We are used to seeing ranking lists for everything from appliances and technology to vacation destinations. School rankings are nothing new. College and university rankings have been around for a long time. The U.S. News and World Report on Colleges and Universities was first published in 1983. With the growth of the for-profit school sector and the need for schools to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive market, high schools, and K-12 international schools have turned to placement in publications that feature school rankings. Some of these publications are reputable and gather data on various areas of school performance with some degree of objectivity, but others require that participating schools pay a subscription and even ask the school to write their own review. Rankings have their place but should a ranking system regardless of how rigorously its criteria are defined and applied be the basis for choosing a school for your child?
Do school rankings matter?
ASM does not participate actively in school-ranking publications or programs. We believe that the best indication of excellence is not a numerical value ascribed by an outside source, but rather a combination or presenting clear evidence of student achievement and results as well as windows into the quality of learning, the depth of the program, and, because learning is not a stationary target, the vision of the school for teaching and learning. Don’t get me wrong, data has a critical place in informing decisions, setting priorities, as well as benchmarking, and determining progress toward goals. In that respect, collaboration and sharing data with similar schools can yield fresh insights and help new ideas develop and spread. To that end, ASM collaborates with a range of schools in Spain and Europe to benchmark best practices in pedagogy and to get fresh eyes on policies. Financial comparisons help us develop efficient budgetary practices and evaluate our programs.
Clear communication and a collaborative approach to developing our schools are, we feel, a healthier and more effective way to reach and maintain excellence.
Choose a school that has undergone a rigorous accreditation process for excellence
Some might argue that a well-structured and administered ratings procedure would help provide outside or third-party validation. ASM, like all reputable and established schools, is accredited. The accreditation process looks at all areas of school functioning. No matter how they are structured, school ranking programs are a poor substitute for the very rigorous process of accreditation that schools like ASM go through and which give us detailed feedback on our performance in different areas of school operation, academic program, student results, and our culture of planning for improvement and continuous growth. ASM recently finished the re-accreditation process and was honored to be invited to use a new action research protocol as well as be held accountable for the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges Standards for Excellence.
Choose a school that’s a fit for your child & family
Ultimately people use rankings to answer a simple question. Is this the best school for my children and my family? This is a question about fit. A school’s ranking cannot tell you if ASM or any school is the best for you. This can only be answered for each family with clarity about values, program, and student performance data. As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words and similarly, a story provides more real insight than any numerical score or ranking. Stories illustrate and provide concrete examples. I would like to give you two stories, two examples that will not appear in any ranking category but say volumes about the quality of learning we aspire to and provide for our students.
Choose a school that lives into its mission and values
This week, the Green Team from the U.S. Embassy visited the school to drop off a donation of fruit trees for our school garden. The mostly elementary students in the Garden Club gave the visitors a tour of the garden. They showed the new beds they had dug, they explained how the compost system worked, and they shared their crops. This illustration shows the ASM mission in action. Students empowered to teach adults how to put sustainability principles into action. They were the tour guides and the experts sharing their knowledge, skills, and products. It was inspiring, motivating, and impressive. The Embassy Green Team asked the students if they could visit the Embassy to help them set up a compost system. Together, as one team, students and diplomats put their hands into the center and shared the Garden Club slogan: “No farmers, no food.”
Another example from this morning, equally about sustainability, equally about student empowerment, equally about teaching students to use tools to solve problems but this time in the ASM Technology zone. The teacher was over the moon to share the potential of a new set-up. The students had set up a system to grind plastic and then extrude reused, recycled, filament for the 3-D printers. This is as important a step as the compost initiative in the garden. Students solving waste issues and using the products to print solutions for other projects.
Choose a school with a broad curriculum that embraces learning in action
This is learning in action at ASM. In Music, drama, the arts, mathematics, the social sciences, and language and literature classes, this same ethos of empowering students to use skills, knowledge, and understanding to solve problems and make the world a better place. Learning, grounded in real action, collaboration, and creativity. None of it will appear in a ranking, but it is essential for you to know as a parent making a school choice decision.