Parent Partnership

Revising the traditional parent-teacher conference allows middle school students to develop leadership and organizational skills.

A parent and former middle school teacher uses thank you notes at the start of the year to foster ties with her child’s teachers.

There’s often a rift in communication between educators and parents who suspect their kids have special needs. A parent describes the support that would have helped her initiate an assessment.

These questions will help you draw out important information from your kids.

Back-to-school content is usually focused on teachers and students, and as these two groups will have the largest workload ahead of them, that makes sense. But for students, the ultimate support system is not an expert teacher, but an informed and supportive family.

Introducing computer programming to your kids can be a challenge, especially for those who aren’t familiar with the nuances of code. Fortunately, in the last few years, a number of apps, software, and guides have been produced that make the often-complex subject of computer coding easy to grasp for young learners. So where to begin? These are a few resources that parents can share with their kids to help them start learning about programming.

Educators face challenges, funding issues, and problems beyond their control. But for each student and family, it’s all about the relationship they will have with their child's teacher.

Suggestions for how to make back-to-school night a hit for you and your students’ parents.

As a beginning teacher I knew that it was important to connect with parents and to build a positive relationship with them, but at times I wasn't sure how to do this. In retrospect, I wish I'd asked more questions about their child and then listened more to what they had to say. After twenty years of experience and after sending my own child off to school, here are some questions I'd ask parents with the intention of building a partnership to support their child's learning.

Browse a curated list of resources for improving parent-teacher conferences, including ideas for highlighting student progress, ways to encourage students to take the lead, and questions every parent should ask.

With clear goals, timed exercises, and games, parents can help design home-study habits by tailoring them to their students' visual, kinesthetic, musical, or social strengths.

Check out these useful suggestions for teachers when sitting down with parents.

To help combat summer learning loss, Matt Davis has curated a few fun and free education resources for students and parents to use over summer break. 

Neuroscientific evidence suggests lasting damage to the brains of teenagers subject to the so-called benefits of "tough love" practiced by educators.