Where do I even begin?
Following up from my school update earlier this month, our school board made the difficult decision to close our neighborhood elementary school. That left us starting fresh at a new school. Thanks to the meet-and-greet, we had a general sense of what was coming. But nothing could have prepared us for the chaos of day one.
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A few years ago, we did a Child(ish) Reads on a book called Thirty Million Words by Dana Suskind, M.D. Its core concept is based on the research by Betty Hart and Todd Risley who, in 1995, found that by the age of three, children from higher-income families hear about 30 million more words than those from lower-income families. This disparity plays a substantial role in shaping academic outcomes and long-term success.
This topic has become top of mind this year as our school board is aligning its priorities with Georgia’s Early Literacy Legislation, which aims to ensure all children become proficient readers by the end of third grade. So why third grade?
Continue readingEvery night, not unusually, Troy and I read to A&Z before bed. We had done a bit of a library purge and made sure that they had a variety of Early Reader and Beginner Chapter books, having already gone through all of our picture books. Now that the girls were older, I wanted to make sure the girls were being challenged by the material, instead of reading the same books over and over.
We switched to reading aloud together and let the girls alternate pages or passages. That’s when what used to be an understandable gap turned into one of our kids falling behind.
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Of course for Back-to-School month we’re reviewing a school(ish) book. This one thankfully is a much more productive read than last year’s. I received an advance copy of A+ Parenting via NetGalley. Technically the book came out in October 2023, so I hope NetGalley will forgive my tragically late feedback.
Summary: Eva Moskowitz has built a national reputation as the founder and leader of Success Academy Charter Schools, one of the country’s most highly regarded networks of schools. But while most people know Eva for her success in educating 20,000 mainly low-income students who are routinely accepted to our nation’s best universities, she has also been responsible for raising three children of her own. In A+ Parenting, Eva shares what she has learned both as a parent and an educator about raising children to be enthusiastic and successful learners.
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Last school year, it was shared that our local public elementary school was shortlisted for possible closure. After five grueling months of parent advocacy and formal meetings with the school board, a final decision was made: our cherished elementary school would close its doors due to fiscal responsibility. The outcome was deeply disheartening.
I served on the research team tasked with compiling data and proposing innovative, cost-saving alternatives that could give us a chance for this upcoming school year. But despite our efforts, the board’s majority leaned toward shuttering aging facilities and reallocating resources.
This feels deeply personal to me right now, but this trend has been widely documented across the country. School systems increasingly forced to make difficult decisions in response to shrinking budgets and changing demographics. As public school enrollment declines (due to a range of factors), closures and consolidations have become part of the cost-cutting strategy.
So where does this leave our community?
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Child(ish) Advice 