I'm a firm believer in attending neighborhood schools. Requests for a different, "better" school are misguided as student achievement is most strongly influenced by 1) student's English proficiency, 2) parents' English proficiency, and 3) parent involvement in homework/school work. So choosing a "better" school is unlikely to materially change a student's academic performance. But going to the neighborhood school enables a family to get to know their neighbors, fosters a sense of community, and makes for a shorter walk or bicycle ride to school.

If my neighborhood school offered language instruction I would be happy to send my child there. Since it does not, and that is an important value of mine and my family's so we can communicate with relatives in Spanish speaking countries, I prefer the dual-language program. I'm glad that this is currently an option in MVWSD and I think it's important for each family to have a choice in where to go to school and what approach makes sense for them.

You like neighborhood schools, that's fine. But my choice matters too.

@PublicSchoolProponent

"I'm a firm believer in attending neighborhood schools."

As am I, but I also believe in trusting parents to make the best choice. School districts must make decisions that provide the best education they can for all kids while not inadvertently causing harm to the education of some kids. That's why we used to have a program called "GATE", but politics caused that to be scrapped.

Neighborhood schools must be developed as best we can so ALL of those schools as good as we known how, while at the same time presenting meaningful options to well-informed parents.

The problem has usually been that school districts do a lousy job, if any at all, of communicating with parents before the parents or the district go off and make knee-jerk decisions on mostly "feelings" and few facts.

I think that if the Board and district officials would learn how to communicate properly with the public then we would see almost all parents choosing their neighborhood schools and that those who still don't will also have great options that they fully understand before making those choices.

"Requests for a different, "better" school are misguided"

Requesting a "different school" that teaches in a non-traditional manner is perfectly fine IF the district has properly educated the parents to make a truly informed decision. That is critical and usually missing.

Picking a school because of some public perception of which specific school is "better" than some other school is usually junk-science and not actually based on the true quality of the schools.

"as student achievement is most strongly influenced by"

I would put the educational background of the parents the highest influence and the level of parental engagement as a very close second, if not tie. Even with language issues.

"1) student's English proficiency,"

Which should be seen as a short-term condition of individual kids that we have some pretty effective ways of fixing.

"So choosing a "better" school is unlikely to materially change a student's academic performance."

That is historically what the data shows.

Neighborhood school also provides the opportunity to develop a meaningful support system for families.

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To "Also a public *choice* school proponent": I think it would be wonderful to add foreign language instruction to elementary schools. I believe that is the largest hole in the curriculum today.

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