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Finding a good school is an important decision whether you’re a parent looking for a school for your child or a teacher looking for a place to work. There can be an overwhelming number of biased sources all saying different things about what makes a school a good school.
Rather than trusting a school’s website or your impressions walking around being given a tour of the campus, there are more reliable ways to judge the quality of a school. It will take some research and outreach, but it is impossible to know the quality of a school from a quick overview.
What Makes a School High Quality?
In order to find a good school, it is important to know what makes a school a good learning environment for children. Many people are easily fooled by fancy school building architecture or lots of technology integration into classes, but research suggests that there are far more important metrics of a quality school than looks and tech.
According to one newly released study, one clear indicator of a high quality school is the level of education of the teachers. The study found that the more teachers with a graduate level education, the better off the students were in the long term.
The study looked at the high school environment that the students had been in and compared it to their cognitive abilities later in life. So rather than this being a measure of school being able to get kids to pass a test and then forget everything they learned, this study looked into what helped the students have long lasting benefits throughout their lifetimes.
While having highly educated teachers is only one important factor, this finding matches other previous studies that show that what is most important in a good school is not something visible such as having a fancy building or lots of screens and computers everywhere, but instead qualities that are harder to see such as the qualifications of the staff, the leadership style, and the safety of the school environment.
According to a research study on schools in Australia and the United States, “the most critical elements that contribute to the development of an effective school are dedicated and qualified staff, clear school purposes, strong academic and administrative leadership, a safe school environment and a positive school climate.” (Townsend)
All of these qualities will be impossible to see from a simple guided tour of the school by a biased member of staff without the proper preparation. However, there are a few tips that can make it easier to see below the surface and truly distinguish good schools from those that simply look nice as an outsider.
Tips to Find a Good School
Don’t be fooled by fancy buildings or technology.
While technology can be an incredible boost to learning and increase the access students have to materials, many schools spend a lot on big screens and displays that make the school appear advanced but do not spend any more or time training staff how to use these new tools. This can lead to constant tech issues during classes, limited application of the possibilities online, or worst of all, devices collecting dust as teachers use methods and materials they are more comfortable with.
In order for technology to be useful, teachers need to have training and be comfortable working with technologies like Google Classroom, Moodle, and YouTube. If teachers don’t know how to apply these learning tools, having access to them does nothing for the students.
Similarly, having nice classrooms can certainly make a learning environment more conducive to learning as shown in this article, but a fancy classroom does nothing and can even distract students from learning rather than adding to their learning experience.
Glass everywhere is a very popular design technique in schools. It gives a sense of transparency and shows visiting parents that the school has nothing to hide. The modern aesthetic is also appealing and makes the school look significantly larger when walls are made of class or have giant windows.
While these features may look nice and do transmit the positive message of transparency, they also allow for lots of distractions and a sense that students and teachers are always being watched.
A more effective approach to having a transparent classroom is one that is regularly visited by active administrators. Regular observations from heads of department, principals, and even peer teachers creates open communication between staff members.
It is important that administrators know what is going on inside of classrooms, but that should be through mindful observations and conversations, not a sense of prowling the halls looking through the glass at what is going on. Communication is what creates transparency in a school, and while this is hard to see as an outsider, transparent glass walls only create the illusion of transparency, but actually lead to more distrust and lots of distraction from what kids can see going on out in the halls.
Walk the halls.
While a guided tour will only provide the idealized version of a school, a clever and sharp observer can glean a lot of useful information from a tour, none of which will come from the person giving the tour. Rather than listening to the spiel they have constructed for visitors, more attention should be paid to what is seen rather than what is said.
Are the students smiling? How are they speaking to one another? Is there any bullying going on such as pushing, yelling, or pointing at others and laughing? Do students seem stressed or are they running around the halls?
Are students only speaking with other students or are there pleasant interactions between staff and students? A good school with a good atmosphere of mutual respect will have students and teachers pleasantly greeting one another in addition to genuine reactions between the members of the community.
If students respond to greetings with mumbled formal “hello Mrs. Blankenblank” in unison, chances are that the respect is only surface level. This shows that students are taught respect, but that the respect is probably not mutual. Students in these types of schools are taught to be subservient and not express their opinions. These types of schools often focus on rote memorization and lectures with notes rather than more modernized teaching techniques.
This approach may teach students to manage themselves in a set environment, but limits their growth and can leave them inflexible in different working environments. Because they have never had to think independently, they will often simply stick with what they know and be less likely to take beneficial risks.
However, even when students are smiling and happy, it is important to not assume this means the school atmosphere is one of respect. Also a sign of lack of respect is where school halls are filled with teachers yelling at students down the halls to listen to them and their students laughing and ignoring them.
When administrators don’t allow teachers to punish students, this may make students happy as they can ignore their teachers with minimal consequences. While this might seem ok as one might argue that if they don’t listen and study in this type of environment, they will simply fail their tests and learn that they occasionally need to buckle down and get to work.
The problem is that these types of schools often also see failing grades as punishments and often do not allow teachers to fail their students. They don’t want students to struggle and so make school easier for them, but in doing so, they create weak students that have never had to deal with any adversity.
Because they are passed year after year and their actions never lead to any consequences, they can get dangerously far in life before things come crashing down. If a student never puts in any effort yet still gets passing grades all the way through high school, then when they get to college and no longer have parental guidance, they will not be prepared for the professor who will simply fail them, costing them thousands of dollars.
Similarly, if students go straight to work rather than going to university, then they will simply get fired if they refuse to put in any effort into their job. While students can recover from these types of things, the shock and consequences are much more severe than simply failing a test or even a whole class.
Worst of all for those who have been taught to ignore authority is those that run into trouble with the law. Students who think they can ignore the police or the government like they ignore their teachers can get into serious trouble that could follow them for the rest of their lives.
These types of schools are the most dangerous types of schools as students will seem to be flourishing, happy students who get good grades and successfully graduate, but it is often only much later on that the long term consequences of their lack of social education come back to bite them.
Instead, a quality school will have students who actually seem to like their teachers and teachers who can give instructions with respect to their students and get respectful answers in return. However, it is important to remember that these interactions should not be robotic or forced, as this is simply a facade created by the extreme on the other end of social instruction.
Talk to students.
When on the tour, try your best to talk to a few students in the halls as you pass by. A pleasant greeting followed by a “Having a fun day?” or “What class do you have next?” can give even clearer insight into how students feel about their school experiences.
While kids complaining about not liking school or wanting to go home is totally normal and not a sign of a bad school, the way that the student responds to a stranger can be a great indicator of their maturity level. If they mumble a one word response or ignore the person asking them a question, it is a sign that students are not really taught how to act around others and are simply taught by books rather than having a well rounded education.
Students who smile and give funny or genuine responses show that the students are taught how to consider others and treat them with respect in addition to being a sign that the student feels safe at school so that they can comfortably have a short conversation with a stranger.
On a tour, some schools may try to prepare a couple of students for the visitor to speak with. This is a trap!
These students have been hand picked and groomed to give the exact responses that fit the schools mission and ideals and will rarely give a genuine look at the school at large. While the students picked may themselves be respectful and mature adults, that could be more due to their parents upbringing rather than their experiences at school.
It is important to get a wider view of the school culture rather than just the one curated for visitors. While it is fine if a school offers a chat with a couple of students, the smart visitor will also try to talk with a few other students to see a broader view.
Talk to teachers.
Another set of people to talk to is teachers! However, talking to teachers while they are at work is probably not the best way to get their honest opinions about the school. While some teachers may be very candid about their feelings, they are at the place that pays their bills, so will likely be reticent to say anything too damning.
Instead, if it is appropriate, it can be more effective to try to catch someone outside of school. If you live somewhere small or just get lucky, you could talk to them just in town when you see them passing by or as you order a drink at the same cafe, but this is less possible and might be very uncomfortable for others.
In that case, it can also work to simply message them on social media. Especially if you are a teacher looking for a school to work at, messaging someone who actually works there is totally appropriate and many teachers will be happy to give you their thoughts and you might even make a great connection before applying.
A group that might be even more effective to reach out to, however, is teachers who no longer work at the school. Teachers who have left the school will often be far more honest with their feedback and you can get an idea of how teachers feel at a school from how many people leave and the reasons for their departure.
As a side note, while it is totally appropriate to message an adult teacher on social media, you should never message students or anyone under 18. Additionally, reaching out to principals or other administrators is a waste of time as they will simply parrot whatever ideals the school espouses as they are a part of the leadership team themselves.
Conclusion
In conclusion, finding a good school is more about finding out about the people at that school rather than seeing anything about the school itself. The word school may be used more to describe the building itself, but in reality, what makes a school a school is the students, the teachers, and the lessons they learn.
When looking for a good quality school, it is important to focus on getting to know the individuals at the school and how they treat one another. Respect should be clear, but not forced or robotic.
Students should be happy, but not totally stress free. School should be preparing them for the challenges ahead without drowning them in stress and panic.
While technologies and beautiful classrooms and school buildings can absolutely add to a child’s education, if a school puts money into these things without the above social qualities, then this shows that their focus is in the wrong place and the school is not actually high quality. Hopefully after reading this guide, you will be better prepared to go into your next school with open eyes and ears to see past the surface facade presented by school leadership and get to the heart of how students are taught at the school.
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