In these days of high stakes testing, it is imperative that a sense of trust and mutual respect be developed for all stakeholders--students, parents, and school personnel--as they work together for optimal student achievement. A simple conversation can often open the doors of understanding. If parents and guardians feel at ease with their child's…

One way to create more class time and not lose education time is to have students take notes at home and do the work in class. This article describes "flipping the classroom," a new instructional model that allows an educator to record a lesson plan on video in the same fashion it would be presented to students. The structure of the…

During summer vacation, many students lose knowledge and skills. By the end of summer, students perform, on average, one month behind where they left off in the spring. Participation in summer learning programs should mitigate learning loss and could even produce achievement gains. Indeed, educators and policymakers increasingly promote summer…

A local Early Head Start parent recently traveled to Washington, DC, to share a new parent engagement strategy with White House officials. Nastassia Jackson and her children's teachers hope the time is ripe for the idea to catch on. Their pitch: A parent board, like a miniature local school council, that "administrates alongside the teachers" and…

Hearing language is the first step in learning to read, write, and make sense of the world. The language gap that results in the achievement gap begins at home. Schools can and should do their part to close this gap, but parents, by reading to children and interacting with them in positive and encouraging ways, need to do their part, too. The idea…

This article presents a rationale for using active involvement techniques, describes large- and small-group methods based on their documented effectiveness and applicability to K-12 classrooms, and illustrates their use. These approaches include ways of engaging students in large groups (e.g., unison responses, response cards, dry-erase boards,…

According to a Pew Hispanic Center study, "Between Two Worlds: How Young Latinos Come of Age in America, Educational Expectations and Attainment," that surveyed Hispanics 16 years old and older, the high school dropout rate among Latino youths is nearly three times higher than that among white youths and nearly double the rate among blacks. Nearly…

In the last decade, more than 800,000 parents of school-age children have been deployed by the U.S. military. Many have deployed more than once and for extended periods, often longer than a year. As a result, increasing numbers of students experience significant distress on a daily basis and are at increased risk for behavioral problems, decreased…

The programs of the Rutgers' Center for Family Involvement in Schools create a partnership for learning between families and schools that promotes and enhances academic success. They also create a powerful school climate that demonstrates respect, trust, and belonging. In addition to teacher-training programs, the center conducts summer leadership…

Decades' worth of studies point to the importance of parental involvement in K-12 schooling. Yet when it comes to policies related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students, families are often deliberately left out of the conversation, according to several leading experts in LGBT youth development. Even in schools where…

Math discussions allow all students to get involved and take ownership of their mathematical knowledge. They allow students to think about what they are doing, reason about why it works, and understand the underlying concept. Teachers will be able to learn so much about their students through the discussions. They will be able to tell when their…

This article offers wisdom to those seeking to better engage young adolescents: children are inherently curious and eager to learn, and will be more so when adults step aside and give them room to stretch. The author describes tools and suggested practices on how to advance student empowerment to learn. Allowing students to make choices about…

The field of education bubbles over with controversies. It's not unusual for intelligent people of good will to disagree passionately about what should happen in schools. But there are certain precepts that aren't debatable, that just about anyone would have to acknowledge are true. While many such statements are banal, some are worth noticing…

Schools and districts have implemented many programs specifically designed to help rising freshmen successfully make the transition to high school, such as 9th-grade academies, mandatory interventions, small learning communities, summer school programs, orientations, mentoring programs, and support teams. The ultimate goal is to help students get…

Many educators and parents would agree that it's important for parents to spend time in their children's classrooms, to closely monitor homework, or to read to children at home. Try telling that, though, to a 13-year-old, argues Nancy E. Hill, an education professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the university's Radcliffe…