county news online
text
Where do you rate?
By Chris Mortensen, Principal
Greenville High School

I read an interesting article about Florida considering that schools begin evaluating parents on their involvement with their children.  This was being proposed as a bill by Florida State Representative Kelli Stargel.  Testing results, Annual Yearly Progress, discipline numbers, graduation rate, attendance rates, transient nature of the student population and programs offered by the school are analyzed consistently from year to year to determine effectiveness of schools.

These factors have then been used to focus the process for improvement for schools throughout the state.  It has been a recent trend that the community looks at schools through the lens of a microscope and makes decisions to improve the schools based on this data.  Lawmakers have worked tirelessly trying to overhaul public school systems to make administrators and their teachers accountable for individual student achievement.

Don’t get me wrong, this is all important data to help guide improvement efforts, but the other end of the stick is how each of these factors are influenced by external factors that are out of the control of administrators, teachers and the local school systems as a whole.
 
Let’s take a brief look at some of these factors, as a for instance in this picture.  There are divorces.  Our population of economically disadvantaged families, special needs populations and just overall availability of parents to participate in their son’s or daughter’s education need to be taken in to consideration.  Many of these factors, schools can only have minimal impact upon by providing for student needs during the few hours that they are in the school, but the factors still remain for the student to have to deal with on a daily basis.  All of these influence a student’s ability to learn in the school.

Students also face drug issues, abuse, and sexual assault just to mention a few.  This is possibly even within their own homes.  Now we have the fear of placing humiliation and stigmas on these students if anyone should find out.  They are coming to school with little sleep, under nourished and in some cases emotionally drained.  Again, we attempt to assist in making these situations better, as best we can.

All of these factors have an influence on a school’s ability to achieve a good rating in terms of being successful, certainly impacting the student’s ability to learn and perform appropriately.  No worries though, the mark to be successful is only 100%.

Now, back to the articles interest for me…If schools graded parents on their involvement with their children I wonder what I would rate.  How would you rate?  I believe the article discussed a rating of needs improvement, unsatisfactory and satisfactory, as the choices that schools would have in regards to rating parents.

Obviously, parental involvement is important for proper student development socially, emotionally, as well as educationally.  Some parents do not even realize that they are not providing for these needs and in some cases even support student improper behavior and lack of educational performance. 

What needs should be considered you ask?  The basic needs that would be included in an evaluation involve whether the student was at school and on time, getting sufficient sleep in order to learn and eating a healthy meal to start the day.  Whether the parent provided the student with structured time to prepare for quizzes and tests and complete assignments for their classes, so they come prepared each and every day.  Finally, do the parents make regular contact with the educational programs by attending parent-teacher conferences and communicating issues of concern to the educational learning of their son or daughter.

Ultimately, we all know that everyone wants the best for their kids.  Educational reform was necessary and still has many factors to be considered in making students as successful as possible in gaining the best education for their future.  Standards based education is a step in the right direction for making a base for common learning for all students, as well as each school’s work on the Ohio Improvement Process to maximize the unique areas of change needed in each district and building.

These are all great steps toward improvement, but they mean little if the parent is not involved with the school and with their son or daughter.  So maybe just taking some time to contemplate our involvement with our kids in their education can foster a movement toward educational improvement.

Take time to ask them what they are doing and how you could be involved.  This could be the greatest factor in their educational success for the future.  After all,

How would you rate? And…
Are you willing to make a difference in their lives?


 
senior scribes

County News Online

is a Fundraiser for the Senior Scribes Scholarship Committee. All net profits go into a fund for Darke County Senior Scholarships
contact
Copyright © 2011 and design by cigs.kometweb.com