A process for engaging parents in thinking about school - what it is and what it should be.

1. Creating a Vision for Salisbury…
What
Makes A
Quality
Education?
Randy Ziegenfuss, Ed.D.
Western Salisbury Elementary PTA

2. My story…

4. What makes a quality education?
“The single biggest problem in education is that no one agrees on why we
educate. Faced with this lack of consensus, policymakers define good education
as higher test scores.”
~ Diane Ravitch

5. Why is it important to answer this
question?
While policymakers matter, they are not the final arbiters in the debate. We
should not allow them to be.
Our answer defines what we give time to and what becomes priority in the day-
to-day life of the classroom. How we answer the question shapes our
aspirations as parents, educators and society at large.

6. What do you want your children (all
children) to be like as adults?
For example: curious, engaged, able to persevere, etc.
• What ideas come to mind when you consider this
question?
• What connections can you make to others’responses?
• What questions arise as you think about the question and
consider the responses of others?

7. The student is an engaged and active thinker able to communicate, innovate,
collaborate and problem-solve.

8. The student is an engaged and active thinker able to communicate, innovate,
collaborate and problem-solve.
How do we get there?
How do we realize such a vision?
How are our schools doing in
producing the vision of students as
thinkers?

9. Children grow into the intellectual life
of those around them?
What kind of intellectual life are we surrounding our children with at home, in
school and in the classroom?
~ Lev Vygotsky

10. Old Story
What words or phrases characterize our experience in school?

11. Current Story
What words or phrases characterize the experience of our children in school?

12. New Story
How is the current story adequately promoting the outcomes we value?
How do we DREAM and ARTICULATE a new vision?
What if…?

13. What makes a quality education?

14. Randy Ziegenfuss, Ed.D.
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