Key Factors for School Achievement

Key Factors That relate to School Achievement

1.  Child’s motivation and self esteem

2.  Parenting styles

3.  The parent’s relationship with their child

4.  The parent’s relationship with the school

Tips for Building the Parent/Child Relationship

1.  Accept your child for who he/she is.  Avoid comparing your child to siblings or another child .

2.  Have standards and reasonable expectations for your child.

3.  Set reasonable and clear limits on behavior.

4.  Encourage your child to make his/her best effort.

5.  Show you have confidence in your child’s ability to solve problems and to do a good job.

6.  Praise his/her efforts and improvements in a sensitive way.

7.  Offer help when your child needs it, but do not do the work for him/her.

8.  Listen carefully to your child’s school-related issues and other concerns.

9.  Demonstrate your love through actions and words.

10. Be caring and supportive.

11.  Set a good example.

Getting Organized for School

Tips for Getting Organized at Home for School

1.  Set aside a folder or box in a special place to keep school-related information.

2.  Put the school phone number and teacher’s name and number on the folder or inside the box lid.

3.  Make sure your children have supplies they need.  Keep extra supplies in a special place.

4.  Enlist your young child’s help in laying out school clothes at night.

5.  Decide on a weekday bedtime and stick to it.

6.  Decide how much TV and which program will be allowed during the school week.

7.  Help your child clean out his school bag once a week.

8.  Create a homework calendar.

9.  Leave lunch money in a designated place at the beginning of each week.

10.  Find out what specific topics your child will be studying during the year, then plan family                 activities to enrich the school curriculum.

Moral Development in the Classroom

Parents have many opportunities to visit their children’s school throughout the year. Attending Open House, parent-teacher conferences, special assemblies and presentations, sporting events – these events give parents a glimpse of the environment in which their children are spending a great deal of time. But how does a parent know if morality is encouraged there?

Morality refers to social conduct that exhibits good judgment of fairness, honesty and equality. Research studies and analysis have found that teachers who consistently encourage mutual respect in classrooms help develop morality in their students. Experts suggest that teachers who praise a student’s considerations for others or encourage politeness throughout the school day also cultivate a sense of morality in the classroom.

Children may be able to learn morality by putting themselves in someone else’s shoes. In terms of equality, honesty and keeping promises, one study in China found the concept of “If I were you and you were me” to be helpful for children. For example, if the teacher explains how either party would feel regarding the betrayal of a friend who broke a promise, both children learn a moral lesson from the event.

In addition to teachers, close friends also have an impact on moral learning. When children have a close friendship with a least one peer, they are better able to tell the difference between the norms of genuine and close friendships compared to the norms of friendship in the context of a group.

So the next time you visit your child’s school, check out the playground and the company your child keeps. It may be the values of your child’s friends – good or bad – that are helping to shape your child’s view of morality.

Test Anxiety

I often have parents ask me how their child can do so well on daily school work, yet get an FCAT score lower than the parent expects. One reason for this may be text anxiety.

Standardized tests are used to measure a child’s learning to see if he or she is ready to advance or if they need extra time to learn. They are also important for school accountability. Because of this, children face increased pressures to perform well on standardized tests, such as FCAT.

One reported outcome of standardized testing has been an increase in the prevalence of test anxiety among school-aged children. According to research published in the Journal of Instructional Psychology, students who experience high levels of test anxiety tend to score lower on standardized tests than student who experience low levels of test anxiety. Nothing shocking about that!

According to the U.S. Department of Education, there are a number of actions parents can take to help prepare their children for tests and reduce their anxiety. First, meet with your child’s teachers on a regular basis to discuss progress and ask teachers for activities you can do with your child at home to help them prepare for tests. Some parents like to conduct “mock” tests using a timer for practice.

Try to provide a quiet and comfortable place at home where your child can study, and on test days, make sure your child is well rested and has had a good breakfast. As a test day approaches, calmly talk to your child about what is coming up and encourage him or her to do his or her best.

You can practice stress and relaxation exercises with your child, too. Deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation or visualization can help. Visit my free on-line Stress Management workshop at http://hillsboroughfcs.ifas.ufl.edu/Stress-Management.html.

Finally, it’s important for parents to avoid placing too much emphasis on their children’s test performance by getting upset over “bad” test scores. Doing this will only place extra pressure on your child to perform and increase their anxiety instead of making it better. Make sure your children know they are loved no matter how they do and that you know they will do well because they are ready!

School Drop Outs

According to the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, remaining in school is the single most important action adolescents can take to improve their future economic prospects. Individual state laws, along with innovative dropout prevention programs have helped reduce the number of teens dropping out of schools nationwide.

A variety of factors influence whether or not a teen will do poorly or succeed in school. We know from research that students who do poorly in school tend to believe their success or failure is beyond their control, while students who do well tend to believe their success is because they are smart, and any failure is because they did not try hard enough. To help, parents can applaud their children’s ability when they do well in school and their effort when they do poorly.

In addition, students whose parents were not involved in their school are more likely to repeat a grade, be suspended or expelled, have poor grades and have behavior problems compared to those whose parents are involved.

While most parents want their children to do well in school, by the time teens reach 12th grade, only half of parents are involved in school activities, such as attending a school meeting or event. It is especially important for parents of teens to remain involved in their school. Creating partnerships among schools, parents and key community organizations in joint responsibility for adolescents’ educational achievement and healthy development can continue to reduce the number of kids dropping out of school.

SOURCES:

What to Know about Dropping Out of School: A publication for professionals who work with adolescents and the parents of adolescents, (1998), Kathleen Boyce Rodgers, University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service.

Great Transitions: Preparing Adolescents for a New Century: Concluding Report of the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development. Carnegie Corporation of New York. (October, 1995). New York, NY.

Steinberg, L. & Levine, A. (1990). You and your adolescent: A parent’s guide for ages 10-20. New York: Harper Collins, 1990.

Homework

A few days ago I read a blog written by a mother of a grade school child. She was complaining about homework that teachers assign. Her view was that if the teacher expects the parent to help with homework, then the parents should be put on the school payroll.

Hard to believe, but some parents feel they have no responsibility in their child's education. Two of my daughters are third grade teachers and I just need to say this: Parents - you are a partner in your child's education. Teachers have a heavy workload, so please work WITH them, not against them!

Homework is an important part of your children’s education. It teaches them responsibility as well as how to follow directions, get organized, manage time, begin and complete a task, to work on their own, and practice what they are learning in class. However, most children would much rather be playing or doing other things than homework. Many parents and children struggle over when, where, and how homework will be done.

At times parents may feel that it would be easier just to do the work for their children just to get it over with. However, the National Parent and Teacher Association advises parents to let children do homework themselves. Remember, it’s THEIR homework. You may need to sit with elementary school age children and walk them through the process of how to study, help them organize the materials they need, and complete all their tasks. As you do this, you are laying the foundation for good study habits.

Parents can offer to help check homework, but helping is very different from taking over. You can also reinforce good habits by helping your child find a regular space to work and a regular time of day to do homework. Instead of asking if your child has homework every night, always assume that there is homework, reading or studying of some kind to be done.

As time goes by and your children’s confidence and dependability improves, they will understand the link between school success and homework.

US Math Scores Not Keeping Up Globally

One of the greatest parenting challenges I experienced when my children were younger was helping them with math homework. Many parents like me have heard their children say, “but why do I need to know this? I’m never going to USE it!”

If you need help, Drexel University’s mathforum.org has numerous links that can help you answer that question for your children as they can see the use of math in daily tasks, in numerous career opportunities, even in art. And, if indeed math skills are necessary for our children to compete in a global economy, much less the local job market, recent research funded by the Department of Education might have parents concerned.

According to the report from the American Institutes for Research, U.S. math students are consistently performing below their peers when compared to 11 other industrialized nations including Australia, Japan and the Russian Federation. The study assessed students in grades 4 and 8 as well as 15-year-olds. The students ranked 8th or 9th out of twelve at all three grade levels.

The study also found that students who score well on higher level skills such as mathematical reasoning, also perform better on lower level skills. Compared to other countries, U.S. students didn’t score well on questions at either skill level. While educators are looking at solutions for U.S. math students, parents may also consider how they can help the next time their child asks for help with math homework.

Source:

www.air.org/news/documents/release200511math.htm

“Reassessing U.S. International Mathematics Performance: New Findings from the 2003 TIMSS and PISA,” U.S. Department of Education Policy and Program Studies Service (PPSS); Prepared by American Institutes for Research.® (2005). Retrieved from http://www.air.org/news/documents/TIMSS_PISA%20math%20study.pdf on 01/10/06.