Helping you make sense of schooling today

What You Need to Know about Education:
At Home ... At School ... Curriculum ... Education Alternatives ... Standards & Testing ... The State of Schools 

At Home

• Getting organized: Help your kids get off to a good start this year

• Spark Your Child's Imagination this Summer

• Protecting Your Child on the 'Net

• What About Homework?

• Good Websites for Parents

• Why Do Parents Pay Tutors

• Snakes and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails, Is That what Little Boys are Made Of? and What happens when boys aren't allowed to be boys?

• Ten Principles for Parents of Educated Children, from William Bennett's new book

• Don't Forget to Play!

• Back-to-School Advice You Need To Guarantee Your Child a Year of Learning
• A Summer To Do List For Parents: What Can You Do This Summer to Help Your Child Get a Better Education Next Fall?
• A Mother Of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) Children Questions the System

At School

• Knowing How Your School Operates: Teacher Contracts Can Impair Reform

• Middle Schools In Transition and West Point, Virginia: A Middle School Success Story

• Making The Most Of Parent-Teacher Conferences

• The Principal Factor

• Principal Tips for Parents

• Building a Great School Culture: The banner cries out: “Others First.”

• What Parents Can Do To Keep Good Teachers

• Five ways to know if your child has a high quality teacher.

• How to advocate for your child

• When Your Child Changes Schools

• What Parents Need to Know About Testing in their School

• Here are some Ideas of What to Ask your Child's Teacher about Tests

• Is Your School Great? Use This Checklist to Find Out.

• Are You An Educated Consumer of Education? Take This Test to Find Out

• Ten Ways to Become a School Activist

• A Parent's Turn: Organizing on the Sidelines of the Soccer Field
  A story about one mom's struggle to overcome complacency in her school.
• How to Make A Difference: BEING A LEADER AT YOUR SCHOOL
• Wyoming Public School Succeeds with Parental Support
• Are You Afraid to Talk to Your Child's Teacher or Principal?
• Five Questions You Should Ask About Your Child's School

Curriculum

• READING AND LANGUAGE ARTS: 

  • Reading About What Works

  • The next front in the reading wars: Closing the language gap

  • Reading IS Rocket Science: What You Need to Know about Reading Instruction

  • What should be happening at school – and at home with reading

  • Reading Resource Box

  • What’s New in Research That You Should Know About The First “R”

  • A New Approach to Reading

  • Citizens Against Blends -- One Mother's Crusade Against a School Fad

  • Reading: Different Approaches
  • WHATEVER HAPPENED TO... Penmanship?
  • What's Your Child Reading?
  • "Just Between You and I": Whatever Happened to ... Grammar Instruction
• MATH:

  • Is this math fuzzy?

  • Understanding Your child's mathematics education

  • A Parent's Turn: Here's a Plus, Teachers Getting Back to Math Basics

  • Looking At Your Child's Math Program

• SCIENCE:

  • Getting Science Right, January 2002, Page 1.

  • Toolbox: Resources for Better Science and History Teaching, January 2002, Page 3.

  • Science Education: Are Our Children Lagging Behind?

• HISTORY:

  • How Schools and Curriculum Fit Into The World Since 9/11, January 2002, Page 2.

  • Toolbox: Resources for Better Science and History Teaching, January 2002, Page 3.

  • Don't Know Much About ... History?

• THE ARTS:

  • Does Music Class Help Children Learn? and Is Your Child Musically Inclined?

  • The Academic Focus of the Visual Arts and How can you use art to help your child achieve?

• TECHNOLOGY:
  • Computers in the Classroom: At What Cost?

  • Keeping Technology in Perspective

• CHARACTER:

  • Focus on Character Development Minimizes School Problems

  • Character Education -- What to Look for in Your School

Education Alternatives

• New energy behind school choice: It's a new era of choice in American education

• What the recent supreme court decision on school choice means for schools

• Tips for choosing a school

• Charter schools celebrate a decade of growth

• Urban charter closes the achievement gap

• Nick's Story: How A Charter School Changed Everything For My Son, January 2002, Page 3.

• Charter School Spotlight: working together for the community

• The Growing Support for Single Sex Schools

• The New Face of Home Schooling

• Community Colleges: Educating Today's High Schoolers

• About Charter Schools -- Frequently Asked Questions ... And Answers and A Look at Three Charter Schools

• Education Opportunity Scholarships: An Interview with One Parent Who is Using Privately Funded Tuition Vouchers to Choose Where Her Children Go To School

• Education Opportunity Scholarships: Interview with a Children's Scholarship Fund Director

• Texas Charter School Tops in the State: Low Income and Minority Students Outperform More Privileged Peers 

Standards and Testing

• The No Child Left Behind Act: New Choices for Parents -- First of a Two-Part Guide

• What No Child Left Behind Means for Parents and NCLB Resource Box

• Support for Testing Remains Strong Amidst Debate

• What Parents Need to Know About Testing in their School

• Here are some Ideas of What to Ask your Child's Teacher about Tests

• States Leading the Charge on Testing

• Accreditation: What Does It Mean?

• School Report Cards: What Do They Mean?

• Sizing Up The Quality of Our Teachers: Does Certified Mean Qualified?

• The New Grading Styles: Are They Right for Your Child

• Textbooks Riddled With Errors: Do you know what your children are reading?

• Who Makes the Grade? It Depends On Who Is Doing the Grading

• Primer for Parents: WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT TESTING

• Could Your Child Have Gotten into Teacher’s College in 1932?
• What you Should Know about Social Promotion 
• Will Your Child Have to Take Remedial Courses in College? Many College-Bound Students Leave High School Unprepared

The State of Schools

• The No Child Left Behind Act: New Choices for Parents -- First of a Two-Part Guide

• Knowing How Your School Operates: Teacher Contracts Can Impair Reform

• One Teacher's Perspective: Unions Are More About Politics Than Education

• Independent Professional Teacher Associations Gain Momentum

• Learn More About Teachers' Rights and Forced Unionism

• Holding Their Feet to the Fire -- How to make sure elected officials follow through on education

• Election Day 2002 & Education Reform and Why this ELECTION DAY is Vital for Parents

• How to uncover a candidate's position on education

• Read up on reform issues emerging again

• Small classes or small schools? Which is better?

• What No Child Left Behind Means for Parents and NCLB Resource Box

• The Education of Mary June: An original story about the danger of falling complacent

• Cornerstones for School Excellence: Ten Traits of Highly Successful Schools: How You Can Know If Your School Is A Good One

• The challenge of recruiting and retaining good teachers.

• States try innovative strategies to enhance quality of teachers.

• Promising federal legislation could enhance teacher quality.

• Why School Board Races Are Important

• Teachers Matter

• Valedictorians and Class Rank: Headed for Extinction?

• Why We Need Small Schools
• Educational Necessity or Hype: Is Class-Size Really Important? 
• Education Buzzwords to Look Out For: What to Think about Critical Thinking 
• Is Your Child's Teacher One of the 20% of Teachers Who Say They Feel Qualified?

  Home    Join    Library