Get tips on what to look, listen, and feel for as you tour a potential high school for your child.
What should you look for when looking at a high school?
As parents, it’s easy to be focused on things like programs (Do they have swimming?) and buildings (How’s the cafeteria?). So we asked award-winning educators who run some of the most successful high schools in the country: What would you look for?
Surprisingly, they don’t have a checklist of programs or practices. Instead, they look for telltale signs of an excellent high school in the way the school is organized and in the interactions between students and teachers.
Explore more about how excellent high schools work:
- Listen: The problem with high school
- Read: Giving students voice and choice
- Read: Explaining academic rigor — and why you want it for your child
- Read: Understanding the power of project-based learning
- Watch: What if all students got accommodations?
- Read: The truth about school mission statements
Thank you to Teacher Scott Frank and Principal Yadhira Flores at IDEA Frontier College Prep, Principal Paul Covey of Valle Verde Early College High School, and all of the excellent students, teachers, and leaders at Northstar Academy, DSST, Design Tech High, and Marshall High School.
