Choosing the right school for you

Your search for a school should begin close to home — with a look at your child's needs and your own education values. Not every school can meet the needs of every child. The key is finding a good match, for your child and your family.

The Seattle Times School Guide is a good place to start investigating the schools, but there's no substitute for visiting them in person.

As you do, consider these four key elements — essential ingredients for any successful school:

The principal: There's no underestimating the importance of a dynamic leader. Good principals sometimes are found in struggling schools, but the reverse is rarely true — if the principal is weak, the school likely will be, too.

A good principal plays dozens of different roles: CEO, fund-raiser, instructional leader, traffic cop, community booster, keeper of the school vision. Good principals are good listeners, responsive to teachers and parents, and strong leaders with a sense of mission. They can turn that vision into reality by enlisting the help of teachers, parents and the community.

Keep in mind, though, that principals are frequently moved from one school to another. Some districts move their best principals to schools with the greatest problems; others believe in keeping principals in their schools for years.

The teachers: A good teacher is critical in ensuring a quality education for your child. Research shows the effects of a bad teacher can linger for years, and several consecutive years with bad teachers can have a profound and lasting effect on a child's academic achievement. Conversely, the impact of a good teacher can last a lifetime.

Good schools are filled with well-trained, enthusiastic teachers who work as a team, support one another, work to update their skills and have plenty of planning time, alone and with other teachers, to develop lessons.

Checklist for school tours

Arrive before the first bell rings to get a sense of the school's atmosphere as students enter the building. Are they happy to be at school? Are they greeted warmly by teachers and other adults at the school?

Look around the hallways and entry area. Is student work on display? Is the school tidy? Are there students wandering aimlessly?

Meet the principal. Ask about the school's mission, its strengths and weaknesses and what the school is doing to improve student achievement. Get a sense of the principal's priorities, then see if that matches up with what you see in classrooms. Ask about how the school handles discipline and safety issues. How are parents involved in the school? Research says students do best if they are known well by at least one adult in a school — how does the school work to achieve that?

Visit as many classrooms as you can, and be leery if you're steered away from certain classrooms. Remember you're choosing a school you'll likely be part of for a number of years — you should look at classes in different grade levels.

What's the classroom environment like? Does the atmosphere seem competitive? Nurturing? Do students appear engaged? Teachers should encourage students to analyze information, not just regurgitate facts. Are there clear rules for discipline that are enforced fairly and consistently?

How is technology incorporated into teaching and learning at this school? What about the arts? Sports and extracurricular opportunities? Foreign-language instruction?

On a practical level, does this school work for your child and your family? Consider distance from home and transportation issues, special-program offerings, your child's personality and learning style, the availability of before- and after-school care and any other special needs you have.

Extensive checklist

You can tell a lot about a teacher by how a classroom is run: Is it organized? Are children working on interesting projects, or do they look bored? Are there a variety of materials and books available? What's on the walls — original, engaging student artwork? Or just behavior charts and lists of classroom rules? Is the classroom environment welcoming?

The parents: One of the strongest indicators of whether a child will do well in school is whether the parents are closely involved. Schools with high parental involvement likely will have students who come to school ready to learn and an army of parent volunteers to raise money, tutor and organize special projects benefiting the whole school.

The school climate: Pay attention to how adults treat students, and how students treat adults and each other. Take a good look at the library — is it well used and child-friendly? Ask how the school handles safety issues. Find out how music, the arts and sports fit into the program. There's evidence that these activities help enrich and expand young minds, and reach children who may not learn as well in a traditional classroom setting. Ask yourself: Do you feel welcome here? Is it the kind of place where you would like to spend six hours a day?

Especially for kindergartens

The National Association for the Education of Young Children, a nonprofit organization that works to assure high-quality early childhood programs for young children, has put together a list of the top signs of a good kindergarten classroom.

• Children are playing and working with materials or other children. They are not aimlessly wandering or forced to sit quietly for long periods of time.

• Children have access to various activities throughout the day, such as block building, pretend play, picture books, paints and other art materials and table toys such as Legos, pegboards and puzzles. Children are not all doing the same things.

• Teachers work with individual children, small groups, and the whole group at different times during the day. They do not spend time only with the entire group.

• The classroom is decorated with children's original artwork, their own writing with invented spelling, and dictated stories.

• Children learn numbers and the alphabet in the context of their everyday experiences. Exploring the natural world of plants and animals, cooking, taking attendance and serving snack are all meaningful activities to children.

• Children work on projects and have long periods of time (at least one hour) to play and explore. Worksheets should not be their primary activity.

• Children play outside every day weather permits.

• Teachers read books to children throughout the day, not just at group story time.

• Curriculum is adapted for those who are ahead as well as those who need additional help. Because children differ in experiences and background, they do not learn the same things at the same time in the same way.

• Children and their parents look forward to school. Parents feel safe sending their child to kindergarten. Children are happy; they are not crying or regularly sick.

Especially for middle schools

This is the age when kids "try things on," said Julie Thenell Grasseschi, middle-school director for Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bellevue.

Students this age "don't need a mini-high school, and they don't need another elementary school," she said.

Middle-level schools should support, nurture and challenge pre-adolescents without coddling them, Grasseschi said. They should offer a wide range of academic and extracurricular opportunities with lots of hands-on work.

"They're looking for boundaries, testing everything, and they need strong relationships with adults," said Kathy Bledsoe, principal at McClure Middle School in Seattle.

Look for schools that emphasize personalization, so that every student is known well by at least one staff member. Some create "houses" or "pods" where middle-schoolers spend the bulk of their time. Others use block classes with a core team of teachers sharing a group of students in longer class periods.

Especially for high schools

Some of the same themes of middle school are carrying over to high school these days: personalizing education through the use of academies, houses, block scheduling and teaming, and ensuring each student has a connection to at least one adult in the school.

"Respect, academic rigor, safety — those are the three non-negotiables for me," said Cindy Duenas, principal at the International Community School and Environmental and Adventure School, both in the Lake Washington School District.

Savvy parents ask about things like how many teachers have advanced degrees, what the staff-turnover rate is or how many students are taking AP or honors courses, said Mike Bacigalupi, principal of Bellevue High School.

Ask about the school's philosophy or mission — and look for evidence of that in the classrooms.

"We try to prepare all students for higher ed, regardless of what their next step will be, so that all other choices will be open to them," he said.

Look for signs the school is emphasizing preparation for post-graduation choices, including college preparation, career planning and vocational learning. Classes at this level should be rigorous, with students learning to synthesize material, discuss and defend their work.

Bacigalupi also recommends that prospective students spend a half-day at the school touring and attending classes.