Choosing a School for Your Child

Choosing a School for Your Child?

List of 1 items.

This Top Ten List Will Help

Dr. Kristen Ring
Head of School, Hutchison

Selecting the right school for your child is one of the most important decisions a parent has to make. It’s never an easy decision and it ultimately depends on your child’s unique needs. I recommend using a deliberate scientific approach, with a healthy dose of art.

After all, the educational experience is both an art and a science.

In teaching, we begin with science – research on instructional methods, implementing best practices, and monitoring student growth. But the enrichment of a student’s learning comes from the art of teaching – the creative presentation of subject matter and how the teacher responds to students. The art of teaching is the magic ingredient from which mentoring, inspiration, aspiration, and the igniting of passions are born.

Ask anyone about a favorite memory in school, and you are unlikely to hear about a memorable testing experience or how they mastered multiplication tables. Instead, they remember those teachers who made learning joyful, inspired them with new ideas, encouraged them to believe that they were capable of excellence, and rewarded their intellectual curiosity. The art of engaging students is no small feat, and gifted teachers are treasures.

My Top Ten List

I suggest evaluating a school based on the art and the science of teaching that you see represented in its classrooms. How a school “feels” is important because it speaks to the culture of the place. So first let’s look at ways you can tell that a school understands the art of teaching.

List of 5 items.

1. What is the interaction between students and teachers?

As a parent, you can look for small groupings of students talking and interacting. Classrooms rarely should be silent spaces. Notice the teacher’s behavior, too. The teacher should be in the mix, encouraging and authentically praising efforts.
2. Do the teachers encourage exploration, innovation, and play?

Students who are encouraged to be imaginative and creative bloom into great thinkers. They must be given the physical and mental space to be inventive. This helps them to think critically and look at problems differently and often leads to unique solutions for problems.
3. Do the students spend time outside every day?

Students need to run and jump and move throughout the day. They need a little sunlight and green grass. Don’t underestimate the value of recreation. One red flag to look for is when recreation time is treated as flexible time to be borrowed from whenever needed for other activities.
4. Do the students look forward to going to school?

Ask students what it feels like to go to school and listen to them. Kids can be the toughest critics.
5. What opportunities exist in the fine arts, athletics, leadership, and service?

Students often discover passions when they are encouraged to explore a wide variety of experiences. Strong schools don’t just encourage children to sample a variety of activities; they engineer the environment to make sure students sample a variety of activities. There is a difference.

Once you have decided that you like the “feel” of a school, examine the school from a scientific lens, asking the following questions:

List of 5 items.

6. Can the teachers articulate how they use research-based best practices?

Can they provide a specific example they are currently using? This should give you a hint at how teachers incorporate new ideas and methods into their repertoire of instruction. Research-based methods are important.
7. How does the school monitor individual student progress?

Student growth is the outcome by which strong schools evaluate their instructional efforts. You want to make sure there is a system for tracking student growth and making quick adjustments. How do they ensure that highflier and struggling students both grow? Do all students receive quality feedback?
8. Does each child have the opportunity to participate equally?

All students, regardless of their achievement levels, need opportunities for practice, rather than sitting idly while one student responds. One thing that is easy to look for on your visit is when the teacher asks a question, how many children are able to respond? Savvy teachers have systems that allow all children to respond, not just the few who naturally volunteer.
9. Is the school’s approach student-centered?

What examples can the school provide? Look for a schedule that is best for students, classrooms that encourage choice and voice, and a model that promotes individualized student development.
10. What does the school do to build self-confidence and resilience in students?

This starts in the earliest years and carries through to their senior year. Elementary, middle, and high school are prime years for students to explore their interests and build their confidence for their time in college when they may have less support and attention given to them.

Trusting your gut is important when choosing a school, but hopefully you will consider the art and science of education as well.

About the Author

Dr. Kristen Ring serves as head of school of Hutchison, a nationally recognized all-girls PK2-12 school founded in 1902. To this role, Dr. Ring brings more than 20 years of experience as an educator, administrator, and leader. Prior to becoming head of school, she served as a senior administrator, teacher, and coach in private, independent schools in both Alabama and North Carolina. She began her career as an English teacher and in 2006 earned the distinguished Waddill Excellence in Teaching Award for exemplary classroom instruction.

Dr. Ring holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Master of Arts from Wake Forest University, where she played Division 1 Field Hockey as an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) scholar-athlete. She earned her Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership from High Point University.