Evaluating Public Schools

High school is an important time of life that sets the stage for the rest of a child’s academic and professional future. Simply sending your son or daughter to the high school down the street may work in some instances, but definitely not in all. The key to choosing the best high school for your child lies first in understanding your child’s specific needs, but it also requires you to learn about the various options available. To help you in this seemingly daunting task, we have 10 tips to help you choose the best fit in high schools for your child.

This video from Great Schools offers some tips on finding the right school.

Define Your Child’s Needs

Some children work better in a structured learning environment, while others thrive in classrooms that allow students to guide the process. Look at a school’s curriculum and disciplinary policies to determine whether the environment will be a good fit for your child. Education.com suggests specifically looking at factors like whether the school stresses group projects over individual assignments, homework policies, and discipline practices. Find out if the school is doing everything it can to help students learn, regardless of students’ backgrounds, disabilities and learning styles.

Determine Your Child’s Learning Style

Identify your child’s learning style, whether your child is a visual or auditory learner, and whether he works better in

When it comes to the education of our country’s children, there are many choices today. Whether a child has high academic potential, special needs, or an eye on a career track, schools across the country are ready to answer the call. Take a look at three categories of schools that strive to serve a select segment of our student population today.

Blue Ribbon Schools

In 1982, the Blue Ribbon School program was established by Terry Bell, the Education Secretary at the time. The purpose of the program was to raise the public school system to a new level by recognizing schools across the country that achieved high levels of performance and improvement. Now dubbed the National Blue Ribbon School Program, the system continues to draw attention to outstanding elementary, middle, and high schools in both the public and private sectors.

In order to be eligible for Blue Ribbon status, the Department of Education’s website states that schools must demonstrate one of the following:

• Outstanding academic performance, through standardized assessment test scores in math and reading
• Outstanding improvement in academic performance, again exemplified by state assessments in math and reading

Exemplary improving schools must also demonstrate a student population where at least 40 percent comes from disadvantaged backgrounds. Both public and private schools must follow similar performance criteria, but the nomination process is slightly different between the two. Public schools are nominated by a number of offices, including the Chief State School Officer,

The hurricane that ripped through the Northeast October 22 through November 2, 2012, left a trail of destruction that impacted every aspect of the lives of the residents there, including the children. Many students and teachers were left without a school to return to since the storm-ravaged school buildings to the point where they were not considered inhabitable. In addition to the challenges of the storm clean-up, schools that were currently being used as shelters had to find a way to allow students and strangers to live together harmoniously, at least for a short period of time. How did schools recover from unprecedented Hurricane Sandy? Very slowly, in some areas.

This video describes how Storm Sandy evolved.

Challenges Schools Faced

To understand the many challenges facing schools that were in the path of Hurricane Sandy, the Wall Street Journal went inside the thought process of one of New Jersey’s superintendents. Dr. James A. Crisfield, the superintendent of Milburn Township Public Schools, explained to the publication that many factors had to be considered before children could be allowed back into schools, including:

• Electricity - Many schools were still without power and they could not reopen until electricity was back on.
• Gasoline – Gasoline shortages across the region made it difficult to get sufficient emergency personnel and school buses running. In addition, faculty and administration were unable to make it to school due to fuel shortages.
• Damage

Presidential election season is in full swing, and the yard signs, bumper stickers, and campaign buttons prove it. Paraphernalia is one way Americans show their support for their favorite candidate, but as one high school student in Philadelphia found out, public support of a candidate doesn’t always go as planned. This student got more than she bargained for when she wore a pink Romney-Ryan t-shirt to school. She was publically humiliated and harassed for her choice – not by fellow students, but by her own teacher.

The Samantha Pawlucy Story

Samantha Pawlucy is a sophomore at Charles Carroll High School in the Philadelphia area. Pawlucy decided to wear her Romney-Ryan t-shirt to class on “dress-down” day when the shirt fit within the parameters of the school dress code. It was a daring thing to do in a community with one Republican for every six Democrats. However, Pawlucy had no idea just how traumatic the response to her attire would be.

Pawlucy’s geometry teacher, Lynette Gaymon, called attention to Pawlucy’s shirt during class. According to a report in the Examiner, Gaymon told Pawlucy to remove the shirt. When Pawlucy refused, Gaymon compared the wearing of that shirt to Gaymon coming to school sporting a Ku Klux Klan t-shirt. She explained that Charles Carroll High School was a “democratic” school, and then told Pawlucy to leave her classroom.

In this video, an attorney comes down hard on the teacher who was accused of bullying Samantha.

The U.S. Department of Education recently released its 2012 National Blue Ribbon Schools awards, which include 219 public and 50 private schools across the country. The National Blue Ribbon Schools program has been a mainstay of the education system in the U.S. for the past three decades, providing parents, students, and members of the community with information about the top-rated schools in the country. The awards are primarily intended to serve as an example and inspiration for the entire education system in the U.S.

Announcement of Awards Eagerly Anticipated

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently announced the recipients of the awards from Arlington Traditional Elementary School, one of the 2012 Blue Ribbon Schools, according to a report in the Washington Post. The program recognizes public and private primary and secondary schools that have demonstrated outstanding student achievement or improvement over the past academic year.

“Our nation has no greater responsibility than helping all children realize their full potential,” Secretary Duncan was reported by the Examiner as stating at the award presentation. “Schools honored with the National Blue Ribbon Schools award are committed to accelerating student achievement and preparing students for success in college and careers. Their work reflects the conviction that every child has promise and that education is the surest pathway to a strong, secure future.”

In this video, Superintendent Dr. Pat Murphy talks with Principal Holly Hawthorne of Arlington Traditional School about the school's 2012 Blue Ribbon School selection by the U.S. Department