When Is the ‘Best’ School Not the Best?

Which school is the best school for your child? Over the past 20 years, I have visited more than 460 schools: urban, suburban, and rural; public, private, and parochial; serving affluent, middle-income, and low-income communities. I have led workshops for teachers and spoken to parents. I have learned that middle-income and affluent parents tend to define “the best school” as “the school most likely to get my child into Princeton, Stanford, MIT, or another top-rated university.” When considering a school, even a kindergarten or pre-K, the first question these parents are likely to ask is “Where do these kids go after they graduate?” We now have long-term longitudinal cohort studies in which researchers have followed students for up to 50 years after graduation, studying the effect that different school types have on different outcomes. We also have extensive research on the effects that different schools have on parameters such as ...