Rethinking Schools: Scenes From the Front Line of Education Reform in L.A. : Finding the Best School Means Seeking a Culture of Success

So you’ve begun your search for a good public school, but you are daunted by the task and discouraged by the large classes and low test scores.

Well, not to worry. Finding a school that will nurture a budding intellect, salve self-esteem and set your child on the road to the Ivy League has little to do with such mundane concerns, the experts say.

Instead of poring over a school’s test scores, look at how the desks in the classrooms are arranged, find out the teachers’ hobbies, be a “student” on the campus for a day.

And look for a school that tends to the needs of its students with an eye to the future rather than the past.

“The average parent who goes shopping has a foot in the pathway of what they themselves experienced as a child, but what they experienced may be out of sync with what we know today about how children learn,” said USC education professor Sandy Kaplan.

Parents tend to worry about whether there are enough spelling books, if the school has an art teacher and how much homework is assigned, but they often fail to tap into a school’s “culture,” and there lie the clues that can help predict a school’s performance.

“I have parents who shop for hard work or for nice teachers or small classes. . . . But that has nothing to do with the quality of the intellectual challenge their kids are going to get,” Kaplan said.

What parents should look for are schools where standards are high and clearly explained, where the principal and teachers work as a team and share responsibility for how and what children learn, where parental involvement is encouraged and channeled to support the school’s academic program, and where children are engaged in the kind of active learning that will prepare them to compete in contemporary society.

“High performing schools have a culture that promotes success,” contends Frank Newman, head of the Education Commission for the States, which coordinates school reform programs nationwide. “You’ll find them in every part of town and in every kind of school system.”

In Los Angeles--with its new open enrollment policy, a growing network of specialized magnet centers and the emergence of independent charter schools--parents today have choices previously open only to the private school set.

For many parents, it is no longer enough to trek over to the neighborhood school, sign Junior up and hope for the best.

Instead, there is a rush of campus tours, classroom visits, interviews with principals and teachers, test score reviews. There are conversations about portfolio assessments and classroom specialists, about acceleration versus enrichment and whole language versus phonics. There are neighborhood parent networks to navigate, with their own critics and cheerleaders.

“It can be a very confusing process, but it really pays to do your homework,” said JoAnn Noonan, who spent two years checking out public schools near her Westside neighborhood before enrolling her son, Elliot, in kindergarten this fall at Overland Avenue Elementary.

“I looked at the libraries, the computer classes, the gym classes . . . the custodial things, like is the school clean and maintained. I asked how the schools use their money, how often they had parent-teacher conferences, what the teachers’ aides did . . . “ she said.

“I found talking to the principal is really important, because a lot of things come from the top. Are they prepared to explain things to you: Can they tell you the school’s philosophy and how they group the children in class and what the teachers’ styles are? You have to be kind of assertive and dig to find the answers you need.”

USC’s Kaplan says there’s a lot of room for differences among good schools, “but there are some common elements that are non-negotiable. Anyone who goes shopping these days has to know there are some universals that we know about how kids learn, and they ought to be reflected in a school’s program.”

For starters, Kaplan said, “one thing you’re looking for is a school where people can answer the question why and not just how and what they’re doing. They need to have a philosophical rationalization for the basic foundation elements in their school.”

For example, in most classes today, children’s desks are placed in small groups, rather than rows facing forward as they were when most parents were in school. The principal and teachers should be able to explain how that seating arrangement helps foster cooperative learning and creates the small group environment that research shows helps children learn.

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Most progressive schools these days use techniques such as team teaching and mixed-age grouping of students to better match lessons to teachers’ strengths and students’ skill levels. Teachers should be able to explain those concepts, and why they work, to parents.

Noonan found that the traditional “kindergarten roundup,” where herds of inspecting parents troop through kindergarten classes, did not provide her with enough information to assess a school. “You need to really spend time at a school, to pull up a chair in each classroom when there are no other visitors there,” she said.

USC’s Kaplan would say that is a critical investment of time. “On the guided tour, parents tend to get intimidated by the people who are taking them around the school, and they allow that to influence their decision. So, parents ought to prepare beforehand and have a list of questions to ask--write them on your hand if you have to, but don’t get carried away and lose your focus.”

According to Kaplan and others, those questions ought to include:

* What decision-making model does the school use? School governance is undergoing a revolution, with teachers and parents having more say in everything from how money is spent to how reading is taught. Parents need to find out how decisions are made at their schools, how flexible the process is and in what areas the school has autonomy from the school system.

* How does the school implement and augment the state-sanctioned curriculum? The state sets standards on what topics should be covered in each grade--for example, third-graders learn cursive writing and fourth-graders study the westward migration--but schools have great latitude in how they teach those subjects. Parents should look for schools that encourage teachers to draw on their own interests and expertise to supplement the program, that provide real world learning experiences that engage children’s interests, and that encourage children to think and reason on their own.

* How do schools accommodate the individual differences among students? Public schools draw children with a wide variety of skills, and lessons must be adapted so that all children can benefit. Does each class have different levels of books and other learning materials, so that all children can have appropriate references? Does the teacher challenge students who are working ahead of their peers with enrichment activities, and encourage those whose achievement lags?

* How is student performance evaluated? What is the grading system and how is testing used? What other kinds of assessments do teachers use? How often are parent-teacher conferences? What help is given to students who are falling behind? What are the school’s promotion and retention practices?

* How does the school incorporate parental involvement? It is not enough to say parents are welcome in the classrooms. Are parents encouraged to contribute their talents to enrich the school’s program? Are they considered partners in the decision-making process? What is their role in raising money to supplement school spending?

“The choice of a school is not something you should make a quick decision about,” Kaplan stresses. “You don’t buy a school for a semester or a year. You buy a school for an experience over time, so you need to evaluate that school for what it’s going to provide for your child year after year.”