Students, Teachers, and Parents: Working Together to Improve Education

       Education, as with most things in life, works best when everyone works together.

       Of course, parents and students and teachers don't always agree about what's best for education.  So I've devised a plan for systemic improvement:

Concentrate solely on the school that your children attend.

      You see, we view education in the entire United States differently than we view education in the schools our children attend.  For years Gallop has polled parents about their views of education; and for years they have received essentially the same results:

1. We are not happy with the state of schools in the United States.
2. We are happy with the state of the school in our community.

       It happened again this year.  In 2016, only 43% of those polled said that they are Completely Satisfied or Very Satisfied with quality of education in the United States.  Of these same people (same poll; same year), 76% said that they are Completely Satisfied or Very Satisfied with quality of education that their children are receiving.

       So here's my plan:  

Let's just do everything we can do improve the school(s) our children attend.

       The U.S. is too big.  17,000 school districts. 100,000 schools.  50,000,000 students.  Who can even comprehend the immensity of such a huge system???

       If we all just concentrate our energies on the schools in our community, we have a much better chance of seeing real improvement.  Better teachers, better students, better learning.  It can be done if we all do our part for our own schools.  And when the community disagrees on something, let's listen to each other and compromise on a solution that is best for our students and best for our community.  Every wins when we work together.

       (And isn't "working together" a lesson that we want all of our children to learn?)

Parents Like Their Children's Schools More Than They Like Education in America--Huh???

Question #1:  How satisfied are you with the quality of education of our your oldest child?
Question #2:  How satisfied are you with the quality of K-12 education that students receive in the United States today?

       How would you answer these two questions?  Gallup has asked these questions to Americans for years and the answers are always the same; paradoxical, but the same:

Answer #1: I like my child's school.  I think he/she is getting a good education.
Answer #2: I don't like education in America as much as I like the education in my child's school.

       What???  How can this be?  How is it that most parents are satisfied with their child's education, but not (generally) satisfied with the nation's schools?

       One possible reason is that parents live in the community that their child's school is located and they like their community.  Another reason could be that parents know their child's teachers; they've met them, talked to them, maybe are neighbors with them.  Their child's school is a place that they've visited many times and that they know pretty well.

       On the other hand, the quality of our nation's schools is heavily influenced by newspaper and media reports--which is generally negative.  (This is one of the reasons that I write this blog.)  Unfortunately, positive stories about public schools and American education are not told nearly as much as negative stories.

       Still, if so many people are happy with their child's school, then how can these same people be so negative about public schools in general?  Does this fall into the same category of, "Drivers around her are crazy, but I'm a good driver."?

       Our schools aren't perfect, and we certainly have challenges that need to be addressed.  I believe that these challenges can be better addressed when we have the support of the public that we serve.  Indeed we need all our collective "best thinking" to solve our most entrenched problems--such as the education of our poorest students.

       So cheer up American.  Maybe things aren't as bad you think--or should I say "As bad as you read in the press".