After reading all of the comments on the What Common Core is NOT blog post and Facebook shares, I’ve identified perhaps an even greater problem: parents simply do not know how to advocate for their children. They are concerned for their children’s educational futures and want to help, but may not realize they have the ability to do so. Concerns may emerge from the public’s (mis)interpretation of the inner-workings of individual schools and school districts, a general feeling of helplessness because the problems in education seem so widespread, and perceived lack of time to properly advocate for their children.
With so many parents resistant to the effects of educational reform (specifically the adoption of Common Core standards), the attitude we are displaying to our children may be one of hopelessness, defeat, or just plain frustration. Remember that your children need your support in their education. We don’t have to agree with educational change to be supportive of our children’s educational journeys. We can’t fight all our children’s battles, we cannot be in their classrooms everyday, and we certainly cannot do all their work for them, but we can be their voices at a level they cannot be themselves. Here are a few ideas:
- Do you truly dislike the Common Core standards? Have you read through your child’s grade-level standards and find them inappropriate/unacceptable?
- This is probably the toughest battle to fight because of how universal these standards have become. If this is the issue, you may need to explore your options: charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling. Learn more about how Common Core standards are being implemented in a variety of educational settings. Perhaps you can find an alternative to the public school system that more closely aligns with your educational philosophies.
- Is the problem at the State/Federal level? Do you disagree with the decisions made by elected officials?
- Learn about the candidates, select the best election voting services, vote in elections, write to your politicians, create petitions that are signed by other parents, maybe even educators. Also learn about your local school board members and attend school board meetings. Make your voice heard.
- Has your school district adopted a curriculum that you believe does not meet the needs of your child(ren)?
- Learn more about your school district’s process for adopting new curricula. Is it a team decision? Can parents be part of the team? How often are new programs chosen? How many programs are being evaluated each time? What are the criteria for evaluating curricula? Are their alternative curricula being chosen for struggling learners?
- Has your child’s teacher been properly trained in the chosen curricula?
- Can parents attend workshops? How thorough is the training? Is your child’s teacher being mentored by an administrator, team leader, or department chair to create appropriate lesson plans to meet the needs of a diverse population of students? To what degree does the teacher have to follow the chosen curricula and how much can he/she bring her personal teaching style/perspective to his/her instruction? Are you able to look ahead at the teacher’s edition of the textbooks to see what your child will be learning next to help prepare him/her? Can your child’s teacher meet with you after school to review how particularly-challenging material was taught during the school day so you can support your child at home?
- Is your child’s teacher a good match for him/her?
- Is your child’s teacher meeting your child’s individual needs? Is he/she running a well-organized classroom with a clear plan for classroom management that allows him/her to maximize instructional time? Does she demonstrate a variety of ways to learn, with the use of hands-on learning materials?
- Does your child need more support?
- Learn more about how your child’s school provides support to struggling learners. Is there an afterschool tutoring program? Are there small pull-out groups during the day? Does your child possibly have an unidentified learning disability or language that makes learning more difficult? Address any of these issues with your child’s teacher or school administrator.
- How can you find the time to advocate?
- We all have challenging schedules that make finding additional time a challenge, but technology makes this much easier. Email your child’s teacher, see if he/she gives parents a personal cell phone number to call after hours, use Skype or Google+ for face-to-face conferences when you are unable to get out of work in time to meet in person, ask the teacher to write a note in your child’s agenda when important information needs to be sent home. Open all modes of communication so you are in constant contact with your child’s teacher.
Unfortunately, the school environment can be intimidating for children and their parents, but we need to be our children’s voices if we are unhappy with their educational settings. I hope you find these ideas to be helpful. Please comment with additional questions, ideas, and suggestions.
I’m curious if you have suggestions on how to advocate for a child that is struggling socially and is perceived as having behavioral issues? We have communicated the need for positive reinforcement and opportunities for her to build her confidence but she continues to be sent to the principal for minor negative behaviors (writing her name on a rock on at recess) which only seems to make negative behavior a self fulfilling prophesy. I appreciate any input.
Good question, Ann. When it comes to behaviors in the classroom, two different types of documents can be created.
The first is called a Behavior Contract. This is a document created by the classroom teacher, student, and parent. It outlines a few simple goals the child will be working toward (from the child’s perspective) with consequences for appropriate behaviors and inappropriate behaviors.
The second is a Behavior Intervention Plan. This document is written with a team of professionals who have taken data on your child’s behavior. It includes goals, ways to redirect and reinforce behaviors, and many other details.
I would definitely discuss with your child’s teacher if either of these documents seem appropriate. Also, ask your child’s teacher what seems to be triggering her behaviors? You can then speak with your daughter about these triggers and help her brainstorm other ways to handle the issues she is confronting at school.
Please let me know if you have any other questions 🙂
If you have the opportunity, I would spend a few days in your child’s classroom. As a teacher, it is very hard to describe (or remember) all of the behaviors that may have lead to her being sent to the principal’s office. I find it hard to believe simply writing on a rock was the first offense.
By being in the classroom, you get to see how the whole system works. You can see how the teacher interacts with the students, her behavior standards, and where students are placed. Also, you may see something that the teacher can’t. Just remember, that with you there, some behaviors of your child may not be present.
Present your ideas after spending a few days in the class. Be respectful and honest. You are both there for the benefit of your child.
Ann,
The first thing that I can think of is to ask if you can have a behavior plan in place for your daughter. If you can meet with the teacher, and possibly the administrator since she has been sent to the office, to discuss specific behaviors that you as a team would like to see decrease or increase. You can outline a plan.
If it is concrete, then there are clear steps to go through and you may not feel that they are sending her to the principal over what do seem to be minor. I have used a chart before with the schedule broken down into small increments. The goal is to get something like a + for each time she does a behavior that you would like to see more of (raising her hand without blurting out for example) and a – if it is one you want to see less of (like blurting out). If at the end of the day you have more +’s than -‘s you get a small reward, like a sticker.
In the beginning it is important to have one or two behaviors you want to see decrease and the replacement behaviors for whatever that was. Make sure it’s specific and that it is explained to her.
Example: “It can be very distracting when students shout out without raising their hand first. I want to help you learn to stop, think, and raise your hand before you shout out when we are on the carpet. I am going to put this little picture of a stop sign on the wall next to where you sit to help you remember. What does it mean? Now, every time you raise your hand without shouting out, I am going to write a + sign on your chart. If you forget, I am going to put a – sign. We are going to try to have more + signs than – signs. OK? WHat are we going to do?”
The key is to know what you want to see differently, focus on one behavior at a time, be specific, and be consistent. Hopefully, having a plan in place that everyone agrees on will help make all of you feel better! Hope that helped!
I have two questions.
1. How can we, as educators, help parents understand more of what happens in the classroom so that the transition to common core is less scary. I hear a lot of push back over things that are not a part of the standards themselves. I hear arguments that standards are not developmentally appropriate, but rarely will get specific standards that are not acceptable. There is a lot of misinformation, and a lot of misinterpretation (often by publishing companies).
2. What happened to trust in the teachers? I have worked in several schools, and out of all of the teachers that I have worked with in my school building, and across the district, I see the hardest working people I know. I can only think of perhaps one person who I questioned why they were teaching, but it appears that the public has this image of teachers being lazy and not teaching or doing whatever they can for the students. We are in this position because we believe it is so important!
Many parents may not know the difference between standards and curriculum; they just know that the work sheets, homework and tests that their children bring home are confusing, and many times include questions and multiple choice answers that are vague, inaccurate, inconsistent, poorly worded, and/or cover age-inappropriate material (I am referring to things like grammar not sexually explicit items.). What can be done about the poorly designed “Common Core-aligned” materials? So many children are becoming discouraged over this. Some parents have told me their young children are literally pulling out their hair; some vomit every morning before school. Many cry and ask to stay home. Parents feel helpless as they cannot help them with the work. I’ve seen many examples which I too found confusing and sometimes I could not figure out a correct and I could not figure out correct answers either. Why are they trying to trick young children? From what I have observed, the curricular materials associated with GO MATH should be recalled by the publisher. There may be others just as bad. Forbidding the use of stacking and instead mandating adding horizontally is puzzling if the object is to teach proficiency and efficiency in arithmetic.. Requiring the illustration of math answers is silly and time-consuming. None of this is “rigorous.” Perhaps the only thing “rigorous” about much of the CC-aligned materials is the speed with which the curricula were churned out. I do hope the developers of assessments from PARCC, SBAC and Aspire preparing them with more care and expertise both as to subject content and age of the student.
We are very lucky in my district that we have not been given, nor are going to be given any time soon, new materials that are supposedly aligned to the new set of standards. That allows me and my team to teach math, not a program. Perhaps if I was in a place where the situation was different, I would have a different perspective. All I see is the growth, and excitement my students and the students in my school have for math. It is amazing. Also, it is amazing to see the gender divide fall! When I was in school, girls weren’t good at math and that was ok. Now, my brightest math students are BOTH boys and girls!
I just wish that instead of fighting to throw it all away before it even has a chance to get off the ground, we could discuss what works best and how to make sure that every child gets the experience my students have!
Your right, rigor does not mean catching tricks. It means that I am a thinker and that I deeply understand a skill instead of skating past it.