get into college, get a good job. But all of these things are worthless if they stand alone. The way I see it, this “mere fluff” is important and does make a difference!
Greg, as the mother of a 7th grader in SJUSD, I beg to differ. WHen we factored in race and socioeconomic status, my daughter’s score was 917 out of 1000. However, due to a change in principals a few years ago, the school has suffered, IMHO. If the teachers that I respect so much decide to leave because of difficulties with the boss, you can bet your ‘you know what’ I will not be sending my younger kids to this school, high API scores or not. Teachers, in my warm, fuzzy opinion, are the backbone of the school. Teachers, and their ability to engage our students create high API scores.
Great piece, Mr. Di Salvo
Education is like a three legged stool, if one leg is missing, it fails. In the education system, the three legs are the school (teachers & administration), the student, and the parents. The system’s biggest problem today is that too many parents, for whatever reasons, are expecting the school and the student to do all of the heavy lifting.
API scores indicate the relative health of the system, but as #3 katie points out, you have to keep an eye out for early indicators of potential change.
I agree with #1 above, it’s a little late to bitch about the schools AFTER you move. Figure out which district you want and THEN buy the house.
Yesterdays Murky News had a story about SJSU giving students one chance and one chance only to pass bonehead English & bonehead math at taxpayer expense.
I asked myself how the students were accepted to SJSU if they lacked basic English and math skills? More imprtantly, how do they get out of high school without these basic skills? Sounds to me like grade inflation at best, and PC BS at worst—passing folks who don’t measure up in THE BASICS. Wouldn’t want to damage their fragile little egos, would we?
So, due to budgetary constraints, SJSU will give ill-prepared students one chance to pass the bonehead classes. The article stated that opponents of that new policy said that it “…will hurt the low income and ill-prepared students who fill remedial clasrooms.”
Well, DUH! The low income part is the PC way of letting illiterate students who happen to be poor or of color believe that college is for them. The ill-prepared part describes them all—low income or high income or anything in between. THey lack the basic skills to succeed in college. SO, they shouldn’t be there, should they?
No-one in our PC world of academia cares to face the fact that ill-prepared students of any income level should not waste taxpayer money and college time by being there. Get a job which you are competent to perform. We need plumbers and electricians more than we need some student taking up/wasting precious space in college when those students have no reasonable chance of graduating.
So, if these folks are ill-prepared for SJSU, who is it that graduated them from high school and conned them into believing that they had a RIGHT to a college education which, even with the new higher fees, is subsidized to a great degree by taxpayers? Who gave them the grades that allowed them to enter SJSU?
Uh, that would be Mr. DiSalvo’s PC folks.
The fact that “…more than half the students who technically meet the requirements to be admitted to SJSU lack the grammar, vocabulary, algebra and other basic skills needed for college level work…” said the Murky News, is a stinging indictment of Mr. DiSalvo’s brand of feel good education, emphasizing self-esteem instead of basic skills.
These hapless students met the “techincal requirements” for admission to SJSU because they kept getting passed into the next grade, despite the fact that they couldn’t read or write well, and had poor math skills.
No wonder we’re exporting lots of work to Mumbai & Bangalore. Foreigners know English and math better than 50% 0f California high school graduates.
I was one of those students in “bone-head” English and math. I graduated from Del Mar with straight A’s. When I was admitted to U.C. Berkeley, I had to take remedial English and math. What a shock to me. I had been a star in high school. I had every right to go to college. I had done what was asked of me. Perhaps if my teachers had had higher expectations, I would have been more prepared. But, in retrospect, I am glad that I did not go to a super competitive high school because having experienced that kind of success gave me the determination to do the work and to catch up in college. I was one of those poor, brown students. I graduated with honors in four years. I received grants to pay for my education and the Golden Bear Tutoring Services were available to me for free as an Affirmative Action student. This was in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I just wish that the money and support were still there for these kids today. Our kids can do it. We should believe in them and give them the support they need.
Bravo! Way to go girl! And yes, we should support anyone who wants an education and a better life.
Of course API is an important piece of the puzzle but it is not everything. You should thoroughly research your neighborhood school ( principal, teachers, support staff, climate, art, music etc.). If the school has a low API score and you don’t want your children to attend there you can apply for a transfer into a higher performing school under NCLB ( no child left behind).
I fully agree with you
I had the privilege to visit an award winning teacher in a low-income school in LA. The school is one of the lowest performing schools in his area, if not the state. If one were to solely look at API as a means of assessing a school, this one would be at the bottom of the list. Not to mention that this school is in a heavy gang neighborhood and is surrounded by 12 foot high fences. Yet, his students perform in the top 10th percentile in the nation and they are happy and many of them end up at Yale and Harvard. And how is this possible at a school that doesn’t even register on the high performance charts? It is the teacher that sets the stage.
Professor DiSalvo,
I completely agree that a schools rank and testing scores do not reflect the quality of the school’s teachers, or the ability for a student to learn and develop at that particular school. There are many other factors to consider when looking at the achievement levels of particular students. Students only spend about six to seven hours on campus, where teachers try their best to make an impact, but after school children return home to family and a support system that may or may not be there. I would think that if a student has a strong support system when they returned home they would learn and grow, excelling in school. I know that this is not always the case, but I would hope that it is the case more times then not.
The only thing that I would disagree on in this article is when you tell your friend to ask about the experience of the teacher, and where the teacher has graduated from. I would argue that it really does not matter how long a teacher has been teaching, or where they graduated from as long as there is passion in what they are doing. I would have to say that some of the most amazing teachers are brand new teachers that are excited to start to teach, and not afraid to try new ideas. There are some teachers that have been teaching for thirty years, but really they have only taught once, and then there are some teachers that really teach each year, making each year different from the last. It makes me think of the movie “Freedom Writers” where a new teacher inspires her underperforming students to reach for goals they never knew they had. “I was a new teacher then,” she said (the teacher), “young, inexperienced and put in this room that had been reserved for the toughest, least disciplined kids in the school. Some were gang members, all had been victims of gang violence, all of them were testing far below their grade levels.” She turns her class around encouraging them to overcome their differences and excel to new levels, and it works. This is a true story, and it is a woman that I hope I can emulate because she shows that it really is all about the passion when it comes to teaching!
One of the “new ideas” that I would hope today’s teachers would want to try out is to not discard the “old ideas”. I would hope that they would have respect for past generations of teachers who developed and refined curricula over the years and whose methods were highly successful in teaching our kids the subject matter.
While trying so hard to be creative and innovative I hope teachers themselves aren’t reluctant to use the boring old tried & true methods.
I fully agree with you, Alicia. You made a great point about how it really does not matter how long a teacher has been teaching or where they graduated from. It’s the passion they have for teaching that defines the teacher. I have much respect for teachers who have been teaching all their life. It truly shows how much they care about what they teach. However, with or without many years of experience, who you are coming into teaching is who you naturally are. Experience definitely builds on one’s character but it does not control it or make one better than others. Making learning come to life does not depend on where you graduated from or how long you’ve been a teacher. It is more valid to ask other parents about their children’s experiences with these teachers.
You make a wonderful point regarding experience; it does build character and it definitely does NOT control it or make it better than others. But, I do not think the number of years in teaching shows how much a teacher cares about teaching. Yes, some teachers who have been doing it for twenty five years are still passionate and love what they do. Yet, there are others who have been walking into their classroom each day for the past twenty five years dreading the school day. LIke you said, it is a teacher’s passion for the students’ learning that makes them more effective. Although I think the number of years a teacher has been teaching is somewhat irrelevant (let’s face it a passionate teacher with six years experience is most likely going to be slightly better than a passionate first year teacher) I do think that their education is an important piece of information. There are a variety of universities and colleges that have teaching credential programs and inevitably some of them train teachers better than others. Education is not the most important piece of information but it is relevant.
Alicia, you said just about everything I was thinking! As everyone on here seems to agree, API scores do not reflect all that a school has to offer. As a result of NCLB, student performance is based off of standardized tests. While it is important to evaluate whether students know the basic knowledge needed to advance in both school and life in general, we must also focus on creating individuals that can flourish in society. It is extremely important for children to be able to work independently, be able to work well with others, be able to speak in front of a group of people, and to think critically. I feel that standardized tests overlook these important lifelong skills.
I agree that a school with a low API score could have some of the best teachers. Again, we must focus on other factors that play a role in a student’s academic success. As others have pointed out, many kids leave school campuses for a home in which they receive little or none guardian support. We cannot hold school administration, including teachers that are both new and old, accountable for factors that our out of their hands.
In response to John, there is certainly value in some of the “old ideas,” however I think your label of “boring” and “old” is problematic. Children change across generations, and it is of vast importance to develop engaging curricula. One of the greatest challenges is convincing students that the curriculum has relevance in their lives. It can be done, but it takes imagination and awareness of where the students are coming from.
In terms of API scores, I wholeheartedly believe that they are an unreliable measure of a school’s performance. It’s saddening that we use standardized testing to categorize our schools. As Professor DiSalvo said and several others confirmed, good teachers really make the difference, and a mere API score is simply not a good indicator of quality teaching.
I very much agree that your third point is the most important aspect in choosing a school for your child. Teachers are most directly working with your child and will influence them more than any other role model (outside of the family)at this time in their lives. I wonder, however, how easy it is to get all of that information from the principal/teacher in doing research for schools.
I found this article very interesting. I do not have children but I know when I do have children I will want them to go to a good school. I am curious what difference does it make where the teachers completed their graduate and undergraduate work? If there is one teacher completed their schooling at Santa Clara University and another teacher who completed their schooling at San Jose State, which do you think the parent will choose? Maybe the San Jose State student could not afford to go to a University. Also, I feel that people look at being a new teacher as a bad thing. We all have to start some where right? Yes, I do agree that the are very important to the students and that they make impressions on students for life.
I would like to agree with Alicia when she points out that “it really does not matter how long a teacher has been teaching, or where they graduated from as long as there is passion in what they are doing.” It is a very idealistic view. I would hope all our teachers have a passion for teaching.
BUT, a teacher may have all the passion in the world for teaching, but teaching is not teaching unless there is learning. And thus, i must agree it is important parents get to know their child(ren)‘s teachers.
Professor DiSalvo’s third point includes more than just questioning a teacher’s educational background and previous work experiences. It includes gaining an understanding of a particular teacher’s teaching methods, specific routines, communication methods, classroom management, etc, all of which are extremely important to students’ learning. Not only will parents have a general idea of what will take place in the classroom, but they will also know what types of progress they can expect to see from their child(ren).
Education is also about teacher and parent partnership, meaning communication. And communication is about how teacher’s may better help a student at school, or how parents may better help their child at home. This has everything to do with a teacher and their teaching style, routines, methods, etc.
I strongly agree with seeing what other parent’s have to say about their child(ren)‘s previous experiences with the teacher. Speaking to the teacher alone may not always give you the correct picture. Teachers may exaggerate, dress up an idea to make it sound favorable, or maybe not follow through with something. On the other hand, listening to other’s experiences, parents can better prepare and adjust themselves for similar outcomes and experiences.
This summer I was transferred from a non-PI school to one of three PI schools in my district. Thus far, I have found the families to be more attentive to the students’, teachers’, and classrooms’ needs than my previous assignment. The additional funds allotted to PI schools have been utilized to bring cutting edge, interactive technologies to the classroom, and teachers are being held accountable for
…creating standards-based lesson plans beyond anything that was required at my old school. In this instance, while obviously not ideal, the PI classification lit a fire for positive change.
(oops)
Although the API of a school is important, it shouldn’t be the only factor a parent uses to determine whether or not to send their child to a particular school. It is an unreliable measure of a school’s overall performance because it is just a number that another standardized test came up with. There are so many factors that make up an entire school. As a parent, it is important to meet the people who make up the school including the principal and teachers that will be working with your child on a day to day basis. Although it is important to find out where a teacher received their degree from and inquire on how long they have been teaching, I do not think it is as important as knowing they have the drive and determination to succeed as a teacher. All teachers have to begin somewhere and many of the most driven teachers are the newest teachers. Like Erika mentioned above, a teacher should not only have the passion and drive but also have the knowledge to back it all up.
There is so much to consider when choosing a school for your child, only looking at the API of a school seems absurd. The last thing I think of when I look back at my own education is the API score of all the schools I attended (although I am curious now!). I do, however, remember so many of the wonderful teachers, counselors and coaches that made a positive impact throughout my life.
I enjoyed reading that test scores should be considered second in quality ratings for schools. There are many factors that can effect test scores and I think people who only look at numbers are forgetting that there are many other factors that make a school good or bad.
I like DiSalvo’s point that “the school is only the institutional shell with an address on a particular San Jose street. It is the teachers at a specific address that make the school.” This is a rich and fruitful statement. The teacher is the one with the power to engage students and critique lessons plans to ensure that all students are benefitting from the education. This is why we dont have computers reading to a class for educational purposes. This is a field in which cannot be replaced by computers, which demonstrates how essential teachers are to the quality of a school and not simply and API index.
I like the three specific pieces of advice that you Di Salvo gave his friend. Asking about the teachers and seeing what your options are in that area is very important. There are always many different kinds of teachers who run their class differently and have different teaching styles, and it is important for a parent to know that their child could have a teacher who suits them best.
But if we are being honest, not everyone has the opportunity to choose the school their child goes to, whether the reason is money, transportation to the school, or district restrictions. But parents need to stay optimist and work the whatever school their child is being placed. I believe (and maybe I am being too optimist) that there are wonderful teachers even in some of the worst schools, and if with a good teacher and great parents the child can succeed and grow.