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    8 Must-Ask Questions to Get the Best Education for YOUR Child - and How to Evaluate the Answers [minibook]
    8 Must-Ask Questions to Get the Best Education for YOUR Child - and How to Evaluate the Answers [minibook]
    8 Must-Ask Questions to Get the Best Education for YOUR Child - and How to Evaluate the Answers [minibook]
    Ebook48 pages29 minutes

    8 Must-Ask Questions to Get the Best Education for YOUR Child - and How to Evaluate the Answers [minibook]

    By Joanne McEachen

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    About this ebook

    Don't waste another precious day of your child's education!

    We’ve got 8 cut-to-the-chase questions you can use to start a learner-focused conversation with your local school. Don’t be afraid to ask them!

    If all parents started asking questions like these – if parents were informed, demanding consumers of education – school leaders and teachers would sit up and take notice. Things would change. It would help schools figure out what to focus on.

    Question 1: What do you consider to be a good success rate for student achievement at your school?

    Question 2: How will you make sure my child is happy at school?

    Question 3: How does your school help kids like mine learn?

    Question 4: How do you make sure what’s taught in the classrooms is meaningful to the kids?

    Question 5: What are your priorities, as a leader, in this school? What do you spend your time and money on?

    Question 6: What are your top priorities right now for lifting student achievement – and how are you going about doing it?

    Question 7: How do I, as a parent, have a say in my child’s education here?

    Question 8: How will you make a decision about which teacher to place my children with?

    OK, so you ask the questions, but then what? We also give you a rating guide for how to evaluate the answers and interpret what educators are telling you.

    Best practice: These guys really get it. They are engaging me/us in a powerful way. They really know my child, who she is, what she wants to become, etc. They know what they are doing and can help my child realize her potential. They have some really excellent evidence showing that they can and will succeed – and have done so already.

    Pretty good: They have connected with me as a parent. They know my child and how to teach her. Some good practices are in place and there is some concrete evidence that they work. I’ll be able to work well with them to help my child get the most of her education.

    Well intentioned: Their hearts are in the right place. There is genuine commitment but no clear strategies are in place. They are trying some things with good intentions, but they don’t really know what to do.

    Lip service: They have mastered the lip service, but not the action. It’s all talk, and nothing really changes for the children.

    They don’t get it: They don’t respond to the question directly or dismiss the issue.

    Of course, you won’t get school leaders giving the exact answers we highlight under each question, although it might be close. But even if they say it in different ways, just by asking the questions and having the conversations, you are starting to change what happens for your child.

    Joanne McEachen is an internationally recognized educational expert now based in Seattle, Washington, with a 3-decade successful track record working at multiple levels in the system – as a school principal, a regional administrator, and national manager for the Ministry of Education in New Zealand.

    Joanne has seen firsthand the importance of involving parents in their children’s education and knows the positive difference it can make. Joanne believes that there is an urgent need in education today to stop the blame game for the systemic failure of the groups of children who are continuously being underserved – it’s time to get on with it!

    Dr. E. Jane Davidson is known internationally as a keynote speaker and author for her cutting-edge work in evaluation. Her e-minibook, Actionable Evaluation Basics: Getting Succinct Answers to the Most Important Questions is a popular practical guide to doing truly useful evaluation.

    Jane uses a multidisciplinary and refreshingly practical, plain-language approach to figuring out what’s going to work and how we’ll know it has.

    She helps schools and other organizations infuse outcome-focused evaluative thinking into their work; develops tools and methodologies to support change; and supp

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJoanne McEachen
    Release dateDec 4, 2012
    ISBN9781301022557
    8 Must-Ask Questions to Get the Best Education for YOUR Child - and How to Evaluate the Answers [minibook]
    Author

    Joanne McEachen

    Joanne McEachen is an internationally recognized educational expert now based in Seattle, Washington, where she has recently set up her own education consulting business, The Learner First, LLC. She has nearly three decades of experience in education and a successful track record working at multiple levels in the system – as a school principal, a regional administrator, and national manager for the Ministry of Education in New Zealand. Joanne has seen firsthand the importance of involving parents in their children’s education and knows the positive difference it can make. She has led and managed countrywide education change initiatives by focusing on the most important outcomes and the fundamental values focused on learners, driving the educational change, regardless of the obstacles. Articulate, persuasive, and a great change leader, Joanne’s projects result in success for students. Joanne believes that there is an urgent need in education today to stop the blame game for the systemic failure of the groups of children who are continuously being underserved – it’s time to get on with it! “All children have a right to high-quality education that enables them to make choices about how they want to live their lives,” says Joanne. She is relentless in her pursuit to reform education and believes every child can and will be a successful learner.

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      Book preview

      8 Must-Ask Questions to Get the Best Education for YOUR Child - and How to Evaluate the Answers [minibook] - Joanne McEachen

      8 Must-Ask Questions to Get the Best Education for YOUR child

      – and How to Evaluate the Answers [mini book]

      By Joanne McEachen & E. Jane Davidson, Ph.D.

      Internationally recognized experts in education, systems change, and understanding what really works

      All Rights Reserved Copyright 2012 The Learner First, LLC & Real Evaluation Ltd.

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      * * *

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return toSmashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author

      * * *

      CONTENTS

      Introduction and overview

      Question 1: What do you consider to be a good success rate for student achievement at your school?

      Question 2: How will you make sure my child is happy at school?

      Question 3: How does your school help kids like mine learn?

      Question 4: How do you make sure what’s taught in the classrooms is meaningful to the kids?

      Question 5: What are your priorities, as a leader, in this school? What do you spend your time and money on?

      Question 6: What are your top priorities right now for lifting student achievement – and how are you going about doing it?

      Question 7: How do I, as a parent, have a say in my child’s education here?

      Question 8: How will you make a decision about which teacher to place my children with?

      Having a Say in Your child's education

      Does Success in School Really Make That Much of a Difference?

      What Makes or Breaks Learning For Kids? Five Key Elements

      Tips for Approaching the Conversation

      About the Authors

      * * *

      INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

      As a parent, you’ve got more choices than you may realize about your kids’ education, even if you can’t pick and choose which schools to send them to. There is a lot you can do to make sure that your children get into the right classrooms

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