Nine questions to ask on any school tour

I have given hundreds of tours, and I have toured plenty of other schools as a parent. The glossy viewbook and the polished welcome speech tell you very little. The questions below tell you a lot. Ask them here, and ask them everywhere.

About teaching and learning

• How long have your teachers been here, on average, and why do they stay?
• What does a struggling student's week look like, and who notices first?
• What does a student who is ahead do when they finish early?
• How much homework is typical in my child's grade, and why?
• Can I see student work that has teacher feedback on it?
• How do you handle conflict between children?
• What do graduates say they wish they had learned here?
• What percentage of families receive financial aid?
• What would you change about your school if you could?

Teacher retention is the single best indicator I know of a healthy school. Good teachers have options. When they stay for a decade, something is going right.

What to watch for

Pay attention to the hallways between classes and to the children who are not performing for you. Do they seem relaxed? Do they talk to adults easily? Is the work on the walls clearly made by children, with all the wobbly letters that implies?

The best tour moment is the unscripted one, when a student stops you to explain something they made.

Notice, too, how the school talks about other schools. Confident schools describe what they believe in. They do not need to criticise anyone else.

If you can, bring your child to a second visit rather than the first. Let them spend time in a classroom while you talk with the division director. Children are remarkably good judges of whether a place feels kind, and their reaction afterwards, especially the offhand comments in the car, is worth taking seriously.

After the tour

Write down your impressions within an hour, before they blur together. Then ask to speak with a current parent whose child is like yours. Any school worth choosing will happily connect you, and those conversations are often the most honest you will have.