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Ep. 64 Kindergarten School Search: Should You Trust Online Rankings?
616 Plays1 month ago
Are you stressed about choosing a school for your child? Maybe your neighborhood school has low ratings, and you're wondering if that means it’s a bad choice. In this episode, Miss Beth breaks down:
✅ What school ratings actually measure (and what they don’t!)
✅ How to tour a school and know if it’s a good fit
✅ Ways to make a positive experience at any school—even one with low scores
✅ The key questions parents should ask teachers and principals
✅ Why engaged parents matter more than test scores
If you’re in the middle of making this big decision, this episode will help ease your worries and give you a plan moving forward. Remember, a number on a website doesn’t tell the whole story!
Ask your question! Visit Big City Readers
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Transcript
Introduction and Listener Engagement
00:00:09
Speaker
hello. Welcome back to the Play On Words podcast from Big City Readers. It's me, Ms. Beth. and I am so sorry that we have not done one of these solo parent question episodes in a while. I just had so many amazing guests um on the podcast and I haven't had the opportunity to answer your questions. so I am taking a recent question that a listener, Melissa, um submitted to us last week. So if you have a question that you want answered in depth, I love to answer questions on Instagram at Big City Readers. um But if you have something in depth you want me to cover,
00:00:50
Speaker
Submitting it on bigcityreaders.com and then you click podcast is a great way to do it. So I'm going to try and bring back doing these once a month and I am still going to have our amazing guests as well. But go submit your questions. I love to help as much as I can. And of course, you can always send me a message on
Evaluating School Choices for Kindergarten
00:01:12
Speaker
Instagram. But without further ado, here is the question from Melissa.
00:01:18
Speaker
So this parent did not say their neighborhood. This is a question about schools. And I love this question, but they did not say their neighborhood. So take it with a grain of salt. Everything is going to be different in every area that you live in, every state, every city. It's all so different.
00:01:36
Speaker
It's actually kind of crazy if you ask me that education is not regulated. Like there could be a different curriculum happening in one classroom across the hall. It's not even like the district is all the same. So this question might be helpful for you. Hopefully I can give you some answers about um specifically for Melissa and I can also hopefully help you if you are also in the same boat with a preschooler and looking at what school to go to next year.
00:02:04
Speaker
Okay, so Melissa writes, can you, oh my gosh, wait, where did the question go? Oh, we are looking at schools for our daughter who will be starting kindergarten next year. Hooray! We actually have a side note. We have a kindergarten series coming up, so stay tuned. Make sure you're on my email list because we have some kindergarten support coming up next month that you definitely want to be a part of. Okay, we are looking at schools for our daughter who will be starting kindergarten next year.
00:02:32
Speaker
Our neighborhood elementary and middle schools do not have great ratings online, which of course makes us nervous. We plan to choose into our neighboring schools Um, but it is the lottery based and not guaranteed. We have toured the elementary school and that helped ease our concern a little bit, but it's still hard to ignore the low scores and bad reviews from parents. How seriously should we consider school ratings online? Moving to a different district is not really an option for us. Is there anything we can do to make our experience at a lower ranking school be positive? Thanks for your help.
00:03:13
Speaker
Oh my gosh, can I just say, Melissa, I, and whoever else has this question, I love this question, but the reason I love it is because it's not just a complaint. It is so positive.
00:03:30
Speaker
like What can we do to make it a more positive experience? Not just like this sucks. I don't want to do it or like and now I'm mad like this is so Problem-solving proactive.
Understanding School Rankings and Assessments
00:03:44
Speaker
This is amazing. I am already so Happy about this because you're right. There is no the rankings they mean some things and some things they don't mean but This this attitude is going to carry you and your family very far asking what can we do to make this better, not just complaining about what you've heard or being stressed. So already kiss your brain, give yourself a pat on the back for that. So this is a super common concern for parents, especially in this day and age where we have access to
00:04:23
Speaker
everything right at our fingertips. We can look anything up. So this is very common. So I don't want you to feel alone or feel worried. It's also very common for schools to have either high rankings and not even be that great or low rankings and actually be amazing. So it's natural to feel nervous when you obviously when you feel those when you read those online rankings that suggests the school that your child might go to might not be so great.
00:04:51
Speaker
I don't know if you just heard that in the background. My dog just growled because she doesn't want me to be having this podcast right now. um So we're going to take a balanced look at this. So what do these rankings actually mean? How much weight should parents give to them? And what can you do to make it positive, make it a positive experience at any school, no matter what the rankings are?
00:05:14
Speaker
So many school rankings or ratings are based heavily on standardized test scores. Now, if you've been here for a while, you know that I really don't like standardized tests because there's so much that can go into testing, even, okay, standardized tests are one thing, but even reading assessments, they really don't give the full story. So I have administered standardized tests, obviously I worked in schools for a long time, but I am a super expert in administering reading assessments. So I'm gonna speak to that and kind of to give paint the picture of what they don't reflect.
00:06:00
Speaker
So, I would give assessments, and for reading assessments, they would be these leveled readers, leveled A to Z. It's from Fontes and Pinnell, are the two creators of this, and in my opinion, it's the worst assessment in the world. But it is not, there's so many different factors. Like, you would assess a child three times a year,
00:06:23
Speaker
And let's say I just go through the class, maybe that I'm not, I'm going at random, like if I'm pulling kindergartners and it the teacher is giving me kids in October based on who is finished with their project at that time. Well, the next time I assess them in January,
00:06:42
Speaker
those kids aren't there in the same order that I tested them. So the same kid I tested first thing in the morning is now being tested in the afternoon. First thing in the morning on Monday, super different than Friday afternoon.
00:06:56
Speaker
10 a.m. on Tuesday, different than Thursday at two. Did they have gym that day? Did I pull them out of a special for this assessment? There's so many factors that can change the assessment. So this is something I tell parents if they're like, well, they were doing better at the beginning of the year, and not so well now. These assessments don't show the full story. No tests do. So keep that in mind.
Educational Resources and Community Feedback
00:07:22
Speaker
um like if it's after lunch if it's before lunch if they're stressed and they want to get out if the the interest level of the book so there's a non-fiction and a fiction version some kids had a higher interest in fiction and they could be i would test them independently at level g in a non-fiction book but Um, they would not even get an independent test score at level D of a fiction book because they had no interest. So they've seen some of the words more if they're interested in that topic. You know, there's just so many factors that can go into testing.
00:08:01
Speaker
It's me interrupting myself to tell you if you're liking what you're listening to, then you're probably going to love my big city readers on demand courses. If you've ever wondered why is that word spelled with a G and not a J, well, it's not just random. There's a reason for that. And you'll learn that in my spelling rules for second graders course. If you've ever wondered what letters to teach in what order to your preschooler, yeah, I teach you that in my preschool course too.
00:08:26
Speaker
If you've ever wondered what your kindergartners should be able to write or draw, or if your toddler scribbles matter and how to guide them to the next step, yep, you guessed it. All of my on-demand courses teach you exactly how to do this. I am sort of obsessed with talking about the learning to read and write journey because I feel like there's so much misinformation about it. So I've dedicated my life to making sure that there's more clear cut, fun information.
00:08:53
Speaker
And you can help your child and yourself by getting one of these courses. They are jam-packed into 15-minute on-demand lessons. And you're going to feel confident. Your child's going to feel confident. And be warned, this is no exaggeration. At least 20 parents have told me that at parent-teacher conferences, their teacher has said, oh, are you a reading specialist with the kind of questions they ask? So you're going to learn a lot. Your child's going to learn a lot. You're both going to feel confident. I promise you.
00:09:23
Speaker
um This is really all I think about ever. Oh, I sound kind of boring when I say it like that. But anyway, check out the big city readers on demand courses. Let me know if you need any help deciding what the right right course for your child is. And um also like let me know how the lessons are going if you're already doing them. Okay, back to the episode.
00:09:42
Speaker
um People that leave reviews are, okay, I only ever leave reviews on something if I am blown away or if I'm really angry. If I'm really upset, someone really doesn't make me feel heard, that's when I would go to leave an online review.
00:10:03
Speaker
If everything's pretty good, unfortunately, I'm not going to go leave a review. So by the way, this I'll just plug myself right here. Can you go review this podcast if you like it? um But don't you guys agree? So if I'm like obsessed with a restaurant, I'm absolutely going to review it. i want I recently went to a restaurant for restaurant week in Chicago, which if you aren't in Chicago, it's a thing that they created because in the middle of winter to generate revenue for restaurants and Build community get all these people out and it's like the restaurant showcases a special menu and it's often cheaper than it usually is I Don't particularly love restaurant week because I feel like you get the worst version of the food and it's like crowded It's not really a good depiction of the restaurant. So I went out though with some friends for restaurant week and We had amazing drinks
00:11:02
Speaker
I mean, they were so good. And I am kind of a cocktail snob. But the food came, and all of us, there was vegetarians, gluten free, meat eaters, all of us kind of collectively like, this food's bad, right? None of us finished our food. The service was slow. And every single one of us went and wrote a review before we even got in the Uber to go home.
00:11:28
Speaker
So, and and in that review, we wrote cocktails were great, food was terrible, service was terrible. And I think that we need to keep that in mind when we think about rankings and online reviews we hear from parents because we don't always know the full story, right?
Key Considerations for School Evaluation
00:11:46
Speaker
It it could be, you know, there could have been a really tough teacher that upset all the parents in that class. um I worked with a family who was leaving a school and they um you know they said six people pulled their kids out of that school because of this one teacher, but that teacher was fired um the next year. so
00:12:10
Speaker
you know Keep that in mind. So it could be someone that's like really upset or a whole moment. So try to get past that part um and try to get connected. Maybe reach out if if there's a Facebook group. See if you can reach out and say like, hey, I'm looking at going to the school. I saw you leave a comment. You know, often schools have a Facebook page. See if there's someone active on it and ask them questions.
00:12:40
Speaker
Try not to have it someone be someone who's like um giving tours at the school or something because they're obviously going to try and convince you to come there. um But see if you can connect with someone and actually get their real feedback. and and ask Go listen to the podcast episode before this. um Or was it on my substack? It was on my substack. My substack is Love Miss Beth.
00:13:02
Speaker
but um In that I list questions to ask yourself to find your values um on knowing how to navigate and narrow down questions for school tours and finding out if it's the right place for you. So go check that out um to find out some questions to ask, but I would ask some real people some really specific questions. Not like, are you happy? Not like, are your kids doing well? I would ask really specific questions. Hey, what's the behavior policy here? Do you feel like they have a strong emphasis in play-based learning? How about social emotional development? What about retention of teachers? Do you feel like it's a close community? Do you feel like parents are connected? Is there opportunity for parent engagement in the classroom?
00:13:52
Speaker
How do you feel the principal responds if you have a request? Do you feel like you get feedback from the teachers? Do you feel like you can ask questions to the teachers or do you feel pushed aside? Do you feel like your child is seen or is it feel like a big um a big classroom full of lots of kids and they're not really seen. Do you feel like there's lots of opportunities for professional development? Are they coming back from those professional development days off of school and saying, this is what our teachers learned and we can't wait to implement it in the school? Are you seeing smiling kids come out of the school every day? Are you seeing seeing smiling teachers? Is there a lot of negative feedback from teachers? You know you can get a lot
00:14:38
Speaker
from that, like even just go like watch teachers and kids after school. Look for smiling teachers, look for smiling kids. um That tells more of the story, I think. So, um yes, so test scores or the rankings and test scores don't reflect the quality of the teachers, the quality of the families, or the school's sense of community engagement and engagement, which is I think a big one.
00:15:04
Speaker
um because you are your child's teacher. You are the expert in your child. the My mom said this to my sister yesterday. My sister was talking about how she didn't like um something happening in one of her kids classrooms and um it was It was that they I'll just tell the story that um They get to pick their seats every single day in this first grade class Every single day they get to pick their seats, but my sister's child Sometimes he's silly and he's fun, but he's so smart. He's such a great reader. He's he's brilliant and He comes home and he's like I made a good choice. I didn't sit by my friends and
00:15:52
Speaker
my sister's like, i think I think that kind of, I don't like that. um Because why is that a good choice? like Anyway, so my mom said, my mom is a wise woman, had 12 kids of her own, several with learning differences, special needs, you name it, she's experienced it.
00:16:12
Speaker
she's a really good advocate and she said you are the expert of your child you can say like I don't want to encourage him that quote the good choice is to not be by his friends like he needs a different method if he like likes to chat are there other opportunities for him like I don't and it I think the Pressure that personally on my end i'm like that is way too much pressure for kids to choose their seat every day that must take thirty minutes in the morning so. Anyway tangent on that but um but that that is ah one thing to remember is you are the expert on your child so.
00:16:53
Speaker
don't don't let anyone tell you otherwise. um You want to be able to communicate with the teacher and this and the admin and you don't want to be pushed aside or people to think you're too much if you have a lot of questions. So even going on a tour of the school is going to give you that information. If they are excited about your questions, that's great. I talked to a director of a preschool one time and she said that she had a tour and they asked a lot of questions and she said, are you big city readers family and they said yes and she said I love that so are we and they were she was so excited to answer their questions so that is such a green flag if a school loves your questions um and one more thing that these test scores or these rankings don't tell us is how the school supports different types of learners so maybe you don't have a different type of learner right now but you never know if something's going to come up down the road what are they equipped to handle
00:17:50
Speaker
um how How do they address those needs? All these questions are something that you can't really tell in these rankings, unless the reviews are saying, I have a student with learning dis differences and um this is what happened. like Just pay attention to the details, not just the emotion, but the details that are in the story, and then take those details from those reviews and formulate your questions to ask when you go to or the school.
Trusting Parental Instincts and School Engagement
00:18:20
Speaker
um Okay, so what to do instead of just looking at the scores, we're going to dig deeper. So I gave you some of those questions, but some big ones for me are teacher turnover rates. High turnover can be a red flag. um They're unhappy or you know they found a better place that works for them.
00:18:38
Speaker
um let's look at how the school supports different learning needs and parent involvement and community engagement. So is it a community-based school? Is that what's important to you? How are they a part of their community? um Yes, so all those all those questions I gave you before, kind of think about what matters to you most and read the reviews and see if those are aligning things or maybe is it like somebody was unhappy
00:19:10
Speaker
at other things. um So trust your instincts. You are the expert of your child. You will know when you are in that school if it is a place that you want to be. i once When I was looking for a job right out of college,
00:19:27
Speaker
I was ah touring a bunch of schools like not touring interviewing at a bunch of schools and I remember I went to this I went to like 20 schools and I got several job offers and I Turned them down and I remember one of my friends saying you shouldn't turn it down there like jobs are hard to come by and it's like I August now, it's the beginning of August, and why did you turn down? I said, it just wasn't right. I don't know how to explain it. It just didn't feel right. And when I walked into the school that I worked at, I felt right.
00:20:05
Speaker
Did that school continue to align with my values? No. But at that time, it felt right. You always can pivot. You always can make a change. So I know that a lot of people are like, I feel like I have to make the decision for where they're going to go to high school when they're starting preschool or kindergarten. and No, so many things could change. You could get a different job offer. You could have to move. like Family situations could change. Think about what works for you right now. Your values might change. like What works for you right now? Don't look at it, I think. Don't look at it like forever, because we don't really know. And see if you can say, okay, right now, yeah, this actually does work.
00:20:50
Speaker
I think we get like stuck being like, oh my gosh, the middle school, so many things could change by the time that this kindergartner gets to the middle school. The school could have a complete turnaround. and I also worked at a school that had a complete turnaround, like was almost closed um by the state and before I was there and then they hired like 15 new teachers. I was one of them and Within two years, it was a completely different place. It was it was getting awards. There were a hundred more families enrolled. Just neighborhoods changed, communities changed. So think about what's right for yourself right now.
00:21:32
Speaker
So on the tour, do those teachers seem engaged and happy? Are kids actively learning and participating? Does it feel like a warm environment? What do the hallways feel like? ah they kids Is kids work hung in the hallways? Is there inventive spelling on the bulletin boards? What does the classroom feel like? Does it feel like kids are engaging or are they just sitting and listening? Are they just looking at a smart board? Are they on tablets?
00:21:58
Speaker
And also, these are just questions, you might be okay with these things and you say, yeah, they are on tablets and that's fine because the world is full of technology now. you know So just just think about what matters to you, not what someone else's red flags are, but what really matters to you.
00:22:15
Speaker
Talk to the current parents of the school. Try, like, if it's allowed, try um just, like, going on the playground after school and playing and seeing, like, and just strike up a conversation. Ask about their experiences. Their experiences will tell you so much more than an online review. Again, remember, online reviews are, like, when people are really, really over the top happy or really mad.
00:22:38
Speaker
Meet the principal and ask about their vision for the school. So maybe there's been principal turnover, maybe there's been admin turnover. We don't know if they are, you know, if they're, um when those reviews came, if it was a different administration. There's so much at play that we don't, that we might not know about when we just read those reviews.
00:23:00
Speaker
Ask about class sizes, ask about literacy instruction. You want to hear that the teachers are trained in the science of reading research. Ask specifically if this part, care if you care about this part, ask specifically what curriculum. And if you don't know the curriculum, come back and ask me and I will tell you because the science of reading is not a curriculum, it's a body of research. So if they just say, yeah, we're doing the science of reading and they don't have a curriculum they can tell you, then that is a red flag. They're just telling you what they want to hear to get you get the butts in seats, you know? um And ask about enrichment opportunities. Do they have after-school programming? Do they bring in outside classes? Do they, you know, if teachers ask about a specific professional development, do they bring that in?
Enhancing School Experience and Community Involvement
00:23:44
Speaker
um I worked with a parent who wanted to bring me into their child's school and the school was resistant to that because they um
00:23:57
Speaker
I think didn't um feel confident that their teachers and parents came to the admin and said that we wanted this. Now, I've also done professional development with lots of schools where the principal's like, hey, calls me up. Hey, my teachers have asked me to bring you in professional for for pesh for professional development and they like, I want to make them happy. So what can we do? That is a red a green flag to me because not because it's me, but because the principal hears what the teachers want and values the teachers and listens to them. It doesn't have like an ego about, Oh no, the parents don't think I'm doing a good enough job, but
00:24:43
Speaker
Oh, the parents and teachers want this? Thank you for telling me. The principal that can say, ah yeah, I don't have I don't have time in the day to be researching every single best professional development for every subject for every grade level. So I'm going to listen to my parents and my teachers when they say we would love to have this professional development.
00:25:03
Speaker
Okay, so let's talk about how to create a great experience in any school. If you do end up at your neighborhood school and you're nervous about these reviews, or you're not loving it, or whatever the reason, there are so many ways to make it great. Be an involved parent.
00:25:20
Speaker
join the PTA, volunteer, get to know the teachers. like You don't have to be ah like suck up. You can you can like just get to know them. Like, hey, I want to be involved. How can I help? maybe like And you can know your limits. Maybe you're working and you can be like, can I send something from your Amazon wish list?
00:25:41
Speaker
Maybe you um are have more flexibility in your schedule and you can say, um can I come in when you need like a mystery reader or can I help with small groups? Just ask how you can get involved.
00:25:56
Speaker
um communicate with your teachers so try not to just communicate with the teachers when something bad happens but communicate ahead of time like even sharing articles like hey you have taught me so much about my child already this year.
00:26:15
Speaker
I've like gone and researched this topic that you shared in Back to School Night and I read this article, wanted to share it with you, like smiley face. Build a partnership to support your child's learning um before there's problems. Often the time, the first time we communicate with teachers is like when we say, you know, when you're emailing saying,
00:26:35
Speaker
Hey, they said they got hit at recess today. Why didn't you tell me or, you know, something bad that happens or, or maybe it's you hearing, hey, they're not where they need to be in reading. And you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. How did this happen so fast? So try to build a partnership and communicate with teachers early and often. Um, that doesn't mean like long, long, long emails. You can just say like, reply to the email. If they send a weekly email, say, Hey, thanks, read this. Appreciate you. Like really short. It doesn't have to be over the top. Advocate for your child.
00:27:05
Speaker
If reading instruction is a concern, ask questions and supplement at home. Hello, big city readers. I have your back. If there's not great reading instruction, guess what? You can teach your child at home with my courses in a few minutes a day. um if you know If it's a bullying concern, ask if you can um bring in A speaker who talks about social emotional development asks if you can help um crowd ah source for funding a buddy bench. A buddy bench, if you don't know, is a bench on a playground and you do a whole presentation about it, but a bench that kids go to when they need a buddy. And that is a great way to help kids learn to advocate for themselves, too.
00:27:51
Speaker
Find the good so every school has great teachers special moments and opportunities to build community find it maybe the good is that you get to step out of your comfort zone and be the person that leads other parents maybe it's you get to volunteer maybe Maybe you get to be part of changing their reading curriculum. See if you can find the good. Maybe it has like this amazing teacher that is just a little quieter and you hadn't heard of them before and your child gets them for second grade and it's the best year of their life. Look for those special moments. Find the good.
00:28:28
Speaker
And try to be open-minded. Sometimes the schools with lower ratings surprise families in the best way. um Like I said, you know, I don't believe in test scores a whole lot. It does not give us the full picture. I don't know about those rankings. You know, take them with a grain of salt. Look at all the other things. um And remember, no school is perfect, but no school is all bad either.
00:28:52
Speaker
um I would say you know trust your gut stay involved focus on what actually matters for your child. um Kids thrive when they have engaged supportive parents no matter the school rating so you.
00:29:10
Speaker
are already that because you've already, you've listened to this podcast, you have reached out, you are already that. So your child will already thrive. You already have given them the skills and the the support and you already are doing all those things. So remember that. um And one last thing I'll say is there is there are two really, really quote high ranked schools in Chicago.
00:29:35
Speaker
And I have had staff of mine at Big City Readers work for me. um They were kindergarten teachers at both of these schools. And when I asked why they wanted to work at Big City Readers, they said, because I have not been trained in how to teach kids how to read and I want to learn from you. And these are the highest ranked elementary schools in Chicago.
00:30:00
Speaker
And so just keep that in mind, like just because a school is high range doesn't mean the teachers have different degrees. um Yeah, so all teachers mostly get the same education. And even a master's degree in reading um doesn't teach the science of reading.
00:30:22
Speaker
usually, some schools are changing. I've heard from like two schools in all my 250,000 followers, two people have told me that their their master's program is now teaching the science of reading. um So yeah, so take that and your, what's the saying? Put that in your back pocket. Those teachers at the best schools, kindergarten teachers at the best schools in Chicago said, I just want to learn how to teach kids how to read. I don't know what I'm doing. And they had been at these schools for several, several years.
00:30:49
Speaker
So it's it's not the rankings that matter. and you know what you're doing. So trust yourself, ask questions, get curious, and know that your kids are already thriving because they have you as their parents. Oh my gosh, thank you so much for this question, Melissa, and um stay tuned um on my email list. Make sure you're on my email list or on Instagram because we have some really good kindergarten stuff coming up.
00:31:21
Speaker
Next month so um to support you on this journey because it is I know it is is hard. It's challenging, but you got this Alright, I'll see you guys next time