Parents worry about paying for college, a Learning Heroes survey shows. They worry if their kids are happy and safe at school. But they don’t worry much about academic achievement, reports Shannon Gilchrist of the Columbus Dispatch on the Education Writers of America site. Ninety percent of public-school parents believe their children are performing at or above grade level in reading and math.
In a panel at the EWA conference, parents said they trusted their children’s teachers.
“When (teachers) told me he was doing OK, I took their word for it,” said Liz Goshorn of Howard County, Maryland, about her son, who just completed his senior year at Hammond High School.
Teachers let him coast through, she said. “I feel horrible now that he’s graduated because I should have been his advocate. I should have pushed back,” Goshorn said. “I just feel like there was a lot of time lost.”
Parents complained of “overly wordy, edu-speak communications that schools tend to send home,” reports Gilchrist.
Parents have mistaken “climate” for the school temperature, said Bibb Hubbard, president of Learning Heroes, which promotes parent engagement.
She recounted talking to a mother who was thrilled that her child’s school had a large percentage of teachers with emergency certifications. “‘That’s so great! … Because that means they know CPR.’”
One of the chapters in my book, Our School, is titled, F no es fabuloso. Until high school, “Lorenzo” had told his immigrant mother that his report card was filled with “fabulosos.” He’d won a “student of the month” certificate and been promoted each year. How was she to know?
Education Week reports on technology that helps schools communicate with parents.