School Choice - What Makes a Good School?

"It is students' engagement in learning that matters - not superficial results on a website" - Chris Bonnor

In the article 'Good Schools Give a Hoot', the central topic is what makes schools "good" and in turn who should they be "good" for: students? parents? or the nation? This is an important current educational issue as parents are becoming very particular about the school they would like to send their children to, and at the same time, many schools are becoming selective and only demanding students that are gifted and talented.

I think that to define a "good school" with the absence of any faults would be extremely difficult. However, some of the main aspects of a good school should include: 
1. Good and productive teachers that know their students and their subject content, who are themselves learners and work alongside colleagues to improve practice across the school.
2. A positive teaching environment where all students are surrounded by positive relationships, and are thus encouraged to participate in all classroom activities.
3. The promotion of tolerance and acceptance of culture, heritage, and religion among staff and students, as well as anti-bullying and discrimination instructions.
4. The development of an intellectual quality that produces deep understanding of concepts, creative, communicative, and critical skills and ideas.

Chris Bonnor states that: "most schools teach the same centralised curriculum with similarly trained teachers catering for mainstream students...where effective teaching and authentic learning are nurtured and constantly developed to help students achieve". Theoretically, because of this, he argues that any school has the ability to be a good school, and I support this argument completely however, despite whether the school is "good" or not, what really concerns parents is the reputation of the school. Humans' primitive demand is to always want the best quality of anything and this idea is regurgitated when parents school hunt for the best schools to send their children to. 

In 'Going Public: Education Policy and Public Education in Australia', Jane Kenway makes a valid point as she states: "For students, a school's bad reputation often centres on drugs, alcohol, sexuality (girls' short skirts, and juvenile pregnancies), trouble makers, fighting and knives... But reputation is also intimately connected with the suburb and its associated habits and styles of consumption, as those outside this suburb imply that suburbs have 'sign value'". This is a valid argument that is also reflected in the way that parents depict schools, however parents tend to rely on reputation through research and they look for aspects such as the academic levels of student achievement, the school's sense of discipline, test results that show where the school sits in relation to other schools, and the kind of children that are already enrolled at the school. All this information can be extracted from the MySchool website, but as Kenway also argues: "The talk among parents and particularly students; the rumours and gossip; the exaggerations; and the innuendo are what makes and breaks the reputation of the school". 

Chris Bonnor argues that in the process of school hunting by relying on reputation and results: "we equate the achievement of students with the achievement of their school - and cite each school's alleged good or bad features as the root cause of success or failure". The problem with this is that a majority of the school achievement is created not by the school, but in the homes and neighbourhoods of the enrolled students. This is one of the reasons as to why many schools are choosing to be more selective of the students that they admit, and are only selecting gifted and talented students that will create a positive image for the school.

All in all, in relation to what makes a good school and how parents should decide, Chris Bonnor states that: "The challenge for parents is to discover the real depth of student engagement and learning. In the process they have to reserve judgment about such things as raw test scores, student ranks, neat and full workbooks, docile students in neat rows and hours of homework". 

I completely agree with this statement as I feel that parents should not spend their time researching the test results and overall reputation of a school to solely use that information to determine whether the school is right for their children. Instead, parents should be researching aspects such as whether the school has suitable facilities, productive and engaged teachers, a positive learning environment with positive relationships between peers and teachers, the promotion and development of creative and critical skills, tolerance and equality among students, what the motto, ideals and goals of the school are and in turn what the school attempts to achieve for its students. These are just a few aspects that I feel provide a decent foundation for a "good" school. 


References:

Chris Bonnor, (2012). 'Good Schools Give a Hoot'. [Online Article] retrieved from the Sydney Morning Herald Website: 
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/good-schools-give-a-hoot-20120715-223zb.html

Jane Kenway, (1998). 'Going Public: Education Policy and Public Education in Australia'. Chapter 5: Consuming children? Public education as a market commodity. pp. 52-54.