How do parents find a good school? Not only are public schools crippled by dozens of bad ideas. The schools seem intentionally designed so that parents can't understand what’s really going on inside the classrooms. Probably it’s more practical to stay alert for the danger signs that can be observed from a distance. Here’s a checklist of the top eight signals that you don’t want your child in this school:
1) READING: The most important skill is reading. If you hear any mention of Whole Words, Sight Words, Dolch Words, Fry Words. Balanced Literacy, run the other way. English is in alphabetic/phonetic language. Should be taught phonetically. Children must immediately learn the alphabet. That letters stand for sounds. (There seem to be five or 10 good phonics programs available. I’m not convinced the small differences matter. What’s been killing us is this one big difference: teaching basic alphabetic information or NOT teaching it. Any synthetic phonics program, mixed with poetry, song. A light touch, seems to do the trick. Advocates of phonics report that virtually all their students learn to read by age 7. Advocates of Whole Word say children should memorise a few hundred words each year, in which case they’ll be effectively illiterate through high school.)
2) MATH: The next most important thing is arithmetic. If you hear any mention of Reform Math, run the other way. (Reform Math is an umbrella term for at least 10 different programs, with names such as Everyday Math, Connected Math, MathLand, TERC, CPM, etc.) These programs tend to push advanced concepts at children who don’t even know how to add 10 and 16. These programs like to use obscure methods and algorithms so that children end up confused and scattered. The proper goal is that children gain mastery of basic arithmetic. Example, easily adding and subtracting one- and two-digit numbers. Then they move on to multiplying and dividing one- and two-digit numbers. There should be no use of calculators, no “spiraling”. About from topic to topic, no mention of college-level concepts.
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