Parent Power!
Helping You Make Sense of Schooling Today

1001 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 204
Washington, DC 20036
1-202-822-9000 1-800-521-2118

parentpower@edreform.com
www.edreform.com

Published by
The Center for Education Reform
Jeanne Allen, President

To share a unique experience as a parent educating your child or comment about this newsletter, please contact Parent Power by phone or email.

Back-to-School Advice You Need
To Guarantee your Child a Year of Learning

It’s hard to believe that in a short while, kids will be headed back to school.  Once a wistful time for parents and children, it increasingly overwhelms parents with hundreds of things left undone.  Thoughts of school supplies, clothes and carpools can overtake the most important aspect of back-to-school preparation – laying the groundwork for a productive academic year.  Now is the time to ensure this school year offers your child the best opportunities for learning.  Here is some practical Parent Power! advice to help you maximize your child’s chances of success.

        Your first step should be to determine what your child is supposed to be doing in each core subject.  Syllabi and textbooks are general guides, but often provide little in the way of concrete standards or expectations.  Is this the year, for example, that your child will study geological rock formations?  When do they cover your state’s history?  Knowing that can help you plot out activities, support and help prepare him better for school challenges. 

        You also want to know how well prepared your child is for the coming year.  How did he fare in math, in English, and in science at the end of last year? Did your child struggle with one subject or skill in particular?  Check to see how that subject was taught.  It could be that he needs more practice at home or it could be that he needs a different approach all together.

        Whip out that report card and remind yourself what the teacher had to say.  Were there some big challenges in learning that – with the summer solstice bearing down on you at the end of the school year – have slipped your short term memory?  Preparing for the next year involves making sure you remember how your child has fared from year to year.

        Now that you’ve refreshed your mind about where Johnny’s progress was when he was last in school, and learned about what is likely to happen and be expected of him this year, it is time to make a more objective assessment of how full an education is being provided.  School standards are sometimes lower than we would like or not as specific as we need.  For example, many strong and popular curricula today expect second graders to be learning poetry.  That may not be the case in your school.  You need to figure out where your child should be, not just where he is, to help make this and future school years more productive.

        There’s a lot of help available. Unlike a few short years ago, there are today some well-developed tools or services that will help gauge where your child should be at his age.   Parent Power! readers may recall discussions about the What Your First-Grader (etc.) Should Know series by E.D. Hirsch (Core Knowledge Foundation).  This series is widely acclaimed as one of the best ways to take a child’s academic temperature, and we recommend it to you to make your first major assessment.  There are programs that both help you assess your child’s academic skills as well as provide any supplemental services he may need.  Huntington Learning Centers and Sylvan Learning Centers are two national companies and there are an increasing number of highly regarded local firms started by teachers.  For information on more personalized local solutions, check with the Association of Educators in Private Practice at 1-800-252-3280 or www.aaep.org.

        Once you have figured out the necessary school content, it’s important to know how your child’s school works to ensure that the goals both you and the school set will be reached.  Some schools group children by ability in some or all classes.  Some believe that this allows teachers to tailor the pace of learning to different groups of children, while others prefer more heterogeneous, natural groups of children.  Many schools offer special programs to challenge bright kids or to help kids who are behind.  What sort of activities and curricula are used in these special classes?  Would your child benefit from these programs?  You may not always be able to direct how your child is educated.  But, it’s important that you’ve at least made the effort to identify the kinds of approaches your teachers will use and to make clear that you’re ready to be an advocate for change if something falls short of the goals you’ve now set.

        Information is power and most teachers welcome your insights into what makes your child tick, what it is you’re hoping he’ll achieve this year and how you plan to jump in when necessary to ensure he gets there.

        Throughout the year Parent Power! will highlight various ideas and programs that have been proven to help kids learn.  For now, it is most important that you have a clear idea of where your child will be headed this year and the approaches that will get him there.

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