Reformers, please listen to what parents want for schools - CNN.com

Reformers, please listen to what parents want for schools - CNN.com:

Reformers, please listen to what parents want for schools

By Helen Gym, Special to CNN

June 8, 2011 4:42 p.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Helen Gym: School reformers act as if schools can be measured numerically
• She says the real way to look at schools is seeing if they inspire students
• She says parents aren't looking for formulas but results
• Politicians need to listen to what parents want for their children

Editor's note: Helen Gym is a Philadelphia public school parent and writer and founder of Parents United for Public Education, which seeks classroom-centered investments in education budgets. She is a board member of thePhiladelphia Public School Notebook, where she contributes online commentary. She helped found the Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School in Philadelphia Chinatown and was named the Philadelphia Inquirer Citizen of the Year for 2007 for education activism.

Philadelphia (CNN) -- Many of those who are driving education policy today are fixed on a certain set of numbers and measurements that we're told are the way to gauge a quality school. But as a parent, that's not really what matters to me about my daughter's education.

I can't tell you the number of her standardized test score from last year. I can't tell you the name of the curriculum program her school