Ingredients for a Great School

I know that my ideas about what one would find in a great school are not unique but I have been touring schools this year and have been so surprised to find that very few schools actually employ current methods and thinking about education. So, I hereby submit my list of ingredients for a great school. I hope my children have the opportunity to attend a school like this some day.


1. A clear mission and vision. A clear mission and vision are the steadying forces that guide a school. When a parent advocates for a special program or desired additions, the mission and vision can help a school decide whether these new additions make sense. Without them, schools try to become all things to all people and end up with frenetic programs. Be clear about what kind of school you are. If parents aren’t interested in what you offer, they will go somewhere else.

2. Faculty and staff who act with integrity. The adults in a school environment should be models for the students. It’s as simple as that.

3. Involved parents. There is such a thing as parents who are too involved. However, I have also seen the other extreme where a school has too little energy because of the lack of parental involvement. Parents are needed to help in classrooms, plan science fairs, bring in speakers, and create community events like the pancake breakfast. In this tough economic time, parents are also essential for raising money to bring programs to the school.

4. Respect for students. OK, doesn’t this seem obvious in a school? Recently a first grade boy asked the principal of his school for some new balls to use at recess. The balls were promised. Two weeks later the little boy still skipped to school each day, eager to see the new balls but they had yet to arrive. Adults who work in schools must always remember that they are creating an environment for little people. Things that may not matter much to us mean a lot to them. A gentle tone of voice, promises kept, a celebration of student work on the walls, all of these things mean a lot to a young child. They want to be proud of their school. They want to feel like they belong. They want to feel like they matter.

5. Teachers who are learners. Colleagues who want to learn from each other. I swim on an adult swim team. I am quite good at all the strokes but my backstroke has never been fast. I recently took a swim lesson to improve my technique. It was so hard for me to do all the things the coach was asking me to do. It was a great experience as a teacher, however, to be in that position again and realize how it feel to my students day after day as they try to do things that are challenging for them. In addition to empathy for our students’ experiences, teaching is a profession that is always changing. Teachers must continue learning to do their best to meet the needs of their students.

6. High expectations for students. Jaime Escalante and Erin Gruwell have proven that if we hold high expectations for students, they can do more than we have dreamed. Maintaining low expectations only ensures that our students achieve at a low level. Even high test scores do not mean that we can now sit back and relax. There is so much more to learn than those items that can be tested. We must expect that each student will move forward on their educational journey every day and we must create the conditions for that to happen.

7. Small enough class sizes that each teacher can truly know their students. A teacher cannot teach students whom they do not know. They need to know what their students already know about a topic under discussion. They need to know their students’ motivations for learning. They need to know a bit about what their students do outside of school. They will bring all this information to bear as they design the most effective lessons for these students. Without this information, the teaching will be flat and less effective.

8. Curriculum based on essential questions. If you haven’t yet read the work of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, do so. In their book, Understanding by Design, they lay out the simple, yet often ignored idea that teachers should be clear what they want their students to learn and work towards that end. They state that we cannot teach every fact or detail so we must teach larger enduring understandings which students can them use as a framework for understanding new ideas.


9. Creativity. In A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink advocates that we emphasize creativity in our classrooms. In the near future, jobs such as computer programming will be shipped overseas. What will be needed are people who can solve problems, work well with other people, and design new products and processes. We need to start teaching our students these skills when they are young. Everyone can fill in the blanks on a worksheet. Learning to use our creativity to solve problems takes more practice.

10. Differentiation. The best classrooms are those in which teachers are able to differentiate to meet the needs of different students all within the same room. It takes experience to do this. Without it, a group of students is always left out. This group is often the gifted students.

11. Something extra. Every school should offer something extra to its students. It could be a focus on science or a second language or a large arts program. It could be a focus on learning about the world or a focus on social and emotional learning. These things do not necessarily cost a lot of extra money but they do make the families feel like there is something special about their school. It helps families feel like there is a reason to be at that school rather than the school down the street.

12. Opportunities for inspiration. Authors who visit and share about their work. Conservationists who talk about their work with orangutans. Artists who show us how they create their paintings. A book arts class led by someone from the San Francisco Center for the book. A field trip to help at a shelter. All of these out-of-the-ordinary events feed the mind of a young child and open them up to possibilities. Last year my class was able to hear a conservationist speak. This inspired a group to have a bake sale to raise money for the orangutans. They decided this all on their own and with a little adult guidance, were able to pull it all off. We never know how these “extras” will resonate with the students. They might be the seed that blooms into something great later on.

13. Space. Children need lots of room to run and play. State regulations require a certain amount of outdoor space for children to play. School-imposed rules about the space, however, often leave children with little else to do than sit quietly. In addition to needing space to unleash one’s wiggles, children also need natural spaces. In Last Child in the Woods, Richard Love tells us about how children have lost their connection to nature and it is actually leading to increased levels of ADHD and depression. One school in Palo Alto has a whole garden and a farm. They are growing vegetables and welcoming bees into their hive. They have two goats, chickens, two sheep, and a duck. And yes, the rest of the playground is a blacktop playground but a corner of it has been cut out for the farm. At that school there is lots of room to connect with nature and lots of room for wiggling.