In a world in which individuals are judged on the basis of performance, parents can be lured into believing that their worth is measured by their child's achievements. Parenting is not a competition. This outdated mechanistic model fails to appreciate the unrepeatable, precious uniqueness of every child and every parent. Nothing is more important…

The 1994 National Standards for Arts Education were succeeded by a new generation of standards published in 2014 by the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS). This iteration of voluntary standards provided a new foundation for designing curriculum for visual arts education. The design of the standards utilized the curriculum model…

Gifted children are often empathetic, morally sensitive, and feel a responsibility toward others. As they become aware of the injustices in their surrounding communities, they may embark on a quest for justice for individuals who are oppressed, marginalized, or misunderstood. With Gay Pride Month in June bringing increased visibility and awareness…

The instructional programs educators design to help English Learner (EL) students work toward English proficiency look different in schools across the United States. This is due in part to the variety of approaches K-12 educators take to important questions such as: Should the program foster bilingualism or focus solely on English? Should ELs…

Families of adolescents with ASD, and school staff who support them, often report that maintaining good personal hygiene can be difficult for their sons, daughters, and students. Hygiene is the practice of keeping up with one's health and cleanliness. Maintenance of hygiene includes washing hands after going to the bathroom, using a tissue when…

This article shares a monthly curricular model that can help teachers and families bridge the gap between home and school by using literature and response inspired from the cultures in the classroom. Integrating culturally responsive texts and family response journals into the classroom and the home can help children, their families, and peers…

Since 2012, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has supported educational enrichment in rural areas by awarding over $3.3 million in grants to six outstanding organizations operating in Iowa, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. In this report, the authors combine the experiences of these organizations with findings from the…

Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (GLBTQ) youth have many strengths, with about 24% of boys and 48% of girls in seven metropolitan GLBTQ support groups identifying as gifted. Similarly, approximately 30% of 1,000 online GLBTQ adult respondents indicated that they, too, had attained gifted-range accomplishments. Parents of gifted…

School grades provide an easily understandable metric to measure the performance of a school. Parents and the general public can use the informational baseline school grade and its associated components to understand how well each school is serving its students. The school grades calculation was revised substantially for the 2014-15 school year to…

Motivation in mathematics and science appears to be more important to STEM occupational choice than ability. Using the expectancy value model, parents may be able to recognize potential barriers to children's selection of a STEM occupation and take actions to help facilitate talent development. These are especially important for parents of…

One of the findings from the ZERO TO THREE "Parenting Infants and Toddlers Today" (Hart Research Associates, 2009) parent survey was that while the majority of parents understood ways of promoting their child's development, their understanding of the milestones related to social and emotional development was less consistent. This is an important…

This book should be read by anyone concerned about the future of education in the United States. It was written for students, parents, educators, administrators, and policy makers because it will require effort from all these individuals to create meaningful change in the education system. This book discusses why the education system needs to…

Young children depend on their families and teachers to support their well-being and promote positive development, including eating behaviors. Children's food preferences and willingness to try new foods are influenced by the people around them. The eating behaviors children practice early in life affect their health and nutrition--significant…

For family engagement to improve student learning, a wide range of stakeholders--from parents to principals to teachers--must share responsibility in developing, implementing, and assessing their school district's family engagement strategy. In order to help each of these stakeholder groups define their roles, superintendents and central…

Pediatric asthma is often undiagnosed, and therefore untreated. It negatively impacts children's functioning, including school attendance and performance, as well as quality of life. Schoolwide screening for asthma is becoming increasingly common, making identification of possible asthma particularly relevant for school nurses. Nurses may need to…