Parent and family education
Parents, guardians, and family members who are new to the middle grades often need as much help as their children in facing the rigors, testing, and social changes that accompany adolescence and the middle grades. Some topics that can be featured at Parent/Guardian/Adults-Who-Care Education Nights or in school newsletters are as follows (online resources are included):
- Developmental characteristics of young adolescents.
- What to look for in the middle grades—what young adolescents need (academically, socially, emotionally, and physically).
- What rigor means for the middle grades student and how parents can help their children succeed.
- Where to go if their child suffers social, emotional, or health problems (for example, during family crises such as divorce, serious illness, domestic violence, or abuse).
- How to monitor cell phone records, Internet chat buddy lists, and Web page histories to determine if students are engaging in harmful activities.
- How parents or guardians can strengthen communications with the school.
- How to foster the 40 developmental assets (PDF; Outside Source) (Search Institute document) in their families.
- How to become involved at the middle school level.
- How parents or guardians can access their student’s personal data and other resources on the school’s Web site.
- How to participate in a student-led conference.
- How to help students with middle grades curriculum (for example, events such as family mathematics nights and family coffeehouse nights to make learning fun while engaging and educating parents/guardians and other family members).
- How to encourage writing. (In one innovative project, the school established a Memoir Project that joined parents or guardians with their children in learning to write a memoir.1)
In the Spotlight
McKinleyville Middle School, McKinleyville Union Elementary School District, a 2006 Schools to Watch™-Taking Center Stage Model School
To engage middle grades parents or guardians, the McKinleyville staff members host a variety of family fun nights. Each has a theme. For example, the school community engages in Physical Education Night and Mathematics Night to emphasize two critical components of the curriculum. In addition, the school staff uses a commercial portal focused on communication to keep parents or guardians informed.
Many schools have discovered that electronic newsletters are cost-effective and often more engaging to parents or guardians who can sign up online and select the news and information that interest them. Because subscribers opt in, schools are able to build their database and meet federal anti-spam requirements at the same time.2
Parents and guardians may also need help to understand and evaluate their children’s progress in school. Parents or guardians need to learn how to pay attention to areas where their child struggles and to encourage them when they make small victories. In this way, parents or guardians reward good study habits, not just good grades.
The California Department of Education’s Web site provides answers to the following commonly asked questions from parents or guardians:3
- If I disagree or am upset about something that is occurring at the school my child attends, what should I do?
- We are moving to area XYZ and have children in elementary and middle school. What should we look for in a school?
- What is the required course of study for middle school students?
- What academic standards should my child be proficient in for high school and the California High School Exit Examination?
- What are the required tests that my middle school child will need to take?
- Who establishes the grading policy for middle school students?
- If my child fails a class or is not proficient in certain standards, does the school have the right to retain my child or prevent him/her from attending graduation?
- There is no graduation ceremony for eighth-grade students at my child’s school. Isn’t this a state policy?
Related Links
Previous
Parent conferences
Next
Involving language-minority parents/guardians
Footnotes
1Tara Bahrampour, Bound by Words and Much More, (Outside Source)—Memoir Class Draws Kids and Parents Closer, Easing Both into Writing,Washington Post (March 28, 2006), B01.
2Nora Carr, Zip Breaking News to Parents Electronically,(Outside Source), eSchool News (March 1, 2005).
3Middle Grades: Frequently Asked Questions.
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