School Quality | Episode 66

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In this episode of Falling for Learning Podcast, TD Flenaugh discusses a parent's concern about their children's school, highlighting issues such as lack of teacher assistants, small classrooms, and low school ratings. Flenaugh advises parents to follow the chain of command: teacher, school leadership, and district as well as visiting the school and conducting classroom observations. She emphasizes the importance of fun and engaging activities and suggests exploring alternative schools or programs if necessary. Flenaugh also shares personal experiences and resources. She stresses the need for parents to be proactive and supportive in their children's education.

RESOURCES

Related Falling for Learning Podcast Episodes
Choosing the Right School for Your Child | Episode 39
Build a Strong Foundation | Episode 46

Public School Resources
https://www.greatschools.org/
California Schools Dashboard

Private School Resources
A Better Chance
The Alliance



#SchoolChoice #EducationMatters #School Quality

Transcript

TD Flenaugh: 0:00

Today, we are going to respond directly to a viewer who sent in a letter, an email about a challenge that they're having with their children's school. And so this takes us to the school quality question, and you don't want to miss this episode, because I'm going to give you the details needed to make sure that you can choose the right school by measuring the quality of the school. Okay, so some special tips that you may not hear anywhere else. Hi, thank you so much for joining the following for learning podcast. We have this podcast to help parents and caregivers with having the resources, strategies and tools needed to make sure that their children are on track for learning and to stay on track for success. You thank you so much for being here today. This is actually, actually episode 66 so let me tell you about what's been going on. You anyway, so there is a little gray here, so I'm pointing it out to you, so you don't need to point it out to yourself, so you'll realize I got on like a tank top, because guess what? I was supposed to work out, and I haven't done it yet. This is day 90 of 90, so I'm celebrating a little bit, taking it easy. This morning, started my physical therapy. So very excited. But let's get down to the real deal, why we're all here. So here is a letter, and this is one of the first was the second. And I addressed one on my well educated Wednesdays in episode one, season one, right? But this one is a really an exciting one, because it's from a parent and an educator. And the podcast, of course, is for parents, but also educators. And this is a combination a parent educator about her children's school. So let's talk about it. Let's read the letter so you understand what's what we're dealing with, and then we can talk about all the insights that we could have. Okay, I'm trying to look for a good school for my kiddos to attend. My kiddos are assigned to attend the Southern California district, and I can't believe how behind they seem to be. The district does not believe in teacher's assistance, also known as TAs not unless it's for a special education class. I have written concerns and made phone calls to people in the district, and their response was that it's been many years since they've had any teachers assistance in a regular education class. My kiddos are in Kinder class of 26 the class is in a bungalow with hardly any space and one kitchen center and a partial bookcase. So yeah, every day I ask my children to tell me at least one fun thing they did at school, and they have nothing to say. It really makes me sad to see this, because they're in perfect age. They are in the perfect age get excited about learning. They are five year olds full of curiosity and enthusiasm, but their Spark is dormant. I was giving the school a chance, but then I noticed how on the website, greatschools.org This school has an overall score of two out of 10. Now, this is a very lengthy letter, but I'm just going to stop it there, and then we're going to add more details and get into some action steps that we could take as we move forward. So this parent has done a lot of things right by contacting the district, contacting the school, and so that, you know, these are great moves that we can make. So always remember that everyone basically has someone that they're accountable to some kind of boss or something. So you could talk start at the school level, and then you could move to the district level and get some answers. And so, you know, she sees that the teacher needs more support in multiple ways, right? One, in the form of a teacher's assistant some ideas about how to make the learning fun and engaging. And, you know, since it's a such a large class size, 26 for kindergarteners, you know, she's really concerned about it. And so what we're going to talk about, first of all is, you know, of course. Course, you want to talk to the teacher about these issues. A ta is not a teacher issue. So she did the right thing by talking to the school or the principal about it, and then going to the district to see if there was something to be done, because this is a large class size for kindergartners, and so I really like that. You know, she's going out and she is looking for answers, and she is going up the chain of command trying to get that answers. And I would encourage everyone to do that. So right away, one of the things, because she is both a teacher and an educator and a parent that she could think about ways. And I've done this myself. So everything I'm going to talk to you about are things that I've done myself, and I know that can be effective. It's talk to the teacher about coming in now, some people are like, Wait a minute. I'm supposed to go on my day off or whatever. There is legislation. I'm going to put it in the show notes for you where you are allowed to, especially as educators, be out and get permission to leave and go and support your child at school, right? And that's one of the things that as educators and parents, sometimes you hold this guilt because you're supposed to be there at before the school day begins. You're supposed to be there after the school day ends. And then our kids, on the other hand, I have to get someone else to pick her up and drop her off and all that. So there's a little guilt there, because your child isn't getting it done. And I did make a mistake when my dad a daughter was in kindergarten, and I actually did not go to, oh, this is sad to say. I did not drop her off at her first day of kindergarten. Instead, I let her caretaker do that like she had a babysitter, and she was very upset, and when it was time for her Christmas program, she really, at five years old, really was like, you have to be there. You've got to be there, because they're going to ask, is that your mom? Is that your mom? Who's your mom? So she basically was acting out to me, the things that people said to her. And, you know, I had my child young, so there's a mistake that I made, and that's one of them. I was at school that day. My school year was year round, and I went ahead and went to work and had someone drop her off for the first day, not thinking about how important that was. So it's a mess, and I do reflect on that. I mean, I actually was the person who dropped my my not my daughter, my younger sister, off on the first day of school as well, and there were no parents. So I don't, I guess I minimize the importance of it. And so that's important to note, like some of those things that may have happened when you were younger, why it may not be a good idea. So getting back to the issue at hand, we have to consider what we can do, right? So one thing you could do is think about fun activities and actually use those fun activities as a way for you to come in and do something with a teacher. And I've been a new teacher. I've even when I wasn't a brand new teacher, I've been new to an area like I came to middle school from elementary and one of the parents was an educator, and she was saying, how, you know, the way I was teaching English, I mean, history was not very engaging. It was just like reading the book, taking notes, kind of doing a lecture about what the content was, instead of actually having hands on activities with the kids related to the ancient history that they were learning about. Yes, so think about if you could buy some materials or talk to the teacher and collaborate so that there are fun and engaging activities for your kids, and they should be open, and of course, your her children are in kindergarten, so we're this is also kind of a test to see if the teacher's open and that you could work with them. Because part of what we were talking about is sometimes you just got to work with what you have, right? And you may not want to take them out in the middle of the year, and you're going to just try to ride this year out. This is what you can do. Give them some activities, give them some resources, even maybe ask them what they're interested in having, so that you can get it for them. So this is a way to circumvent some of the issues of just pulling them out of school. Can I just pause and say how irritated I am right now, guys, I'm at home in my home studio, which is in the dining room, and I had. Printed something before I forget my podcast, my printer automatically resets make noises, and then I have washed some clothes, and that's making noises. So if you hear noises, I mean, this is part of the natural sounds of life. I can't just keep paws. We gotta move one, yes. Anyway, not that you know that I'm pausing, but I'm telling you, that's what I'm doing anyway. So let's go ahead and read a little bit more about this letter the district. So I'll go over an area I was giving this school a chance, but then I noticed how the on the in the website, grade schools.org This school has an overall score of two out of 10. The district is not willing to send extra support like TAs to help the teachers. The person from the district said that parents are very involved, and the teachers usually train them to do small centers so the teacher can focus on small group instruction. I don't know but that, but to me, that seems wrong. How can a parent who only needs a TB test be a volunteer to be equivalent to a college student teacher's assistant? And here she's referring to when you're a cop. You know the requisite, the prerequisites for being a teacher's assistant to have some kind of college and I think it has to be in child development or something like that, so you have to have some level of education. And this is so true, like sometimes parents are the ones to fill in gaps at schools. And that's not necessarily wrong. It does say that there's some training there. And of course, we don't know what the quality of that training is, so definitely it is questionable. And then teachers assistants, you know their employees, they have certain job qualifications and a vetting process to go through, besides just getting a TA and saying, I have a kid in this school. So this brings me to my next point. Is coming to visit schools so and I know in Southern California, in at least a district that I know about you, are required, you are able to go visit schools, public schools I'm talking about, I'm talking about public schools that are funded by taxpayer dollars. They are public, which means that you can go in, show them your ID and go and visit classes. Now, what you can't do is go in and disrupt the class in the middle of the class, try to talk to the teacher and have a discussion or a conference with the teacher whenever you want. But actually you don't even need a kid or have a prospective kid that is going to be attending that school to come in, anyone in the public can come and visit a school. You need to follow certain rules and guidelines. The time limit may be 20 minutes, but this is how I found this out. Anyway. I found this out because my daughter has some challenges in elementary school. One year was particularly problematic, and I had already had changed her class from a teacher who kept calling her the wrong name, and you know, NIA only has a two syllable name. As a person whose name is Ty Isha, I wanted it to be a short and sweet name, and so it was on purpose, obviously mispronouncing her name. Anyway, I had her move from that teacher, and that's a whole nother podcast episode. But then she was, I was getting a lot of calm, you know, like emails, messages, phone calls, whatever that Nia was throwing fits or just having issues, right? And it's not that she was without behavior issues, but what she would say to me seemed very problematic. Now, I'm not a person that's just going to believe everything my daughter says, and I'm not a person that's going to believe everything the teacher says. So I do my investigating, okay, and the way that I did that always, I came and visited the class. Now I highly recommend parents come and visit their child's class. And I also brought it up because you can also, before you put your child in a in a school, visit the school before your child attends there. And we'll talk about ways to do that. Of course, you could just come anytime you want, according to certain legislation and bulletins in a public school. School and policies, you're able to do that, but there's other ways to do it too, and we'll go into that soon. But to really drive in this point is that when I visited my daughter's classroom, so the thing she was telling me, the teacher was saying, well, she's yelling out a lot when it's time to come into the carpet. She's not coming to the carpet. You know, she's just really, you know, misbehaving, throwing fits again. She was using very inappropriate language. You don't usually say throw fits. You'd be very specific. She's yelling. She's throwing herself on the floor. She's banging on tables, whatever is specifically happening, instead of naming it, like labeling it, but that's neither here or there. 75% of children don't know how to write. Well, add that to the fact that so many people out there are trying to silence the voices of those who have been oppressed and trying to prevent them from telling their story. Who's going to tell your story, if your child doesn't know how to write. Well, I have two books to address this issue, the rewrite method and the rewrite method workbook. We tend to make sure that parents know what to do, that educators know what to do to get their children to write better and just not write better, but love to write. Make sure that your next generation could tell their story and they won't be silenced. Go to falling for learning.com today to purchase your set. But I want to come and see because my daughter would say, No, I I'm when I yell out, she has something to say, but the other kids yell out, she doesn't say anything. And then some people aren't on the carpet and then when I'm not on the carpet, she has a problem. So it sounded like she was biased against my daughter, but without knowing, I want to go and check it out myself. I went to the class and don't be you know, most of the time now, there are some exceptions. Your child is not going to be acting up like the teachers told them, but you're looking to see if any of what she's saying is true, like people are yelling out regularly, but when I yell out, there's a problem, right? Everyone's not on the carpet, but for whatever reason, she has a problem with me not being on the carpet, you know? So I'm looking for these inconsistencies, right? That I'm going to hold one child accountable, or maybe a couple children accountable, for following the rules, but other kids don't really have to. I don't give them the same consequence. I don't react to them the same way when they don't follow it. I came and visited the classroom, and the reason why I know they tried to turn me away again. I told them that I worked at a school, and they tried to be like, whatever, you can't come my principal. I told him about my Papas, and my principal said, no, let me give you the bulletin. You can go and visit the class. You can go and visit you can't interview the you know, talk to the teacher. You can't interrupt the class, but you can go and visit. Anybody could go visit. So she told me, Anne gave me the bulletin, and so I pushed against them. When I came back to school, said, No, I'm gonna go visit my child's classroom. If you're saying she's having an issue, I need to see what is happening in the class. And sure enough, I went in and exactly what my daughter said, there was a girl who was constantly interrupting the teacher, and the teacher just responded. So I remember the conversation. So the teacher was like, Guys, we're going to write a story, and the girl, and this the teacher in front of class, we're going to write a story. And then the kid, the girl says, Oh, well, can I write a story about princess? And she's like, okay, yes, yes, you can do that. So she responded. Then she's like, Okay, you need to have a main character, one main character. Oh, can I have two? Can I have two main characters? The girl yells out again, yes, you could have two main care. Okay, okay, you can't so again, by the time the teacher got through these instructions, we're just to write a story, main character, a setting, a conflict, every detail that the teacher gave, the child interrupted and had a question about how she wanted to do it, and the teacher responded favorably. Didn't ever say, please stop interrupting. Let me finish. First, nothing. Of course, my daughter wasn't acting up, but she was consistent with, what. How are you going to tell me that this kid there, my child, is yelling out in class, not raising her hand, and that's disruptive. And I see this child do it so much. I'm so irritated. I was irritated by the amount of times that this girl had interrupted the teacher. The teacher didn't seem bothered, and if that's how she runs her class, fine, but don't call me and tell me. That my child, my black child, right? And you could see some racial differences there, right is causing problems when you don't enforce the rule. So you're calling me to enforce a rule against my one child, and I don't know if she already had a bias against my daughter, because I moved her from another class because of what that teacher was doing, not because the teacher, you know, not because she was having behavior problems, but my daughter was telling me, but sometimes teachers have a bias against your child because they think they know you know what happened or whatever. So it was really problematic for her. She was very upset, you know, I really had to spend some special time with her because she was being treated unfairly in that classroom based on the teacher's words and me going to see time to go to the carpet. Half of the kids are on the carpet. Half of them weren't. I don't understand why they weren't on the carpet. It wasn't clear. It didn't say the kids who did this, they come on the carpet. It wasn't clear. So if she didn't get on the carpet, why would she get it in trouble? Why are you calling me about this? So again, do your investigating and look for those inconsistencies. Don't go up there and say, See, my child wasn't acting up, because that's silly. Most kids aren't going to act up in front of you, there are some exceptions, but most aren't. So go and see if there's actually inconsistencies in the way that they are enforcing rules and expectations in the classroom, because that's going to make a difference in what your complaint is. Okay. So let's get into the next part, where I was saying that you can go visit the classes in another formal way. Now I've worked for a principal where they did excellent recruiting, right, several, a couple different principals, so they had school tours so people could come visit. They had, like, fun days where you could get to know the staff and all kinds of things to entice people to come to the school. So you have to take advantage of those you know, get call the school like you could call the school around now and find out, did they do school tours, and when did they do them? And can you get on their mailing list and all of that, or you don't follow their website or see where it's going to be posted. So very important, be in the loop at the school. So if you're you know, scouting out a school or several schools, call them, see if you could get on their mailing list, email list, or whatever it is, to find out when school tours are happening or events are happening at the school. So you get to know the school, get to know the staff, and see what that environment is, seeing some consistency, right? So that is a formal way to do it, because they have lots of recruiting events and a lot of tours and all of that that you get to know about the school. They may have a harvest festival, they may have all these different events that you can get to know the climate of the school, and that is one high recommendation that I give for you that you want to do the year before. Now we know some parents out there, once they find out they're pregnant, they're like, where are they going to go to preschool? Let me sign them up now, you know, so they're on top of things. But obviously, if you're not, it's okay. These are some tips for getting your you together and making sure now, if it's we talked earlier about whether or not the school is going to work with you, right? You call it the district. You caught the you call the you know, talk to the teacher if the teacher's not willing to work with you and incorporate some fun learning or engaging activities or whatever it is, or even tell you what you're interested in getting, then Okay, going to principal and seeing what they can Get resources for the School of staffing in the district not working out. You're like, Okay, I got a jump ship at some point, my child has to go to another school. They have to do something that's better. Then you need to think about, you know, sometimes you have to go to your neighborhood school. There are choices that you could go to. So, like, some different districts have, like, a brochure and a lottery program to get into magnet programs. Magnet programs are established, were established originally for integration, and they have transportation for the children. And then there's magnet programs that also have a specialization. So it's maybe for the arts. It's for computers, technology, coding, computer science, architecture, there's film, there's all kinds of folk foci, right? Different type of areas of focus for different schools, and you can make. Choice, and it's early as elementary. And so look into to see if your district offers like choice schools, even advanced level schools for your child, because that gives you some extra flexibility. Obviously, you could take your child to a private school, enroll them in those programs. And I also will put in the notes, which I've put in before some programs that you can maybe get your child into a scholarship program for certain private schools. I had a guest before, and the link will be in the show notes about how she got her children to private school and how that sent them on, you know, change their trajectory in, you know, they're already on a good trajectory, but this was a little bit more upper echelon, you know. And so the other thing that I want to say is, this is what some people don't know. So this is like lean in, is that, you know, you can sometimes get a permit based on your job, right, if you like the area that you work on in, or you have a better fit for a school in the area you work in, you possibly can get a permit based on your work. This is close to my job. I want my child here. I could come and get them and all of that. Another thing that you could do is have a permit based on where the location of your caregiver is. So if you have a parent or a choice babysitter or caregiver, and they live in another area, and you are spying the schools where they live, and they're good, and you've you've done your research, then you can go ahead and get try to get a permit based on where your caregiver is. Now, this is what I want to say. And again, another one of my guest has talked about this before, just because a school has all these accolades and awards and all of these things high achieving, it does not mean it's the right fit for your child, just like I was telling you about how it might be an arts school, right? And you're filling out that choice brochure, that magnet program, you know, brochure, and getting your child into that, if you're not paying attention, you might realize you might not know, like, well, your child's actually just into sports. They don't, they don't like art, or they're not into art, or whatever. And they might, they just may not be a right fit on that campus for your child, right? There's certain clicks, and just they can't find their people in certain places, so it's just not the right fit. So you can't just set it and forget it right? It wouldn't be, wouldn't be great. Just take your child to that school, you know, pick them up, drop them off, and they're they're flourishing, everything's doing great. Now you may, you know, when you have multiple kids, and you know, you might just have that child, that only child, that is, that's, they're, they're great, they're doing great things. But a lot of us have to put in some work and some effort, some elbow grease, you know, to make sure our kids are on the right track. And that's what this podcast is for, right? So you really have to lean in and find out. Is this the right school for your child? Not that on greatschools.net, it says.org It says this rating. But what does it offer for your child? If you have a, you know, a prime teacher that you love, there you're working with them. It may be a two out of 10 school. But you may have a 10 out of 10 teacher and that works for you, or a set of 10 out of 10 teachers that you can work for, that that works for you and your child's flourishing, right? Like it may work for you and I, you know, so you gotta figure that out. And then if you have multiple kids, it may not be the same for every child, so you gotta you don't try to say, Oh, well, this one was in soccer, and I'm gonna put him in soccer. You could try it, but don't be surprised if it doesn't work. That all your kids don't want to play soccer. They may, but they may not. And you have to be open to listening to that. Okay, just, you know, be about business. Now here's another thing, if you can, you may want to get a job at the school, because I have definitely had my child at school with me, especially when she was having some challenges that third grade year. She certainly did end up coming to my school with me because I could watch and support her. And of course, I was all up in it. I wasn't setting them for getting no education. We were working at home. We were working at school. I was following up with a teacher, trying to help her get what she needed. And you know it, you know you just have to lean in. In those times when you see your child struggling and needing support, moving them might be something get. Counseling, maybe something, you working less, you know, deciding to lower your load your workload, which I did, just to make sure you give your child what they need, right? So it's really important that you really lean in on those times where you see there's something not quite right. What can I do? You uh, yeah. So you may have to use the trial and error to see if your child is doing well and what adjustments to make, but but the child will also be receptive when they see that you're working towards their them and trying to see how you could help them out. They're going to be very happy with you, and they're going to work with you, and you can do that. So I would encourage you, you know, think about these things that we've talked about, and think about, you know, ahead of time, how you could visit classes and schools, and, you know, all of it information is going to be in the show notes, so that you will have those resources that you need to start looking now, start getting on those lists, start figuring out if you can work with the teacher or the next teacher and whatever, and how it goes, and see if you are at a right fit, or this is a place that you just have to work with, and how you could could work with them to make the learning environment fun engaging, and they could get their optimal blessings and learning ability, and they're not missing opportunities. I really am glad that you joined us for our episode 66 of the following for learning podcast, I hope that you are doing something today, that your future adult children will thank you for thanks again for supporting the falling for learning podcast. New Episodes go live every Saturday at 5pm you can watch us on youtube.com, at falling for learning or listen on all major podcast platforms such as Apple, Google, Audible, Spotify and much more for more resources, visit falling in love with learning.com we really appreciate you. Have a wonderful week. Bye.