What are some suggestions you have to improve your school district?

Question

I'm writing my own plan for a school district. I'd love to hear opinions from students, teachers, and parents alike. What are some things you like about the district you are in and what are some things you would change?

Answer 1

Create opportunities for communication between all the members of the staff, faculty, and administration.

The bus drivers have information that would be useful to the classroom teachers who have information that would be useful to the special ed teachers who have information that would be useful to the principal who has information that would be useful to the janitors who have information to the coaches who have information that would be useful to the cafeteria workers who have information that would be useful to the bus drivers.

Find ways for these people to talk to each other.
Be open-minded and creative.
Meetings are OK, but casual conversations about students, students needs, what is being done, what needs to be done, and how to do things better are much more useful.

Eating lunch together was by far the best thing that ever happened for professional development in our school. Ideas about students and methods were shared in a relaxed atmosphere, along with debates over gun control, sports uniforms, and the best reality TV shows. In this atmosphere people were comfortable asking for advice and sharing ideas.

Look for things that are preventing communication and change them.
Be open-minded and creative.

At our school, the largest damage was done by a cafeteria policy and architecture. The cafeteria quit allowing teachers to get free refills of iced tea. This made many people mad and they quit eating in the cafeteria. Before this, most people brought their lunch from home but ate it in the cafeteria for the comradery and conversation.
The teachers moved to the teacher's break room but it was not large enough for everyone, so the coaches went to their fieldhouse to eat. Within just two years the tension between coaches and non-coaches, which previously had been largely alleviated by the daily opportunity for communication, developed into a us-versus-them mentality that undermined everyone's efforts to do the best for the students and student-athletes.

Create opportunities for people to talk to each other.
Include everyone involved in the school.
The cross-pollination of ideas will benefit everyone, especially the students.

Answer 2

The best way to improve a school district is to make the parents feel like they are a part of the process and not feel like they are intruding on the teachers' feet by being concerned about their children. Also encourage the students and parents to use their local public libraries and to become Friends of the Library in their communities. Strong involvement with the PTO and after school programs and activities are a must. Finally, a community center that is strictly for teens, that is theirs alone, a place where they can come and just be is a must.

Answer 3

Hire more personnel. The days of 27 - 32 to a class must end. Every study you look at shows that the smaller the class size, the higher student achievement is. If our country, not just my district, would act on this the results would be incredible. Reduce that number to 22-25 max., sit back and watch the results. It would cost millions(no, billions) to do nationwide, but tell me that the education of our nation's future is something you can put a price tag on.

Answer 4

You should watch "the Principal" and "Jaime Escalante's" Movie. Eventhough they're movies (1 is actually based on real life), they both teach one thing; perceverance.I think teachers give up on their students too easily and they forget that they are inexperienced kids. A teacher will be lucky enough to find a student who's well applied to school, and when they do, they'll focus most of their attention on them, thinking that they can make him a future doctor or lawyer, which may be true, but the ones who really need to be more focused on are the ones that are the opposite, THOSE really need help. I believe that even the most unapplied students have the potential of becoming future professionals, same as a "smart" one. I was one of them. And teachers never wanted to help me because they thought I was a lost case, and said I would never graduate. Well not only did I graduate high school , but I attended college and got my bachelors dergree in Radiology and was 1 of 4 students in the whole entire school to receive a 4.0 GPA award in college.