Your child’s principal and teacher should be able to tell you what your child is learning and what they will be learning in the future. Excellent schools, and really, excellent principals should be able to offer you a copy of the objectives for any given grade level.
Furthermore, your child’s teacher should be able to tell you how your child is meeting those objectives. Learning objectives should, for the most part, make sense and be reasonable for your child to attain.
Beware of schools that seem to have impossible-to-meet objectives. It could mean that their objectives are out of date, or that your child is not a good fit for the school. More importantly, beware of schools that do not have their objectives written down. Not only are the objectives likely to change from year to year but a lack of objectives means that the school has no goal for your child and no accountability for your child’s teacher.
A Literature-Rich Environment
An excellent school will provide students with ample opportunity to be exposed to literature. Every classroom, at least until 8th grade, should have a time of silent reading where students may choose their books and a time of reading out loud where the teacher reads something to the students that is slightly above the grade level reading ability. This is in addition to regular language arts which deals with reading fluency and comprehension as well as writing and grammar.
Literature-rich classrooms also have libraries. Good classroom libraries will have books geared to that particular grade level and are organized in such a way that the student can easily find a book.
An excellent school will encourage a study of literature across the curriculum, integrating all disciplines into the course of study. Avoid a school that does not actively seek to encourage a love of reading. (It is worthy to note here that if you are not sure if your child’s school actively encourages a love of reading, they don’t.)