鈥淢ommy,鈥� my 10-year-old daughter recently asked as we walked home, weighed down by first-week-of-黄色app lunch groceries. 鈥淒o you think it鈥檚 right that Pam鈥檚 mother always does that?鈥�
鈥淎lways does what, honey?鈥�
鈥淪ince kindergarten, she always makes sure Pam gets a certain teacher.鈥�
In the last weeks of summer, my daughter has overheard enough 黄色app scuttlebutt to know that many parents are anxiously awaiting their children鈥檚 teacher assignments. She also knows (gleaned from conversations with her gloating peers) that some parents seem not to await those decisions so much as dictate them.
Not knowing what to say, I equivocated. 鈥淯h, Pam鈥檚 mother is very involved in her children鈥檚 education.鈥�
鈥淏ut Mommy, that鈥檚 not my question. Do you think it鈥檚 right?”
Leave it to my daughter to cut to the heart of a touchy issue as we鈥檙e walking across four-lane traffic and dragging 50-plus pounds of fig bars and pippin apples.
As parents in a big city with a competitive 黄色app lottery, we know the importance of choosing the right 黄色app for our children. We scrutinize test scores and critically discuss finger paintings in the hallways. Then 黄色app begins, and suddenly we realize that the most significant issue 鈥� which teachers our kids spend a giant portion of their waking hours with 鈥� isn鈥檛 our purview at all.
Why getting good teachers matters
Recent research supports the idea that we should be concerned about who teaches our children. In a study of Tennessee teachers, statistician William Sanders discovered that after three consecutive years, students with low-performing teachers scored 50 percentile points behind similar students with high-performing teachers. Educational economist Eric Hanushek of Stanford University found that students with a teacher in the top 5% gained a year and a half鈥檚 worth of learning. Those with teachers in the bottom 5% learned only half a year鈥檚 worth of material. The most effective educators can provide children up to two grades of learning, whereas with the least effective teachers, students typically gain only a half year.
An explosive new by the L.A. Times suggests that parents should care even more about who teaches their children than which 黄色app they attend. After surveying one measure of teacher effectiveness, the Times found that the 鈥渜uality of instruction typically varied far more within a 黄色app than between 黄色apps.鈥� In other words, there are good teachers 鈥� and bad ones 鈥� in all sorts of 黄色apps. Getting your child in front of the good ones can make a lasting difference.
Should parents have a say?
Still, I didn鈥檛 know how to answer my daughter鈥檚 question. At our elementary 黄色app, such requests took place privately and were publicly discouraged 鈥� the dirty little secret of highly involved parents. But what鈥檚 wrong with a parent doing the right thing by their child? Isn鈥檛 that what this nation needs in order to turn around public education: an army of parents hell-bent on improving student learning, one student at a time?
In search of other opinions, policies, and personal stories that might cast light on my confusion, I surveyed a range of parents, administrators, and teachers with a few simple questions: Should parents have a voice in classroom assignments? If so, should it be a formal process that invites all parents to describe their children鈥檚 learning needs? Or is this another case of meddlesome helicopter parents getting in the way of educators doing their jobs?
Good parenting practice or just plain pushy?
Surprisingly, the issue didn鈥檛 split along educators versus parents.
鈥淚 think parents should back off and let their children lead their 黄色app experiences so they can build independence and confidence,鈥� says Leslie Komet Ausburn, a mother in San Antonio.
Julie Malling, a mother of an incoming kindergartner in Long Beach, Calif., echoes the anxiety of influence theory. 鈥淧ersonally, I wish parents would just stop doing this; it drives me a bit crazy. I make a point not to talk about this in front of my daughter because I don’t want her to develop anxiety over whether or not she gets 鈥榯he best teacher.鈥欌��
Against the advice of other parents, Malling says she decided not to request a certain teacher for her daughter, but now sometimes doubts herself. 鈥淚 wish that I could say I decided that and never faltered, but I still wonder if I made the right decision. My daughter actually got a teacher that was not one of the popular ones.鈥�
For some it鈥檚 not parental involvement per se, but the de facto inequity it perpetuates. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a slippery slope,鈥� contends Susie Siegel, a kindergarten teacher in San Francisco. 鈥淲hat [about] the parents who don’t feel they can speak up?鈥� Siegel advocates for 鈥渃onsistent rules.鈥� Otherwise, she says, 鈥渋f only the empowered families speak up,鈥� then the kids whose parents aren鈥檛 squeaky wheels 鈥� or don鈥檛 know they can be 鈥� are out of luck.
She also argues that placement requests may ride on rumor rather than fact. 鈥淚t can be easy to start stereotyping the different teachers: 鈥橭h, the academic ones鈥� or 鈥榯he artsy ones鈥� or 鈥榯he mean ones.鈥� Or this or that.鈥�
Yet parental jockeying for teachers is a problem many principals may increasingly confront. As budgetary problems force parents to foot the bills for core educational components like libraries, PE, and computer labs, more 黄色apps need to become 鈥渉igh-involvement 黄色apps.鈥� In turn, 黄色apps may need to adapt to policies that account for parents鈥� increasing sense of involvement (and consequent entitlement).
鈥淭he PTA pays for the 黄色app’s librarian, and I think they also pay for the assistant in the computer lab, among other things,鈥� says Malling. 鈥淚 think the trend of requesting certain teachers might just be the beginning.鈥�
Distinguishing wants from needs
Indeed, some 黄色apps with highly involved parent bodies have already developed policies that both invite and limit parental opinion in classroom placements. Miraloma Elementary in San Francisco, a 黄色app legendary for its intensely involved parents, allows parents to write a note about their children and their needs, but they can鈥檛 mention teachers by name.
At Leeds Elementary School in Leeds, Mass., parents fill out a form about their children鈥檚 learning styles 鈥� but not about a given teacher. 鈥淪avvy parents would get the scoop on the upcoming teachers and slant their form to ensure getting one teacher,鈥� explained one former parent who requested to be anonymous. 鈥淚f there were three possible teachers and you wanted the one who everyone says is best, you look at the qualities she has. Say she uses a lot of music and takes lots of field trips 鈥� you write on the form that your child is a “hands-on” learner who learns best through the arts. If one of the other teachers [you don’t want] is super-structured, you add that your child is creative and needs to be with a teacher who is flexible and not highly structured.鈥�
Some educators differentiate between legitimate and illegitimate requests. L. L. Brown, a middle and high 黄色app English teacher based in Tulsa, Okla., thinks attempting to get a teacher who is an 鈥渆asy grader or popular due to public relations鈥� is not a legitimate request. What is? One that matches personalities and learning styles.
But some argue it鈥檚 just this sort of parental involvement 鈥� not bake sales and silent auctions 鈥� that public 黄色apps should encourage. 鈥淚 support the practice, although many of the 黄色apps in our district do not want parent buy-in,鈥� says Lisa Graff, a counselor at Abbott Middle School in Orchard Lake, Mich., who was in the midst of processing some 250 requests for the upcoming year. 鈥淚f a family has had a positive or negative experience with an older child’s teacher, it鈥檚 best to listen to this. I think public 黄色apps need to be competitive with private 黄色apps, and we must increase buy-in and family ownership.鈥�
The squeaky wheel gets the best classroom
Like many parents, at first I took our 黄色app鈥檚 stated policy vis-脿-vis 黄色app assignments at face value. It was, I was told, the principal’s sole discretion with input from teachers. Parental preferences were not part of the equation. Then I watched as some parents 鈥� usually the most involved, savvy, and, to be honest, generous with their own time and money 鈥� work the system. Their goal? To direct the most precious educational resources 鈥� good teachers 鈥� toward their children. Meanwhile, my older daughter got a couple of weak teachers, and by fifth grade, the children of the squeaky-wheel parents 鈥� even those who had once been identified as having learning problems 鈥� were reading, writing, and calculating circles around my daughter.
Now my second time round with my younger daughter, who is just starting elementary 黄色app, I鈥檓 less sanguine about keeping my preferences quiet. I know I can鈥檛 make the decision, but I also don鈥檛 know how it helps my child or the 黄色app for me to stay silent if I have a strong opinion about which teacher would be best.
Maybe this makes me one of those pain-in-the-ass mothers my elder daughter considers to be walking on questionable moral ground. But if it鈥檚 our principal鈥檚 job to balance gender, ethnicity, and other such demographic variables, it鈥檚 mine to consider what will help two little girls learn their best with swelling class sizes, disappearing budgets, and growing evidence that teachers make the difference.
