by Andrew Campanella

Millions of Americans this week are celebrating education reform across the country as part of National School Choice Week 2013, which shines a spotlight on the need for effective educational options for families.

With 3,500 independently planned events taking place during The Week, many families are celebrating the great school choices that they’ve made for their children. Other families are using The Week as an opportunity to demand greater access to better schools in places where educational options are limited. Still other families take advantage of the great school showcases during The Week to shop for new schools for their children.

This last benefit of National School Choice Week is especially critical for families in my home state of Florida, which offers a robust menu of options.

If you’re one of the millions of parents looking to make a change in their child’s education, here are five tips to consider in your search for your child’s next school:

1)    Start looking right now. It might seem like a good idea to wait to decide what school your child should attend in the 2013-14 school year. In reality, seats in great schools start filling up right now. If you’re unhappy with the school your child attends – regardless of what type of school it is – you need to start looking at your options immediately. Use National School Choice Week as your starting point (www.schoolchoiceweek.com)

2)    Research your options and make a list. No one is going to spoon feed you options – you need to exhaustively research the ones that you have. But here’s the good news: you do have these options, even if they seem limited. You also have your own unique criteria of what you’re looking for in a school – academics, safety, class sizes, values, teacher qualifications. Start reconciling your options with your needs by making a list of target schools. Identify your state’s open enrollment policy, which allows students to attend public schools outside of geographic boundaries. Then, identify nearby public charter schools, magnet schools (schools that focus on specific subject areas), and private schools. Don’t leave private schools off your list, even if you think you wont be able to afford tuition, you still might be eligible for a scholarship through a state scholarship program. And don’t forget online learning options and homeschooling – many families find that these options are incredibly beneficial.

3)    Get the facts on student achievement. After you make a list of potential schools, go to websites like GreatSchools.com, or to your state department of education’s website, to find out how your child’s target schools are performing. GreatSchools provides specific information on how schools fare on aggregate test scores in key areas like math and reading. No school is perfect, and some schools may be more effective than their test scores indicate. Above all else, look for a school with high academic performance.

4)    Visit schools and ask questions. You wouldn’t buy a car without test driving it first, or a house without going inside, so make sure you visit each of the schools that are on your target list. While you’re there, ask questions – Is the culture of the school one of high expectations? Do the adults in the building seem to enjoy being there? Are students in the classrooms engaged and well-behaved? Are they excited? Do you sense the expectation that every student in that school will be prepared for college or a career? Choose the school that answers these questions the way you want them to be answered.

5)    Talk to other parents. Ask parents of other students who attend your target schools about their children’s experiences there. You’ll want to ask specifically how the school handles parent involvement – the more of it the better. If parents are treated like a nuisance, consider staying away. Parental involvement is key to student success.

The more research you do, the better choices you can make and the more likely it is that you’ll be able to provide your child with a great educational environment. Don’t worry too much about what the school looks like on the outside – some of the most gleaming, state of the art schools have been known to post dismally low performance numbers. Worry instead about what’s on the inside of the school. You know your child best, and you are truly in the best position – better than anyone else – to decide what type of school your child should attend.

Andrew Campanella is the president of National School Choice Week, a grassroots coalition of parents, students, educators and community leaders that aims to shine a spotlight on the great school choice options benefiting our children.

The post How Parents Can Choose The Right School For Their Children appeared first on Education News.

2013′s National School Choice Week, looking to improve on last year’s growth, is taking the “national” part seriously. To promote the adoption of school choice policies around the country, advocates will be going on a whistle-stop train tour all over the country that will visit both coasts and everywhere in between.

In addition to the tour, over the course of the week 3,000+ independent events have already been scheduled, all with the aim of winning over more people in the fight to make the best educational options available to all American kids. The spotlight will shine especially brightly on organizations and schools that have embraced the school choice ethos and used it to start and grow a revolution in the US educational system.

The National School Choice Week Special — a historic railcar — will depart Los Angeles Union Station on January 25, 2013 and arrive in New York on February 2, 2013. Parents, students, community leaders, education organizations and elected officials of both parties will host 14 very special events along the tour’s route.

Those interested in following along, or those who wish to meet the tour at a local event, can check out the schedule and the route map on the School Choice Week website. The tour will kick off in Los Angeles, California on January 25th, 2013, and after making 14 stops including Albuquerque, New Mexico, Chicago, Illinois, Cleveland, Ohio, Erie Pennsylvania and Albany, New York, it will conclude on February 2nd at New York City’s historic Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan.

But one doesn’t have to greet the School Choice train as it pulls into the station in order to contribute to the celebration of broader academic access. Those who wish to attend a National School Choice Week event can organize one of their own. Those who simply want to contribute to the cause in some small way can get tips by following NSCW on Facebook and Twitter, advertise on the event website or even submit an opinion piece on the importance of giving parents the freedom to make the best educational decisions for their children.

With bold strokes, our generation can — and will — make its mark on the tapestry of our national experience. Social change isn’t just something we read about in history books. It’s something we can make a reality, and in the process, secure for ourselves not only a place in history books yet unwritten, but secure for our country a brighter and more prosperous future where no child is denied the opportunity to attend the best schools possible.

We will do this together, but only if we’re all on board.

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National School Choice Week kicks off on January 21, 2012 in New Orleans.

By Robert Enlow

During a cold week last January, thousands of parents and grandparents throughout the country marched on state capitols and held town hall meetings, expos, movie screenings and even a grandmas’ coffeehouse – all in the name of more educational freedom.

Robert Enlow, President and CEO of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice

They shared one concern: with more than 1 million children dropping out of school annually, public schools were not delivering the quality education every child deserves.

Now, parents and grandparents are lining up again next week to participate in National School Choice Week 2012 and further amplify the call for effective schools that motivate and challenge our students.

While politicians keep talking about pouring more money into schools, citizens are getting more engaged to demand school choice.

They understand that too many children are trapped in inner-city schools where it is dangerous to even walk to school every day and where academic success is a forgotten memory. They believe that too many children – rich or poor, rural, urban or suburban – are not being challenged in the classroom. And they are getting fed up with a system where only the wealthy can afford to move their children to a more effective school.

What they want is simple: a system that doesn’t assign children to schools based on address but instead allows parents to select a school based on a child’s need. Parents want to be able to choose a school that may offer a curriculum that works best for their child, or that is safer or that teaches values similar to what is taught at home.

While there has been explosion of school choice programs in the past year, parents still have too little choice. Consider:

Charter schools. There are just 2 million pupils who have won slots to these highly-coveted schools, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Charter schools are public schools but are free of many regulations found in traditional government schools.

Vouchers. About 88,000 students utilize voucher scholarships through one of the nation’s 17 voucher programs to attend non-public schools, including programs for special needs children and students in urban areas. Eleven of the 17 voucher programs are offered to all families with no income requirement, making it possible for the most to have educational freedom.

Tax Credit Scholarships. An estimated 117,000 students receive scholarships to attend private schools through tax credit programs that allow individuals and/or corporations to donate to scholarship-granting organizations.

Individual Tax Credits. In six states, about 600,000 families can now deduct educational expenses on their income taxes in order to obtain more school choice.

This year, with National School Choice Week 2012, people will march and rally, attend town halls and forums, and host movie screenings and open houses at schools. They will assemble all across the country because they understand deeply that of the 49 million public school students in the nation today, only a tiny percentage can take advantage of educational options. Less than 3 million kids exercise educational freedom, and more want that option.

That’s why Nobel laureate Milton Friedman believed so passionately in school choice. He knew that when parents were armed with options, all schools would improve.

Friedman would be proud to know what has been accomplished to give parents more choice. But when 49 million students still have no real freedom at all, Friedman would say we still have a long way to go, because if our schools fail, we all fail.

Enlow is the President and CEO of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice.

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