The good school is the school that is connected, plugged in, a digital hub, with the latest on the Internet coursing through classrooms. That bond between teacher, parent, and student is the connection that a modem cannot make, and it could be the key to school reform in the next century, many reformers argue. Teachers say that they see kids coming to school who are not prepared to learn, who are uncivilized, unruly, and they can't teach them. And parents are very confused about how to raise children who are civil and respectful. Ill. Even top schools are having to reassess constantly to meet new demands.
Polls consistently show that parents want their kids to be safe and known by school staff.
Even when they have doubts about the quality of local public schools, most parents would rather fix the neighborhood school than carpool or bus the kids to an alternative. At the same time, public schools are coming under a tougher regime of measurement than they have ever known. The buzzword in education reform is accountability. The good school, by this measure, is the one that can prove results. While some public-school officials worry the drive to measure results is overdone, they see the demand for continuous school improvement as a given.