Oxford schools to match children with teachers

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) - The Oxford School District is asking parents of elementary age students to help with the classroom placement process.

“What the administrators really need to know is what your child is like and what kind of teacher your child would benefit most from,” Superintendent Brian Harvey told The Oxford Eagle (https://bit.ly/1mM3phe ).

The schools participating in the survey are Bramlett Elementary, Oxford Elementary and Della Davidson.

The survey is due by May 19 for the 2014-15 school year. It can be found online at the school system’s website, https://www.oxfordsd.org. Once on the district’s homepage, parents or guardians may click on the corresponding school’s tab to access the survey.

Harvey said upper-grade levels are not participating because of the class period and teacher changes within the school day.

“We have allowed parents in the past to circle a number of teachers that they would be happy with, and that doesn’t help with placing students,” Harvey said. “We just can’t meet the wants of all the parents. It’s impossible, so we have to have a better way to do that and there are no perfect matches, but we believe all of our teachers are of high quality.

“When you get a particular teacher that gets 60 or 70 or 100 parent requests, we can’t satisfy that and put 100 kids in a kindergarten class.”

The survey includes the name of the student and parent, the student’s grade for the 2014-15 school year and a box for a narrative of the child in 500 words or less.

Above the input boxes, parents are instructed to list medical concerns, personality traits and learning styles of their children along with any other information they deem important. The district also asks parents to not list specific teachers that are desired in the narrative as they will match the child based upon availability and need to the proper teacher.

Harvey said the school district will also consider the gender, achievement, ethnicity and behavior of each child to “find the proper balance in each classroom.”

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Information from: Oxford Eagle, https://www.oxfordeagle.com