Beginning Educator for 3/9

A few weeks ago there was an article in The New York Times about a study showing that, while students from private schools, including charter schools, generally outperform students in public schools, if those results are adjusted for family income, they are reversed. In other words, if the student body of Saint Paul¹s School walked down the street to Concord High School, and vice versa, Concord High¹s test scores would outstrip those of the venerable prep school.
     This should come as no surprise. Research has consistently shown that the best predictor of a student¹s success is the income and educational level of his or her parents. There are exceptions, of course; I did well in school although we were not wealthy and neither of my parents went to college. There are also examples of students who fail in spite of the best advantages.
     But the fact remains: students whose parents are well-educated and financially secure enough to supply their child with preschool experience, books, computers, internet access, summer enrichment programs and other educational resources do better in school than those whose parents are too poor or too busy making a living to help out.
     On a local level, I see evidence of this every time we have an Open House at ConVal, which we did last week. I came out of it, as I always do, with mixed feelings. I¹m elated by the excitement of talking about the job and the subject I love. It¹s a great opportunity to thank parents for their hard work and their commitment to public schooling. It¹s also depressing to see so few of the parents whose kids are not succeeding.
     The freshman honors English class I co-teach with Lisa Cochran has 45 students in all. We expected a big turnout, and we got one: probably 50 parents. The timing was dicey. We had just handed back the first writing assignment. As an experiment, we had asked the students to evaluate their own work before handing it in, and the lowest self-assessment I saw in my half of the class was 87. That happened to be the highest grade I gave out. The rest were 20 to 30 points lower than the self-assessment, possibly the lowest grades these students had ever received. Lisa¹s results were virtually identical.
     So we were braced for a parental firestorm. It never came. They were friendly and supportive. There were some questions about our methods, but they were reasonable and polite.
     The next class was Journalism: 20 students, sophomores to seniors, from all levels of educational attainment. Three parents showed up, representing two students. They were nice people, their students are doing well, and we had a good talk. Five of the students in that class are currently failing the course, but they were not represented.
     The third class was another freshman English class, but this one is not the honors group.  It¹s just 21 nice kids, covering the gamut from enthusiasm to indifference. Again, we had a lovely  talk. Five parents or relatives were there, representing three students.
     I know that failing to come to Open House does not make one a bad parent, any more than showing up qualifies one for sainthood. There are dozens of good reasons why overworked parents might not want to rush through dinner and get dressed up to go back to high school for a couple of hours. And it¹s not like Open House is much of an opportunity for serious discussion of a student¹s problems and prospects: it¹s a dog-and-pony show.
     But the message I want to send to parents is this: your child¹s education, in a public school, will be exactly as good as you are willing to make it. It¹s not something teachers do to your child. It¹s something you, the teacher, and most important, the child, do together.