Assessing the Quality of Education

You are all the only insurance your child has that the quality of education he or she receives is up to standards. What follows is a series of areas that you can focus on when judging the quality of the teacher and institution you have entrusted to educate your child

Teacher Access

Your best source of knowledge about your childs progress in school is the teacher. While you don't want to overwhelm the teacher with excessive parental communication, you need to be sure that the teacher, and all of her knowledge about your child, is accessible. Ideally, there would be a formal communication process in place - one that sets parameters for how quickly a teacher responds to a parent, allows for regularly available meeting times, and sets a roadmap for parents to escalate issues to authority figures. If there is no formal process, try to guage early on in the school year how easy or difficult it is to get in touch with your child's teachers.

Knows Your Child

How well does the teacher know your child? Is the teacher merely aware of your child's presence, or are you provided with insightbul and specific information about your child's abilities and personality?

Basic Skills

Are you aware of the basic skills that are being taught throughout the school year? You should be. And it should be very easy for the teacher to fill you in. Make sure that the basics are covered and are being reinforced regularly. A lack of a solid foundation in the early years can cause much larger problems later in your child's scholastic career.

Teaching to the Test

Success or failure on standardized tests can have an affect on a schools funding and credentials. As such, frequently teachers will be strongly encouraged to break from the regular curriculum in favor of test preparation. Find out how much class time will be spent to meet the schools administrative needs and make your own decision about whether it is a good or a bad thing

Variety in Class

Having a strong variety of topics and activities can help encourage creativity and keep attention focused throughout the day. Too much of a variety can cause confusion and break down the learning process. Learn about the structure of your childs day to day curriculum and assess how appropriate it is for your child.

Distinct Ability Levels

It is common for children of various ability levels to be grouped together in a classroom. How the school and the teacher deals with this challenge is important. Certainly you want to make sure that the resources are available to give each child a good deal of individual attention (especially younger children). Children falling behind should be given the chance and the tools to move forward and succeeed. Children that are more advanced should be challenged regularly. Many schools have special programs to deal with both extremes in ability levels. The availability of extracurricular educational activities is very important.

Physical Activity

Are your children getting enough physical activity throughout the day? Kids need at least sixty minutes of physical activity a day, and at least half of that should come from school. Gym classes should be evidence-based programs that are proven to improve fitness and increase enjoyment - and should be taught by people who have educational backgrounds focused on physical education.

Bullies

There will be bullies in school. The school should have a plan for dealing with them. The school should have an anti-harrassment program in place, and should actively coach kids on how to respond to bullying, and have the staff trained to safely intervene.

Where to go from here

Now that you have a few ideas on ways to measure the overall quality of your child's school, take some time to think about other areas that you should concern yourself with. Make initial assessments in areas that you can, and come up with a plan to get the information you need to make deeper assessments. If you are not happy with the school, do not hesitate to move your child to a better institution. Remember, that child will be taking care of you when you are wearing diapers, so you want to provide the best opportunities that you can.

Talk to the teacher and school administrators about the areas you as a parent are dissatisfied with. Give them a chance to respond, and offer your assistance in correcting the problem. Now that you are aware of the schools shortcomings, think about things that you can do outside the school to make up for them.