"Common Core"

Ding ding ding!!!

When I first became a teacher, I was always told to wait until I met the parents, and then I'd understand the child. In my experience, it was completely true. If parents have little drive to improve their child's life, what chance is there that a child will want to do so? Look how many parents attend PTA Meetings or Parent Conferences, and then compare that number to how many parents attend school sporting events. In the United States, many parents just don't seem to have the initiative to see that their children do well in school. It's unfortunate.

This cartoon sums up a change in the parental attitudes of those who are involved in the child's education.


My daughter is in Kindergarten now, and we were fortunate to be able to put her in 2 years of Pre-School. Many students don't get this opportunity, and that's why some legislators are pushing for a Pre-K initiative. My belief, however, is that even without this, there's no excuse for a child entering Kindergarten to not know basic things like the alphabet or colors, but sadly, many students start with nothing, and that puts them behind.

-Matt

 

What would be your best guess estimate on the split between parents and teachers for student success? Parents/Teachers = 60/40?, 80/20?

 

I don't know that I could answer that. I can tell you that within the school research shows that the number one factor for student success is the teacher. It's not textbooks, computers, etc. Initially, parents have a strong role in preparing the child for school. Human development shows that the first few years of life are crucial to children because their brains are sucking up knowledge. That's why it's important for parents to talk and read to their children at a young age. However, once the kids get to school, the parents become more of a support system for the teacher. It's important that parents ensure their kids do homework, and continue to work with their kids at home to ensure that learning continues.

Perhaps my daughter is different because my wife and I are both educators, but she's very bright. She blew the PALS test out of the water, only being a few points away from a perfect score. In other words, she exceeded the end of year benchmark at the start of the year, and I attribute that to the fact that my wife and I, as parents, supported her growth, development and learning. While I don't know the scores of her classmates, her teachers have told us she is very much ahead of her class, and they've actually paired her up with some of the weaker students in the hopes that she'll be a good influence on their learning. Reagan tells us that many of her classmates don't turn in homework. The homework she does isn't even that much, so I can't understand why a parent wouldn't sit with their child for a few minutes each night and work through it with them. It just seems like there's a major lack of responsibility.

-Matt

 

I once read a Time Magazine article that said only a certain type of Catholic school made a difference. Economically disadvantaged students were just as likely to do poorly in private schools as public schools. The economically disadvantaged students who did well tended to have more involved parents.

There is a push for more charter schools, but most do not perform better than public schools. The ones that do perform better have the luxury of only accepting students if they believe the parents will be involved, rejecting special needs students, and expelling students for not performing up to their standards. These rejected students HAVE to be taken in by public schools.

 

This study collected data from more than 10,000 students.

Parenting more important than schools to academic achievement, study finds

 

I found another interesting study.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-about-better-parents.html?_r=0

 

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...."

 

As a teacher myself, and as an instructor in an online Master's degree for teachers for the past 11 years, from all over the country, I think I am well qualified to state that the overall feeling of teachers across the country is that most HATED NCLB.