What makes a great school?

Last week I took advantage of my chronic insomnia and used those bonus hours between 3 and 6 am to write a letter to the CEO of my children's school district. Prince George's Public Schools is "one of the nation's 25 largest school districts, having 204 schools, approximately 124,000 students and nearly 18,000 employees." It is enormous. It's unwieldy.

So far, however, I have been pleasantly impressed by the district. Despite the fact that I am one parent among thousands, when my children's kindergarten classes were too big I sent emails and within a week there was an extra aide on staff. When I spoke at the School Board meeting about enrichment programs I was approached by several board members afterwards, and when the CEO (think "superintendent") visited my children's school, he inquired about my comments. They are listening. I am now working on the premise that most of the responsible adults involved are interested in seeking innovative solutions for serving so many children and supporting so many schools in such a diverse system.

So how do we do that?

A high quality education should not be for the lucky and the wealthy, it should be for every last child in our county. This is what the "No Child Left Behind Act" purported to do, to set the expectation that all children could achieve at the same level, irregardless of income, race, native language or learning disability. It is a noble goal. I am skeptical about the ability of each child to reach the same level of achievement (just look at the diversity of learning styles and outcomes in your own family to realize the great variation that exists within the human race), but I do think it is reasonable to demand that each child receive the same quality of education. The basic recipe for a high quality school is not complicated:

1) Intelligent, well-trained, hard working teachers and support staff
2) Small class sizes
3) Safe school buildings with access to open spaces, books and current technology
4) Research based curricula that holds students and teachers to high standards
5) Enrichment opportunities (project based learning, arts, foreign language instruction)

On top of this you can add nuts and chocolate, go vegan or low-fat, whatever suits your community.

Yes, assessment plays a part, and we should know what kids know and track how are schools are doing by monitoring their scores. However, we should also be looking closely at the school experience of each child. Do children have access to similar benefits, whether they are in a charter or a traditional public school, whether they go to school in DC or Prince George's County?

No one can dispute that the answer is a resounding NO. Schools are vastly dissimilar, from state to state, across counties, even within towns. Everyone can think of an example of a great school and a mediocre or bad school "just down the road."

In the PG County school district we have magnet schools. As their name suggests they are designed to attract better students, so slots on their rosters are highly coveted. Some are language immersion programs and produce students with the highest test scores in the county. Others have speciality programs, like the Montessori school which only accepts children into kindergarten and then limits class size after that. Most are TAG schools (Talented And Gifted) which were formed on the premise that TAG students (meaning those students who come from a literate, English-speaking household and do not have learning disabilities) need and deserve access to rigorous classes, foreign language instruction, and more enrichment opportunities. The schools are better than most of the neighborhood schools. I despise them for this.

My late-night letter to the CEO argues that the decision to invest so many resources in these magnet schools is both unjust and unwise. If our school district is going to be great, the place to invest is in the neighborhood schools. Strong neighborhood schools will both attract better students and make better students.

The letter is in his mailbox now, and in the mailboxes of school board members, and my county council member, waiting to be opened after a vacation of reflection and resolutions. I ask for small class sizes, an art teacher and a Spanish teacher. A modest and manageable request, I think. My vision is much grander, it is a county of nothing but great schools, but this is a start. And if I receive no response? Maybe it's time to start looking at charter schools.