112 E Forest Ave
Columbia, MO 65203

Benton Elementary was not a positive environment for our child. The school faces a difficult challenge, due to the clientele that it primarily serves. The majority of the students are unfairly burdened with challenges that stem from their low socioeconomic households. Education frequently took a backseat to inappropriate social behavior, causing the curriculum to be unexplored in depth.The faculty contained zero percent of the predominant faces that the school serves. The administration did not create opportunities for the parents outside of the PTA to feel welcomed on a daily basis, or to become involved in being a resource to the teachers in real-time. The building was run like a youth custody rehabilitation center, where the main focus had been shifted toward free lunch. There were no school wide programs communicating and/or dealing with appropriate social interactions concerning behavior expectations. Every day seemed like the focus was just getting to the last school bell of the day without any of the students or their family members causing a personal injury to any of the students that kept their heads down and went under the disciplinary radar.Our student struggled in this environment. Our household does not foster or support this type of social interaction, and this is why our child spent the majority of his school day disengaged from his education opportunities. Many of the school hours for our child were spent on a tablet doing busy work instead of being challenged with curriculum. The school library goes significantly unused! Benton has lower reading scores, but does not keep reading material in the students hands. We witnessed the teachers reading to the students in their classrooms, while seemingly unconcerned if the students were engaged.Benton needs higher expectations all around! I understand how the challenges of each student’s home environment can hinder the education process, but school wide expectations that are clearly communicated at the front door can turn some of the being time spent as a prison guard into time being spent as an educator.