by Carol Lloyd

Originally published on The 74.

“It was always arguments, drama, fighting,” Lashawn Pettaway Polen says of his previous school. “If I did more [schoolwork] … I would become a target.” Eight years ago, his mother transferred him to North Star Academy, an Uncommon Schools charter school in downtown Newark. This spring, the high school senior will graduate with eight Advanced Placement classes under his belt and a plan: “I want to major in psychology and become a child psychologist.”

North Star has been a game changer for its primarily first-to-college students since it opened in 2000. But for the average American student, the view isn’t so rosy. Only 67 percent of high school graduates go to college, and only 38 percent are actually considered ready for college and career when they graduate. For low-income students, the statistics are bleaker still: Only 2 percent are considered college and career ready, and only 26 percent earn a college degree within five or six years.

The economic implications are staggering — one study estimated that the U.S. GDP would rise by $100 trillion if our high schoolers could catch up to Finland’s kids.

Against this dismaying backdrop, gathering data on which high schools are helping kids succeed in college is more urgent than ever. In 2018, GreatSchools set out to find those schools, using newly available data on college preparation, enrollment, persistence and remediation. Our first College Success Awards identified 814 high schools across nine states. This year, we’re honoring 1,722 public high schools in 25 states based on an updated methodology that also identifies those that help low-income students succeed.

Not surprisingly, many of the winning schools serve children of the “haves.” But 39 percent of this year’s winners have low-income student populations of 40 percent or more. How do these schools break the mold? Seeking schools that could be models for educators and policymakers across the nation, we took a deeper look at the highest-performing winners serving low-income students.

Many of the low-income award winners are selective: early college schools where students start college in 11th grade; gifted programs that admit based on test scores and grade point averages; charter high schools that accept students only from rigorous feeder schools; magnet schools that require a minimum 3.0 GPA. These schools drive performance in part by limiting the student pool. They are excellent, but they are not models for everyone.

When you remove the advantages of an affluent or selective student population, are there still high schools that successfully prepare kids for college success? Yes — and they include district, magnet and charter schools.

But they’re far from ubiquitous. In Massachusetts, known for its impressive educational standards, precious few College Success Award winners serve low-income students. In Texas, however, which ranks 36th in the nation in per-pupil spending and educates many English learners and low-income students, high schools that close the college gap are plentiful.

Veterans Memorial Early College High School in Brownsville is a prime example of how Texas is leveraging early college/dual enrollment — not just for an elite few, but for everyone. Despite serving a population that’s 97 percent Hispanic and 92 percent low-income, Veterans staff encourages all students to explore the school’s 13 dual enrollment classes, as well as enroll in its 20 AP classes, as early as freshman year. The high school maintains close ties with local colleges, and Veterans staff meet with college representatives regularly to plan the dual enrollment program. The school also offers 16 vocational certifications to help students pay their way through college. It’s all part of the larger plan to make college accessible and affordable.

Four years ago, award winner Elizabethtown High School, in central Kentucky, launched an effort to help all students prepare for the rigors of college. First, administrators got rid of the less rigorous “college and career readiness” track and jettisoned requirements for Advanced Placement classes. This policy shift nearly doubled the number of students enrolling in AP. The school also upped the number of AP classes on offer from eight to 14; now, any student can choose from 14 advanced courses, including AP Physics, AP Statistics and AP Human Geography. Along with higher expectations, the school invested more in tangible support for students. Math and reading study sessions are held twice a week, and one Saturday a month, the school opens to give students extra help on schoolwork. Students also can use the school’s washer and dryer to clean their clothes and access free toiletries to shower at school.

At Arabia Mountain High School, a magnet school in suburban Atlanta, rigorous academics and robust career pathways provide 1,400 students, 98 percent of whom are African American, with a practical approach to their futures. All students must pick a pathway to gain skills in a career field such as engineering, culinary arts or digital media. Experiential STEM opportunities are also key to the school’s success. For example, all students must take an environmental science class where they conduct research on solving a real-world problem.

At President William McKinley High School in Honolulu, alumni and community members fund, mentor and inspire students’ aspirations. The McKinley Foundation doles out $80,000 in scholarships each year to seniors headed to college. A community mentorship program matches low-income seniors with successful professionals who guide students through their first year of college. The Hall of Honor, which celebrates alumni who have meaningfully given back to their community, offers students a tangible picture of how individual purpose leads to a better community.

At Newark’s North Star Academy, every element is designed to help students succeed in four-year college. When the school noticed that graduates with high school GPAs under 2.5 were more likely to struggle in college, they created a weekly workshop where students analyze their schoolwork and create goals to improve their study habits. When the school saw that only 6 percent of alumni were choosing STEM majors, it vastly increased the number of advanced STEM classes. When research revealed that low-income students struggle in college because they lack college-savvy support, the school created an alumni department that emails, texts and visits college freshmen to help them navigate their new life.

Having identified schools that are helping all students succeed, we can begin to tell their stories and share their insights. Thanks to the valuable data collected and shared by 25 states, we can shine a light on the brilliant work educators are doing. As we learn from these schools, we can help ensure that more students get the preparation they need to make it to college and succeed once they’re there.

About the author

Carol Lloyd is the VP, Editorial Director at GreatSchools.

GreatSchools is the leading national nonprofit empowering parents to unlock educational opportunities for their children. We provide school information and parenting resources to help millions of American families choose the right school, support learning at home, and guide their children to great futures.

GreatSchools is proud to be part of Medium. If you enjoy what you’ve read, we would appreciate a ‘Recommend’ so we can keep bringing you select content.

by Samantha Brown Olivieri

Read the full article originally published in Education Post.

Last August I was visiting family in Oregon when I walked into a supermarket and by the front door saw a large sign that read in eye-catching print: “Give Kids The Tools They Need to Succeed.” The sign proceeds to list the “tools for success”: pencils, scissors, markers, glue sticks, erasers, crayons, colored pencils, notebook paper and hand sanitizer.

The sign, which was actually affixed to a donation drive collection box, is not a bad idea. Schools are underfunded and badly need supplies. The problem is it’s wrong.

As parents, we all want to give our kids the tools they need to succeed. We want our children to grow up to be happy, well-rounded, productive citizens. We rely on our schools to provide a foundation for academics and social-emotional development, but we know it’s our role to ensure our kids get what they need.

Every August, as anticipation for the new school year builds, retailers capitalize on parents’ excitement with a barrage of marketing for back-to-school shopping. Like it our not, back-to-school shopping is a reality for the majority of American families. Yet these marketers would have us believe that all we’d have to do to set our kids up for success is to stock up on glue sticks and markers.

Of course, the reality is far different. The painful truth is that only about 1 in every 3 kids in the country are performing academically on grade level. Only 1 in 4 are likely to get a college degree. The prospects are even worse for Hispanic and African-American students, and students from low-income families.

Yet we also know that excellent schools are the difference maker in preparing low-income kids for college and careers. We actually do know the tools that students need to succeed, and for goodness’ sake, it’s not glue sticks.

A new framework for school success released last week by New Schools Venture Fund presents seven attributes of a positive learning environment that are backed by evidence as linked to developing the “mindsets, habits, and skills” that students need. This framework provides not only a measurable definition of school success, it lays out actionable goals that schools should aspire to, and parents should know about.

What if, instead of a list of school supplies to buy, parents had a list of things that students need for success? What if, in addition to backpacks filled with binders and pencils, parents came to the first day of school armed with an understanding of what they should be expecting from their child’s school:

• A prepared and supported teacher using a high-quality curriculum.
• A safe, welcoming school culture that cultivates close relationships and a sense of belonging.
• Evidence that students are making a year’s progress in reading and math in a year’s time.
• Well-rounded learning opportunities that build college- and career-ready skills.

Parents know that school success is measured by more than test scores, yet have limited insight into how their schools are actually doing. If parents had a more nuanced, yet not overwhelming, list of attributes that they should be looking for from their schools — and an idea of how their schools stacked up against that framework — they could be smarter consumers of education, and more effective advocates for their children.

States, school districts, principals, community leaders, and nonprofits all play important roles in helping parents to navigate their child’s education. But perhaps part of the responsibility should lie with the back-to-school marketing machine, as well. Back-to-school shopping is a $27 billion industry in America. Retailers could use their marketing muscle to help empower parents to build the actual tools to success that students need, and focus those efforts within low-income communities.

Perhaps that grocery store sign, for example, could contain clear, inspiring information about what school success looks like and how parents can take action.

Let’s try moving beyond the shopping list to the “school success list.” In clear, accessible language that avoids jargon, we should help parents understand what they should expect from their schools, and provide clear answers about how their school is faring. We should provide parents with actionable guidance about what they can do to help their child thrive — and to help their school improve. Because parents play an essential role in manifesting school success, and it’s not just through #2 pencils.

About the author

Samantha Brown Olivieri is the Chief Strategy Officer at GreatSchools.

GreatSchools is the leading national nonprofit empowering parents to unlock educational opportunities for their children. We provide school information and parenting resources to help millions of American families choose the right school, support learning at home, and guide their children to great futures.

GreatSchools is proud to be part of Medium. If you enjoy what you’ve read, we would appreciate a ‘Recommend’ so we can keep bringing you select content.

GreatSchools: Why We’re Giving Parents More School Quality Info — and How States Can Step Up to Help

by Matthew Nelson

Virtually every choice an American parent makes can be informed by facts, figures, and analysis. When one becomes a parent, this information becomes even more important. What’s the safest car seat for my child? How do my child’s height and weight compare with those of other kids their age? What’s the best way to develop healthy sleep habits?

And then something happens for too many parents as their children enter school: The information that was once front and center in their decision-making process just isn’t there.

Parents of school-age children are no less interested in education; in fact, they want their children to have access to a great education and a life rich with opportunity…

Read the full article originally published in The 74.

About the author

Matthew Nelson is the President of GreatSchools.

GreatSchools is the leading national nonprofit empowering parents to unlock educational opportunities for their children. We provide school information and parenting resources to help millions of American families choose the right school, support learning at home, and guide their children to great futures.

GreatSchools is proud to be part of Medium. If you enjoy what you’ve read, we would appreciate a ‘Recommend’ so we can keep bringing you select content.

by Samantha Brown Olivieri

Note: Article originally published in The Hill

This week, states begin submitting their implementation plans for the Every Student Succeeds Act and they find themselves in the driver’s seat to ensure that the public has access to clear and accurate information about schools in their community. The challenge for states will be to find the political will to do the right thing when it comes to accountability. And to do the right thing for parents, especially as federal and state policymakers increasingly promote the expansion of school choice.

Whether parents are choosing schools in urban areas or working hard to improve schools in rural communities, they must have access to clear and accurate information about how schools are serving our children. Parents are the front line in the fight for improving our children’s education — the federal government and states need to ensure that parents are empowered with the information they need to help their children get the education they deserve.

State governments need to provide data on school performance and access to educational opportunity that go beyond test scores, including student academic growth, postsecondary outcomes, and course access.

We know the top priority for parents when evaluating schools is the quality of the academics, including access to great teachers, rigorous coursework, and a positive, safe, enriching learning environment. Parents need to know how schools are serving diverse communities, and whether schools provide equitable access to rich educational experiences for all students. Parents also want easy ways to understand and compare schools, including a summary rating for each school, along with clear measures of quality through different lenses.

When seeking information they can trust, parents often turn to their social networks and peers. Of course, the quality of the information that parents receive depends on the quality of the information within their network. The risk is that parents are lead to believe that schools are doing a better job than they actually are, and don’t find out that their child has fallen behind until it’s too late. A recent survey by Learning Heroes found that 90% of parents think their kids are on track academically, while the actual number is less than 40%.

Choice without transparency and accountability is a recipe for frustration for parents, and worse, potential failure for students.

Without a concerted effort to get relevant and objective information about our schools into the hands of parents across the country, an expansion of school choice could confuse parents more than clarify good options.

State governments need to provide data on school performance and access to educational opportunity that go beyond test scores, including student academic growth, postsecondary outcomes, and course access. It is critical these data are provided by school and disaggregated by race, socio-economics, disability, language, and gender, because parents need to know how schools are serving students with characteristics similar to their own child.

The federal government needs to continue the collection of robust data through the Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), which uniquely sheds light on how schools serve different groups of students. If this process is left solely to the states, the Trump administration would fall short on their promise to ensure our nation’s schools are helping our most vulnerable children. Currently, no states make all the data included in the CRDC publicly available. Empowering parents with this information is absolutely essential if we hope to reverse generational tides of race- and income-based inequality in our education system.

And third parties need to make high quality school information more accessible to parents. A study shows that American adults are more likely to trust school ratings from independent organizations than those provided by state government. State and federal governments need to make data accessible to third parties who can more effectively translate it for parents to help families make better decisions.

A community organizer once described her experience helping parents navigate amongst poor quality school options as “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.” Choice without transparency and accountability is a recipe for frustration for parents, and worse, potential failure for students. But by empowering parents with good information about schools and providing concrete steps for how they can help their child, parents can be a powerful force for supporting quality education. And by doing this, we can get closer to the American promise of providing opportunity for all.

About the author

Samantha Brown Olivieri is the VP, Growth & Strategy at GreatSchools.

GreatSchools is the leading national nonprofit empowering parents to unlock educational opportunities for their children. We provide school information and parenting resources to help millions of American families choose the right school, support learning at home, and guide their children to great futures.

GreatSchools is proud to be part of Medium. If you enjoy what you’ve read, we would appreciate a ‘Recommend’ so we can keep bringing you select content.

by Vidya Sundaram and Elisabeth O’Bryon

Families have always played a key role in their child’s learning. Activities that families engage in to support their children’s learning have a meaningful impact on child outcomes, from better grades, higher test scores, and improved attendance (Henderson & Mapp, 2002; Jeynes, 2005).

85% of parents believe that they can make a difference in their child’s learning and academic progress

With this growing evidence base, parents have been exposed to countless news articles and social awareness campaigns reinforcing their critical role in their child’s learning. On a national level, research has uncovered that nearly 85% of parents believe that they can make a difference in their child’s learning and academic progress (Be a Learning Hero, 2016). Parents today are spending more time with their kids than they did 50 years ago, embracing a belief that “more parenting is better parenting.” One would expect that the growing involvement of parents would have led to dramatic increases in student performance. But that has not been the case.

As it turns out, the assumption that “more is better” is not only flawed, but we (speaking as moms, too) believe that line of thinking is way too stressful! Thankfully, it’s the quality — not quantity — of time that matters most, which means that understanding what to do to make that time count is essential.

Schools and teachers have an unprecedented opportunity to meaningfully engage families. Many families are already investing time, but are in need of information about how to best support their child’s learning. Furthermore, nearly all parents expect this type of information from their child’s school and teachers. Yet, teachers often lack the training, tools, time and support to meet this opportunity. A national survey we recently conducted revealed that families are significantly more likely to receive information from their child’s teacher or school about how their child is doing academically than how they can support their children’s learning.

We started Family Engagement Lab to help teachers and schools ignite the potential of millions of parents to support children’s learning. Our pathway is unique: we work to connect the key adults in children’s lives — parents, caregivers and teachers — around the common goal of supporting student learning. Families need and want to know the high impact activities (the ones that meaningfully affect learning) that they should be doing with their children and they want to learn them from a trusted and knowledgeable source like their child’s school or teacher. And we’ve seen evidence that this is the case from our direct work with families and educators. In our recent pilot program in Oakland Unified School District, we found that when teachers send home specific, curriculum-aligned activities, families do them. And just as important, as families demonstrate to teachers how invested they are in their child’s learning, they pave the way for ongoing collaboration.

We imagine a future where all parents have a savviness that matches their desire to see their children succeed, and teachers cultivate ongoing partnership with confident and engaged families. Families are ready. Are you?

About the authors

Vidya Sundaram and Elisabeth O’Bryon are co-founders of Family Engagement Lab, LLC, along with Bill Jackson, founder of GreatSchools.

Family Engagement Lab sets out to help schools ignite the potential of millions of families to support their child’s learning.​

GreatSchools is the leading national nonprofit empowering parents to unlock educational opportunities for their children. We provide school information and parenting resources to help millions of American families choose the right school, support learning at home, and guide their children to great futures.

GreatSchools is proud to be part of Medium. If you enjoy what you’ve read, we would appreciate a ‘Recommend’ so we can keep bringing you select content.

Years ago, parents struggled over when their kids would be socially, emotionally, and cognitively ready for kindergarten. Now it’s a similar question, but about leaving for college.

by Hank Pellissier

When Hillary Billings’ oldest son, Ted, was accepted at New York University (NYU), she was proud — but concerned. “We felt he needed another year to mature,” Billings says. Before her son was “thrown into the deep end in the Big Apple,” she wanted him to take a gap year to mature a little so he’d be ready for the urban living, social life, and academics at NYU.

What’s a gap year?

Billings is not alone. Across the country, a small but growing group of teens and their parents are jumping aboard the gap year trend. Although the term has been adapted colloquially to refer to any time off after high school, technically, a gap year is when students who’ve been admitted to college formally request to delay their start date for a year to travel, work, or volunteer.

Why risk calamity by enrolling your teenager in college too early, if they’re not yet fully up for the challenge?

Some gap years are driven by teens, of course, but many parents like the idea of giving their teen an extra year to mature before going off to college. It’s reminiscent of a choice many parents agonize over when their kids are young: whether or not to delay kindergarten by a year, known as redshirting kindergarten. The idea, popularized by Malcolm Gladwell’s 2008 best seller Outliers: the Story of Success, is to give 5-year-olds an extra year to catch up to (or get a leg up on) their peers socially, emotionally, and cognitively. Citing evidence from a 2000 study, Gladwell asserts that less mature students can get locked into “patterns of… underachievement… and discouragement, that stretch on and on for years.” Now, parents of some high school graduates are evaluating their 18- and 19-year-old kids’ relative maturity levels as a precursor to moving on to the next step. Why risk calamity by enrolling your teenager in college too early, if they’re not yet fully up for the challenge? Why risk calamity by enrolling your teenager in college too early, if they’re not yet fully up for the challenge?

America’s (small) new trend

Gap years have long been popular in Europe and Australia. The concept originated in the grand tours enjoyed by aristocratic youth in the late 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries, writes Joseph O’Shea in Gap Year: How Delaying College Changes People in Ways the World Needs. Upper-class vagabonds traversed the continent and exotic corners of the British Empire, familiarizing themselves with foreign flavors, curious customs, and opposing perspectives. In the 1970s, soul-searching backpackers put their twist on the tradition, which continues today. Due to economic conditions in 2012, only 12.5 percent of UK students took a gap year — it was the lowest number in a decade. In Australia, nearly a quarter of all students take gap years. In the U.S., though, the numbers are much smaller: an estimated 1.2 to 2 percent of students take a gap year. Recent data suggests that despite the small numbers, it’s a giant uptick that’s likely to continue. According to a survey by the American Gap Association, the number of attendees at USA Gap Year Fairs rose 294 percent from 2010 to 2014. Gap year nonprofit Thinking Beyond Borders claims that in the past five years there’s been, “a doubling in the market… an explosion.”

Questions of elitism aside, there’s data to show that gap years are, in fact, beneficial.

Celebrity endorsers and media coverage help fuel the trend. Malia Obama’s gap year, before starting Harvard in fall 2017, is an internship at the U.S. Embassy in Spain. Benedict Cumberbatch spent his teaching English at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, and Prince Harry helped build a clinic in Lesotho, Africa. New York Times columnist and best-selling author Nicholas Kristof has, for years, been urging youngsters to take gap time, proclaiming: “The bottom line is that you’ll almost certainly learn more from a gap year than you will in any single year in college.”

Elite universities are also stoking the fire. For the past 30 years, Harvard University has encouraged students to take gap years “to travel, pursue a special project or activity, work, or spend time in another meaningful way.” Robert S. Clagett, former Senior Admission Officer at Harvard, helped establish Middlebury College’s February-start program while he was the Dean of Admission there. Matt McGann, Director of Admissions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, tells applicants “My hope is that you will at least consider, just for a moment, taking a gap year.” According to Mike Devlin, Stanford University’s Acting Director of Admission, “Stanford believes a gap year can be a beneficial experience — particularly for students who have an objective or mission.”

Gap year companies also play a role, motivating curious parents, particularly those who can afford the astronomical prices. (A three-month excursion to broaden your teen’s perspective can cost upwards of $15,000 — and still leaves teens 3/4 of the year… for parents to pay for?)

Sounds good, but does taking a gap year work?

Questions of elitism aside, there’s data to show that gap years are, in fact, beneficial. Clagett points to studies on the February-start program at Middlebury College and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s program that reveal undergraduates who enjoyed a gap year earned a GPA 0.1 to 0.4 points higher than would have been expected. What’s more, gappers at Middlebury hold a “disproportionate number of leadership positions on campus.” And, according to the American Gap Association, students who took a year off tend to finish university more quickly than their peers.

Although parents may fear their teen will never return to their studies, statistics show the opposite. According to a 2010 survey of 280 students conducted by Karl Haigler and Rae Nelson, co-authors of The Gap-Year Advantage: Helping Your Child Benefit from Time Off Before or During College, 90 percent of youth who ditch scholastics for a year report back to their desks on time, with 60 percent claiming the gap year helped them determine their major and their careers.

He wants his son to struggle with boredom, loneliness, and lack of family support in an environment where upwards of $50,000 in college tuition isn’t at stake.

With college tuition at an all-time high, Jennifer Miller of the American Gap Association observes, “many students are taking a step back to think carefully about that path before barreling forward.”

Maturity in America

College admissions officers, especially at elite schools, invariably highlight “maturation” as a primary reason for gap years. In today’s era of helicopter parenting, with hovering adults coddling their kids, is the gap year emerging as a “time to grow up” ritual that sheltered teenagers, who can’t do their own laundry, desperately need? Perhaps. But admissions officers tend to say the proof is in the pudding. “Our academic staff also finds that, many times, students who take a gap year arrive at Stanford with more maturity both socially and in the classroom,” comments admissions director Devlin. Clagett says he finds that students who take a gap year “will frequently be more mature, more focused, and more aware of what they want to do with their college education.”

Students, amusingly, also view their maturation as the prime reason they want a gap year; of course, they don’t call it that. A yearning “to find out more about themselves” is the top reason for a gap year, according to Haigler and Nelson’s 2010 survey. Another questionnaire, prepared by Nina How of Temple University, yielded “Gain Life Experiences / grow personally” as the main goal of a gap year — beating options like taking a break from academics, traveling, volunteering, or wanting work experience.

Some parents, like Ken Beckman of Minnesota, think their teen needs a dose of the real world. Beckman is mandating a gap year for his eldest son because he wants him to experience a blue-collar existence. “I want him to leave home and get his own place and get a job and have a boss — at WalMart, for example!” Beckman says. He wants his son to struggle with boredom, loneliness, and lack of family support in an environment where upwards of $50,000 in college tuition isn’t at stake.

Hillary Billings and her husband were motivated by Kristof’s articles, particularly his view that a gap year can — and should — provide volunteer services and open the gapper’s eyes to human needs. That’s what Billings wanted for her son; she didn’t want Ted to move from “one academic bubble to another.” But when she asked him to take a gap year, “Ted was not happy,” she recalls. “He wanted to be part of his peer group heading off for college.” After attending a gap year fair at Drake High School in Fairfax, CA, Billings signed up her son with an organization called VolunQuest. Ted was sent to Isla Mujeres, a tiny island off the coast of Yucatan, Mexico, to live with locals and teach English.

Ted’s gap year “was pretty rough,” admits his mom. “He couldn’t take showers at his house because there were so many cockroaches in the bathroom…. He was also very lonely. There were no other volunteers there at the same time.” But when Ted returned, NYU was still there, waiting for him — and Ted was ready for it.

“Ted matured a great deal,” Billings says. “Before his gap year he was timid and nervous to extend himself for fear of being judged or failing. During his gap year, he gained much more confidence in himself and his ability to manage any situation, no matter how difficult.” Ted’s been on the Dean’s list at NYU every semester, he explores New York’s boroughs with a desire to meet new people, and he takes risks — and knows the right ones to take. “We don’t worry about him,” she says.

Billings has three more sons, and she’s insisting they all take a gap year.

About the author

Hank Pellissier is a freelance writer on education and brain development, and the author of Brighter Brains: 225 Ways to Elevate or Injure Intelligence. He is also the director of the Brighter Brains Institute.

GreatSchools is the leading national nonprofit empowering parents to unlock educational opportunities for their children. We provide school information and parenting resources to help millions of American families choose the right school, support learning at home, and guide their children to great futures.

GreatSchools is proud to be part of Medium. If you enjoy what you’ve read, we would appreciate a ‘Recommend’ so we can keep bringing you select content.

by Matthew Nelson

Parenting doesn’t come with a playbook, but it should. As another school year kicks in, tens of millions of parents and guardians are called on to balance the structured expectations of school with the rituals and routines of family life.

Even as they juggle logistical challenges such as sleep schedules, meal planning and transportation, parents want to support their children’s social, emotional, and academic development. This can be especially challenging for parents who want their kids to enjoy more opportunities and success than they did.

In my own experience raising two girls, there is only one way we can navigate the enormous complexity of a parent’s role: one step at a time, relying on the best advice and information we can get our hands on.

To help America’s families successfully meet the challenges of the new school year, the organization I run recently launched a new parenting resource for the digital age. Built upon 18 years of experience using information to empower parents, GreatSchools’ Grade by Grade is a weekly email digest of information and research-based content specific to a child’s school level, from kindergarten through eighth grade.

Like all our content, the newsletter is grounded in the core belief that informed and engaged parents play a critical role in helping their children succeed in school and in life. Where parents choose to send their children to school can have a profound impact on their education.

But parents’ impact on their children’s education — and their need for information — doesn’t end with finding the right school. Parents play a key role supporting learning at home and within the school community. They are uniquely suited to advocate for their children, whether by getting them the educational support they need to fulfill their potential or by making the case for higher quality schools in their community.

In all these areas, having access to information in the form of data, expert advice and best practices empowers families. Information is a tool that helps families have the greatest possible impact on their children’s success.

Part of our design process involved testing different tips for supporting kids’ development in reading and math to determine what parents would find most useful and easy to incorporate into their daily lives. We found, particularly in math, that parents prefer receiving a concrete idea for an activity or game they can do with their child to support a specific skill (such as playing store with Monopoly money) rather than simply receiving a description of the academic milestone (i.e., adding and subtracting two-digit numbers).

Along with specific information about the academic skills kids are expected to master each year under Common Core state standards (and ways parents can support development of these skills at home), we cover such topics as communicating with your child’s teacher, helping with homework and getting involved in the classroom.

Parents need to know what to expect of their child academically as they move from one grade to the next, and how to deal with problems. Videos of grade-level reading, writing and math skills in action help parents determine whether or not their child is on track. Monthly tips offer suggestions for dealing with common parenting struggles such as teaching time management and overcoming screen-dependence.

We’ve also included stories that address age-appropriate aspects of children’s social and emotional development. From dealing with anxiety to the best ways to make friends, from handling peer pressure to responding to bullying, these stories deliver advice from experts and inspiration from parents who have been there. Together, the stories, videos and information in Grade by Grade empower parents with knowledge to help their kids succeed, one step at a time.

Matthew Nelson is the president of GreatSchools, an educational nonprofit that seeks to empower parents by providing school information and resources. This essay is part of a series on parent engagement produced by the philanthropic foundation Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Empowering Parents for Student Success was originally published in Education Program on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

by Samantha Brown Olivieri

When Nasha Fitter, a working mom of two young children, moved her family to the Bay Area, she felt overwhelmed by the process of deciding where to send her children to school. Like many parents, she wanted schools that provide great enrichment and rigorous academics. When researching schools, she could find basic stats like test scores, demographics, and clubs on GreatSchools, but found it extremely difficult to find information on the learning program, like whether music was provided or how many AP courses were offered. Again and again, she was told that the only way to get this information was to go on a school tour, which were often scheduled at inconvenient hours, requiring time off work.

She was struck by how incredibly inefficient this process was. Nasha was fortunate — she had time and resources to track down this information; she could only imagine how difficult it would be to navigate for low-income families who were struggling to make ends meet.

In this digital age, how could it be that there was not a better way to help parents gather information and narrow down their choices? A simple internet search will help you find the restaurant or car rental that best fits what you’re looking for, but not so when it comes to choosing a school — one of the most important decisions that families make.

Can you imagine if the only way to choose a spot for your Friday night date night was to tour every restaurant in the area?

Clearly, there had to be a better solution for parents.

Nasha’s story reflects an all too familiar struggle for so many families. But her response was anything but ordinary. A problem-solver by nature, she set out to fix the problem. She approached school districts and states to request data about schools, such as course enrollment statistics and school resource allocation. She hired legal experts to help navigate government bureaucracy and data scientists to compile data into an intuitive, searchable format, and called it Schoolie.

Earlier this year, Nasha called me with an idea — what if we could scale Schoolie’s work nationally by integrating the content within GreatSchools. As a true-blooded data lover, I was clearly excited by the prospect — not just because of the data itself, but because of what I believed the data could spur.

By democratizing how information about schools is collected and shared, we can build the power of parents to advocate for their own child, as well as for all children in their community.

Because of Nasha’s insight and diligence, going forward GreatSchools will be the resource for parents across the country who don’t necessarily have time to go on all those school tours. We’re also going a step further, by including civil rights data from the US Office of Civil Rights, to help parents gauge how schools provide learning opportunities to all students, regardless of race, gender, language, and ability.

It’s super hip to talk about ideas that are “disrupting” one industry or another. And because I’m super hip too, I’m also going to draw this parallel. Uber is disruptive because it solves a discrete individual’s needs (getting a ride when I need it), and in aggregate, it transforms the landscape and shifts power into the hands of consumers (rides everywhere all the time.) Nasha’s idea is also disruptive: it solves an individual’s needs (finding a good school for your kid) and, at scale, can change how we think about education in our country. Here’s why:

Improved transparency can get information into the hands of people who need it most. When Nasha began to collect data, she found that in many cases, not only was it not accessible publicly, it wasn’t accessible to anyone. One district responded to her request by mailing literal boxes of paper with information written down school-by-school. BOXES! Clearly, nobody intended to share this information with parents. Far too often, education data reporting is done through the lens of bureaucratic compliance rather than to drive better decision-making. Through projects like this, we’re bringing data out of the basement and into the hands of people who can use it.

Facilitating family-school “fit” can connect students to learning opportunities that fuel their passions. The idea that one size doesn’t fit all has taken hold in many aspects of education — curriculum, instruction, school design. Why shouldn’t the same be true for the process of selecting a school? Nobody knows their child like a parent does, and parents and students should be empowered to seek out schools that will foster the type of learning environment where their child will thrive. By combining information about course offerings and resources as well as student outcomes, we can help parents not just find great schools — but find great schools that specifically meet their child’s needs.

Data on access to rigorous coursework is the first step to increasing equity in access to college. As the saying goes, “education is the great equalizer.” But this falls apart if our education system does not provide equal access to learning opportunities for kids from all ends of the socioeconomic spectrum. Research supports that exposure to rigorous curriculum is a huge predictor of college success, but we found that students from low-income families are exposed to lower variety in academic and enrichment courses than students in affluent communities, creating an unlevel playing field from the start. Through intuitive data presentations and mapping tools, we can give advocates the tools to make the case for increasing access to opportunities among low-income and minority communities.

Analyzing trends about the system’s inputs and outputs will help states, districts, and funders make better decisions about education investments.Going forward, we’ll have the nation’s single largest repository of school-level information, including robust data on education inputs (e.g. course rigor and enrichment programs) and outputs (e.g. standardized test scores and college-ready graduation rates). With this information compiled in one place, we can uncover insights, for example the disconnect we found between the grades that students receive in AP courses and AP test pass rates, raising important questions like whether grades are inflated or if course rigor must increase. We can identify gaps, such as the fact that only one in five California high schools offer AP Computer Science, despite the fact that it is one of the highest demand professions in the state.

Nasha’s story embodies some of the central core values of our country — how a great idea combined with entrepreneurial spirit can both solve a market need and create real social value to improve the lives of millions of people. At a time when it can seem like all the news is bad news, it’s a great reminder that, behind the scenes, lots of great little ideas are grinding away, and some big great ideas are being born.

About the author

Samantha Brown Olivieri is the VP, Program at GreatSchools.

GreatSchools is the leading national nonprofit empowering parents to unlock educational opportunities for their children. We provide school information and parenting resources to help millions of American families choose the right school, support learning at home, and guide their children to great futures.

GreatSchools is proud to be part of Medium. If you enjoy what you’ve read, we would appreciate a ‘Recommend’ so we can keep bringing you select content.

With little eyes watching and learning from your every move, what behaviors should parents reconsider to set a better example?

What do you think of people who take candy from children? Or who don’t stop (or even slow) for pedestrians? Or who tend to boss others around rather than communicate more cooperatively?

Collectively, I think we frown on these “bad” behaviors. They’re not deadly sins, but they’re undesirable, icky, and generally what we’re trying to teach kids not to do.

But as role models, parents may be unconsciously modeling some of these behaviors — and according to research out of University of California, Berkeley, it may depend greatly on your relative position in our rapidly diverging rift between the haves and the have nots. Social psychologist Paul Piff, along with other researchers at Cal, conducted a series of studies about people’s everyday behaviors. A PBS NewsHour report, highlights a variety of Piff and his colleagues’ findings that indicate people who feel affluent tend to act less charitable and, in some cases, are just plain bossy and self-centered. These studies showcase our daily little behaviors — the kind our kids see and mimic. No one calls these teachable moments. But now we may reconsider.

People behaving badly

In one study, 90% of drivers stopped for pedestrians in a crosswalk. But people driving luxury cars were three to four times more likely to just keep going. Technically, that’s breaking the law. But it also shows a pattern of impatience and placing more value on your own time over others’. In another study, participants were told the candy dish on the table was filled with treats for kids — but they could have a piece or two if they wanted. Wealthier participants took twice as much candy from the bowl. A funny segment of the video shows a woman quickly stuffing candy in her pocket! In yet another experiment, people’s honesty was put to the test with a dice game. Participants were to self-report the results of their dice rolls with the possibility of a $50 cash prize. Shockingly, people in the study’s highest income bracket (those earning $150K-$200K a year) were four times more likely to lie about their rolls to collect the prize.

Wait! Before you jump to conclusions about rich people, consider this: it’s the feeling of relative wealth that elicits this behavior. Using the ultimate money-lover’s game, Monopoly, researchers were able to see the wealth-effect transform people’s behavior before their eyes — regardless of actual means. The wealthier Monopoly players started out with more cash, a ritzier playing piece, and established rules rigged in their favor, such as getting more turns and collecting a higher salary each time they pass Go. No matter their economic status in real life, the “rich” game players who start with more cash and get more turns, though they’re “winning” an obviously rigged game, nevertheless start feeling and acting entitled. Snacking during the game, these “winners” slovenly start chewing with their mouths open, conceitedly start acting and speaking a bit more aggressively, and actually feel they deserve to win.

How can this be?

Putting a magnifying glass to these small, seemingly inconsequential routines, researcher Paul Piff says we get, “a really incredible insight into what the mind does to make sense of advantage or disadvantage.” In our rich-poor divided world, this matters. For parents trying to raise kind-hearted, socially conscious children, it matters all the more.

Doubling down on discussions of empathy can’t hurt, but as the Monopoly game scenario so aptly shows, it’s crucial to help children experience both the winning and losing sides of this sort of Monopoly game. It can call into question bigger decisions about where to live and where to send our kids to school. For instance, making typically admirable sacrifices to send a child to the best possible school could backfire, creating a top dog who feels entitled — or worse, who doesn’t think the rules apply to her. In our efforts to protect kids from losing, getting their feelings hurt, or being treated unfairly, are we robbing them of the insight it takes to consider others’ feelings, experiences, and rights, too?

I wonder. A question haunting me since I watched this video: if my own daily interactions were put under a microscope, how would I fare? On my morning coffee run, am I polite, even when I’m late or tired? On my daily commute, am I giving up my seat when I should?

As parents, what do you think? With little eyes watching and learning from your every move, what behaviors should parents reconsider to set a better example?

About the author

Jessica Kelmon is Managing Editor of GreatSchools.

Originally published at GreatSchools.org. GreatSchools is an independent nonprofit and the leading national source of school information for families. Our mission is to help millions of parents get a great education for their kids!

GreatSchools is proud to be part of Medium! If you enjoy what you’ve read, we would appreciate a ‘Recommend’ so we can keep bringing you select content.

I wrote a kids’ book about emotions, but Inside Out still taught me a lesson.

She started fidgeting in her seat. She squeezed my hand. Then she got up and sat back down. I knew what was coming.

“Mama,” my 6-year-old daughter whispered loudly in the packed theater. “This is too scary. I’ve got to get out of here.”

“You’re fine,” I whispered back — reassuringly, I thought. “Just close your eyes if it’s too much.”

I regretted my words as soon as I spoke them. We were there for her, and if she wasn’t enjoying the movie, we should leave. But before I had the chance to correct myself, she had already bolted down the stairs.

The movie was Inside Out — a totally safe bet…I thought. I did my research before going. This was only our second time in a movie theater, and our first film, Frozen, had sent us packing to the lobby during the wolf chase and snow monster scenes. This time the film had no bad guys and reportedly nothing scary. We were going to be fine!

Over some consolatory ice cream, I asked her what she found so frightening.

“All those memories disappearing and crashing down,” she said. “And Mama, you were crying.”

Eye opening day at the movies

The movie itself and my daughter’s response to it were both eye opening for the same reason — emotions can be so intense and overwhelming and scary for kids. While I don’t think most kids would react this way to the film, I took stock of my own response to my sensitive child. I realized that I had attempted to negate her feelings by telling her that she was “fine.” The irony that the movie is about feelings, didn’t escape me.

Inside Out has the potential to change the way parents think about — and talk about — emotions with their kids. As parents, we often try to do whatever we can to keep our kids happy and shield them from feeling sad. When GreatSchools surveyed parents about their greatest hope for their children, the most popular answer was for their kids to “be happy.” However, Inside Out posits that happiness and sadness may actually go hand in hand. If our kids don’t experience sadness, they won’t know joy.

Girl empowerment website A Mighty Girl suggested Juna’s Jar, my first children’s book, as a companion title to Inside Out as a story that also deals with sadness. It surprised me because I didn’t set out to write a sad story and I didn’t think of the book that way. In fact, when some early reviews stated that Juna’s Jar was sad, I cringed. I worried that parents wouldn’t give the book a chance if they think it’s sad. Parents want books that will make their kids laugh, not cry. Research bears out my assumptions; according to Scholastic’s report, the Kids & Family Reading Report, 70 percent of parents say they look for books that will make their kids laugh.

I also love when a book can make my kids burst into giggles, but it touches my heart even more when a story can make them feel. When I first read Juna’s Jar to my 4-year-old son, he always stopped me on the part where Juna is devastated because her best friend moves away. He wanted something more from me on this page. He stared at me intently and waited for explanations and words of comfort. The fact that he empathized with Juna made me feel successful as a writer and relieved as a mother. I actually wrote something that could elicit empathy from my normally rambunctious, combative, and, at times, seemingly callous son.

When writing the book, I drew upon that common childhood experience where friends would sometimes just disappear from your life. I remember these emotionally complicated moments from my childhood as much as, if not more than, happy ones. I moved three times before third grade, and each time I felt like we moved under the cover of night. I don’t recall ever saying goodbye to my friends. We were expected to just start over in a new place and not mourn what we left behind.

I vowed to do better than my parents and make sure that my kids always get to say their goodbyes. But already friends have vanished from my daughter’s life without much explanation to her. She would be inseparable with someone at summer camp only to never see her again once camp ended. She had the same best friend throughout her preschool years, but once they graduated, the relationship couldn’t be maintained because we don’t have an outside link with her parents. It’s hard for me to hear my daughter still call this little girl her best friend, even though it’s been almost a year since she’s last seen her. I’m still struggling with what to say and how to help her say her goodbyes, if not in person, at least in her heart.

Figuring out big, complex issues

What we as parents don’t talk about with kids sometimes says more than what we do say. When we avoid difficult conversations about things such as race, sex, or emotions, we‘re leaving our little ones to figure out these big, complex issues by themselves. Although we may fear not saying the right thing or “making things worse” by talking about it — as Joy admonishes Sadness — as adults we have much more insight than our kids do. Sometimes just the acknowledgement of a difficult feeling is all that is needed. In my favorite moment in Inside Out, while Joy tried to distract Bing Bong from feeling sad, Sadness sits with him and simply acknowledges his feelings.

While filming our video series, Through a child’s eyes, kids shared many complicated emotions with me — frustration, jealousy, loneliness. While parents may wish to protect their kids from experiencing such difficult feelings, even in the short time I spent with these kids, I realized that I was witnessing growth. As they talked through their complex feelings, they were working things out. Rather than shelter them from experiencing difficult emotions, we can help our children work through them and develop into fuller human beings.

Researchers at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, who collaborated with us on our videos, classify “sympathy” as an “unpleasant” emotion as opposed to a “pleasant” one. We had a debate in the office over this. We want our kids to feel sympathy, so isn’t it a pleasant emotion? I think the dissonance comes from realizing that we may actually want our kids to experience unpleasant emotions. But being able to experience an unpleasant emotion is actually something positive.

Happiness not only goal

So recently I’ve been trying reframe how I think about emotions. I no longer hope for my kids to just be happy. Nor do I simply want them to experience sadness just so that they can know happiness — because this still sets up being happy as the ultimate goal. This is abundantly clear to me when I sometimes see my younger, generally very happy child, all smiles and giggles even as his sister is in tears; this has greatly concerned me (Does he have a heart? Does he have empathy?). I know that I don’t want him to always be happy. Now my greatest hope is for my kids to be whole, feeling, empathic human beings who are able to deal with complex emotions in a healthy way. And it’s only possible by letting them experience sadness, sorrow, and all those complicated emotions that life presents.

“It’s so important for parents to work on their own skills,” says Robin Stern, associate director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. “Because what we know is that kids are watching you. So you want your kid to be calm in the face of adversity. But if you’re yelling and screaming, if you’re freaking out, it’s really going to be hard for your kid to learn those skills. You are your child’s first teacher — and most important teacher — about how to manage emotions.”

This means not telling my daughter that things are “fine” when they’re not. What was I teaching her by dismissing her feelings? Did I want her to repress them? Or not acknowledge other people’s feelings? I hope that one day she’ll be able to handle the intense emotions a movie can elicit … but in the meantime I’m glad that she knows when she’s not fine and changes the situation. Knowing that she was scared and didn’t have to be and walking out of the theater, well, she might be teaching her mama a thing or two about emotional intelligence.

About the author

Jane Bahk is the author of Juna’s Jar, a children’s book about friendship and the power of imagination, and a producer for GreatSchools.org. Follow her on Twitter at @JaneBahk.

Originally published at GreatSchools.org. GreatSchools is an independent nonprofit and the leading national source of school information for families. Our mission is to help millions of parents get a great education for their kids!

GreatSchools is proud to be part of Medium! If you enjoy what you’ve read, we would appreciate a ‘Recommend’ so we can keep bringing you select content.