{"id":17106,"date":"2017-03-23T08:52:53","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T04:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educationintelligencegroup.com\/?p=17106"},"modified":"2017-03-23T09:04:56","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T05:04:56","slug":"more-and-more-what-parents-really-want-from-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educationintelligencegroup.com\/more-and-more-what-parents-really-want-from-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"More and More: What Parents Really Want from Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a\u00a0tale of two noses.<\/p>\n

The first nose belongs to a friend and colleague who\u2019s been involved in education for more than 20 years. He\u2019s a teacher and consultant who\u2019s worked with numerous schools around the world to help improve their performance. In the early days running WhichSchoolAdvisor.com<\/a> I sought his counsel on a number of issues. One question I asked was: \u00a0\u2018So how do you know a good school from a poor school, a school that is doing well from one that\u2019s in trouble?\u2019 He touched his nose.\u00a0 \u2018This, James, this tells me.\u2019<\/p>\n

He said that as soon as he entered a school he could smell, literally smell, whether a school was in need of his help.<\/p>\n

Interesting.<\/p>\n

Well in the absence of such a well-developed probiscus my fellow co-founder, David and I, had to turn to the more mundane expedients of eyes, ears and mouth.\u00a0 We sought out publicly available data which included inspection data from regulators and other accrediting bodies, we scanned school websites, we spoke to parents, teachers and students. We listened a lot and we also asked a lot of questions.\u00a0 Schools were naturally wary \u2013 so who are these guys? What right do they have to poke their, ah, noses into our school was probably what they thought but were much too polite to say to us.<\/p>\n

Our hunch, an educated hunch but a hunch nonetheless that parents were eager for informed, well-researched, unbiased information about schools began to pay off. Our audience of parents grew and so each day as happens in any relationship we got to know them better.<\/p>\n

We got to know what they loved about schools.<\/p>\n

We got to know what they weren\u2019t so keen on about their schools<\/p>\n

We got to know what they would like their schools to do more of<\/p>\n

According to the World Migration Report Dubai is the most cosmopolitan city in the world with 83 percent of the population being foreign born.\u00a0 More than 200 nationalities have made the city their home.\u00a0 There are currently 185 private schools with 19 curricula. Yes let me state that again 19 curricula available to parents.\u00a0 Like Dubai itself the school scene there presents an opportunity for experimentation on a grand scale.<\/p>\n

The biggest issue facing parents \u2013 a squeeze on availability \u2013 has been solved in the last three years with a quickening in the pace of arrival of new schools. 15 alone were launched last September.\u00a0 \u2018Competition\u2019 is a new word in the Dubai parent\u2019s lexicon.<\/p>\n

So all is rosy in the garden then? Well, not quite.<\/p>\n

If you want to know what the sudden appearance of choice does to people pick up a copy of \u2018The Paradox of Choice \u2013 Why More is Less\u2019 by the American psychologist Barry Schwartz.\u00a0 He introduces the concept of\u00a0 \u2018voluntary simplicity\u2019 whose core ideas is that we have too many choices, too many decisions, too little time to do what is really important.\u00a0 So a substantial percentage of parents now visiting our site are looking for confirmation that they\u2019ve made the right choice. We\u2019re difficult to please, us humans!<\/p>\n

Also the world has changed substantially in the last five years.\u00a0 Facebook groups, class WhatsApp groups were but a dot on the communications horizon then. Now they\u2019re front and centre when it comes to parent communication within a school.\u00a0 The change has been swift and relentless.<\/p>\n

So how have most schools dealt with this change? With their usual rapidity, I\u2019d say, which is not very rapidly at all.<\/p>\n

The typical way in which schools would approach communication in times past was via a registrar.\u00a0 This person was usually a parent from the school who was a competent administrator and was given the rather overwhelming job of managing applications to the school from parents. No training was given and having spoken to many registrars over the last five years they saw their role as a buffer between school management and parents.\u00a0 These Gatekeepers could be friendly or fierce, open or impossible to track down but one thing was clear. You could not pass without their permission.<\/p>\n

But technology and the internet has changed all that.\u00a0 As we know social media can very quickly become anti-social media.\u00a0 Internet forums were alive with the chatter of grumbles, real and perceived that were formerly confined to the four walls of a coffee shop.\u00a0 Tales of hurts and humiliations moved onto closed class WhatsApp groups, open and closed Facebook pages.<\/p>\n

Schools suddenly seemed vulnerable so what could they do? Well for many the arrival of social media led to the unleashing of their carefully caged authoritarian streak \u2013 \u2018we\u2019re banning Facebook groups, no more WhatsApp class groups.<\/p>\n

Brilliant.<\/p>\n

They may as well have sent school branded gags to all of the parents and asked them to put them on when bringing their child to school.\u00a0 I was reminded of those \u2018as useful as\u2019 jokes from my childhood. \u2018As useful as a chocolate teapot\u2019, \u2018as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike\u2019.<\/p>\n

As someone who\u2019s been involved in helping organisations and individuals communicate effectively for more than thirty years I have to say that my experience working in the education sector for the last five years has been enlightening. There is an innate conservatism, a feeling that \u2018well this is the way that we do things around here and this is the way it will stay\u2019. But there\u2019s also a general unwillingness to share information.\u00a0 Of the more than 400 private schools in the UAE whom we asked last September to provide information on their exam results in a format that we believe is fair and allows as close as possible to like for like comparison how many supplied us with this data? 50%, 25%, 10% – no just 23 schools in total.\u00a0 \u2018It\u2019s not all about exam results\u2019, many of them cried. Ok we said but you talk about \u2018value add\u2019 and many of you have extensive data to support your claims regarding value add. How many schools have supplied us with their value add data?<\/p>\n

One.<\/p>\n

Blood, stone, extraction. \u00a0But we won\u2019t give up. We continue to chip away at the Walls of Natural School Reserve and we\u2019ve begun to winkle out valuable information. One way we do this is via our school visits.<\/p>\n

We have developed a team of people who visit schools, around five to ten schools a week. \u00a0They are teachers, retired teachers or have a background in education. They have the nose.\u00a0 They interview the principal, some parents and if appropriate children.\u00a0 What\u2019s striking about many of these visits is the disconnect between how a school views itself and how our team experiences time spent in their corridors, classrooms and play areas.\u00a0 Principals have their own special lexicon:<\/p>\n

\u2018Whole of the child\u2019<\/p>\n

and<\/p>\n

\u2018Holistic\u2019<\/p>\n

are my two favourites.\u00a0 Phrases you will hear only from the mouths of principals or school leaders.\u00a0 School websites lead with slightly portentous photographs with the head, along with some words about vision.\u00a0 We\u2019ve never heard a parent mention \u2018whole of the child\u2019 or a \u2018holistic approach\u2019 when they\u2019ve spoken about a school.\u00a0 Words that are common to their lexicon are \u2018community\u2019, \u2018caring\u2019, \u2018rigour\u2019, \u2018experience\u2019.<\/p>\n

A privilege that we enjoy during our tours is the ability to observe a typical day and the opportunity to speak to a variety of people involved with the school.\u00a0And we\u2019ve unearthed some fine nuggets during these visits including:<\/p>\n