What are some effective strategies that I can take to get my first grade child in the highest quality teacher's classroom?

Question

My child is now in Kindergarten, and next year she will switch schools. I watched the movie Waiting for "Superman" and now I would like to know how I can influence the selection of a teacher (e.g. so that she get a teacher who has been teaching there for a while and is experienced).

1. What are some strategies I could use to influence the decision about which teacher winds up teaching my child?

2. How are teachers normally assigned?

3. What are tracks and in which grade are they typically introduced - at level, below level, above level?

4. Do schools try to mix the students so they end up with balanced groups, or do they purposefully put poor performers/best performers into one group?

Answer 1

Getting the "right" teacher has be important. I remember reading a study (NYTimes but couldn't find it to cite) showing that a poor teacher will cover 6 months of work in a year but a great teacher will cover 18 month's work.

Generally, we will ask around the school to get an idea of who the good teachers are.

Our experience has been:

• A teachers bad reputation can come from parents who didn't like them. We had one teacher thought to be a dud who turned out really well.
• Teachers with lots of experience can be duds too.
• The set of kids in the class is at least as important as the teacher. A good teacher may be assigned difficult students because they are good. A few problem or slow children can suck up all the teacher's time.
• Teachers come and go. You will get duds. You need to be actively involved in your child's education to make up the shortfall and to optimise their learning.
• Our school does not tell you who the teacher assigned is until the last day of the year, presumably so the parents can not whinge about who you got. They will rarely change the assignment once announced.
• Our school rotates the teachers through different grades so you can not necessarily guess who the teachers will be. Even the teachers do not know which grade they'll be teaching next year.
• There are 500+ kids at our school and every parent wants the good teachers.

My daughter is in grade 5 in our local public school. In grade 3, we submitted a letter to the principal to ask for a specific teacher who we heard was very good. We got that teacher, but we had a 1/3 chance of getter her anyway so I have no idea if the letter worked. In grade 5, we submitted a letter asking for a teacher experienced in dealing with gifted children since the set of teachers for that year was not known. In this case we did not get the teacher we would have expected.

Answer 2

This varies from county to county within states, and even from school to school within school districts. One of the most successful schools in the state I used to teach in purposely tracked kids once they left kindergarten and grouped them according to their academic performance. Children who needed extra help, while they were moved forward, were placed in the same classroom together to ensure they were given the extra help they needed and their teacher was able to differentiate his/her instruction effectively. The teacher assigned this class rotated each year so that the teacher avoided burn-out and so that the students never really knew which teacher was assigned the kids who needed that extra help who are so often labeled by other kids as "stupid" or "dumb". This continued certainly throughout elementary school, and the high school associated with school had a 99% graduation rate.

But that doesn't answer your questions. You need to go to the school your child is zoned for and talk directly to the principal. Call and schedule a meeting--don't just drop in. Principals are extremely busy--especially during the school year--and you want to make sure that a) the principal is there when you arrive (and not at a meeting at another school or the central office, for example) and b) you have the principal's undivided attention for the time you're there. You can ask things like, "How long have your 1st grade teachers been teaching?". If one's been teaching for 10 years and the other for 20, does it matter to you which teacher your daughter gets? Also, ask things like, "How long have they been teaching first grade?". It isn't uncommon for elementary school teachers to teach several grades throughout their teaching careers and there is a huge difference between teaching a 5th grader and a 1st grader. Ask what the typical school day is like.

Doing this will also give you an idea of the personality of the principal and the vibe of the school overall, and should allow you to express any concerns you have and ask any questions. You may not be able to influence the decision of which class your daughter is placed in, but you should hopefully come away more comfortable with the process.

Answer 3

I don't know if this works at all schools, but every year, my wife writes a letter to the registrar at our children's schools. She describes our children: their strengths, weaknesses and learning styles. It may be luck, but so far we seem to have gotten good teachers who were a good fit for our children.

Answer 4

In many schools you can't. You can try writing a letter before getting to the classroom (i.e. right now), but this is one area where you really don't a lot of control in most schools. That applies to both public and private schools.