10 Characteristics of a Successful Student (And What Parents Can Do to Nurture Them!)

Your kids will get better grades if you are involved at school! A 2008 study from the University of New Hampshire indicates that students perform much better academically if their parents are involved in the school. However, that news can create more stress for already busy parents who are trying to juggle full-time jobs and child-rearing simultaneously. The good news is that there are many ways to get involved in your child’s school without taking time off from work or further taxing an already packed schedule. Check out these ten ways busy parents can make a positive impact at their children’s schools.

Consider a Parent Club

Consider membership in the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) or similar group at your child’s school. Parent groups typically meet one evening a week or month to accommodate a busy work schedule. They are often involved in many of the all-school activities and stay abreast of the latest happenings within the school, according to Great Schools. PTA members get to know many of the school staff and play a role in the school's overall success.

Sponsor a Student Club

Student clubs may also meet in the late afternoons or evenings, and they are generally looking for adult sponsors. High schools need parental help for sports teams, music and theatre productions, and other after-school clubs. Even elementary and middle schools might offer extracurricular activities at a convenient time for your schedule and in a subject where you can offer

School vouchers are a source of debate between public and private schools nationwide, but nowhere is the debate more acutely felt than in Indiana. Indiana is home to one of the largest voucher programs in the country, and many are waiting to see whether this program delivers on all of its promises. Vouchers are also a major point of contention in places like Wisconsin and Louisiana, where schools are fighting for students and parents are waiting to see if the benefits of school choice will come to fruition. Do vouchers improve the quality of education for all students? With inconclusive test results, the jury appears to be out still. However, that doesn’t change the intensity with which both sides fight for the type of education system they believe is best.

Competition Heats Up in Indiana

The Indiana voucher system is getting bigger this year, and public schools nationwide are feeling the heat. Fox News reports that the new voucher system first passed the Indiana legislature in 2011, and the hundreds of students who left public schools for private pastures last year could turn into thousands of students this year. Public schools are turning to advertising and door-to-door campaigning to keep kids in their neighborhood schools and funding in the public school system.

Currently, more than 8,000 students in Indiana have applied for the voucher program for the upcoming school year. There is room for as many as 15,000 students to take advantage of

Although New York City recently issued guidelines for sex education in all of its high schools, the rest of the state does not appear to be faring as well. A recent report by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) suggests that sex ed in New York schools is inconsistent at best, as well as incomplete and inaccurate in a number of schools across the state. In a state that has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country, public schools need to produce a well-rounded, comprehensive curriculum without bias or stereotypes, the report recommends.

About the NYCLU’s Report

In creating the report, titled, “Birds, Bees and Bias: How Absent Sex Ed Standards Fail New York’s Students,” the NYCLU looked at 82 public school districts across the state. The organization originally asked 108 districts for information about their sex education programs, but 26 that responded were excluded from the study due to insufficient information. The study also did not include schools in New York City, since the city took measures to standardize and update the sex education programs last year. The 82 districts included in the study encompasses just over 540,000 students, which is more than half of all the students in the state, with the exception of students within New York City.

The report found that although New York’s Department of Health published guidelines in 2005 regarding sex education in schools, those guidelines are not requirements for schools to follow. The guidelines

Charter schools have been touted as one of the solutions to a failing school system, but not everyone believes charter schools are the best way to reform public schools. Test scores offer little assistance in this area since numbers can often be manipulated to support either side of the aisle. As these alternatives to traditional public schools celebrate their 20-year anniversary, can we know definitively if they are making the grade? It may depend on who you talk to and which school you are talking about.

The Growth of Charter Schools

No matter what educators, parents, and lawmakers might think of charter schools, one thing remains crystal clear: the number of charter schools nationwide has been slowly and steadily growing over the past 20 years. The Huffington Post reports that there are now around 5,600 charter schools around the country, attended by more than two million students. In states like Michigan, caps have been removed, allowing for the exponential growth of charter schools in that state as a multitude of charter operators have moved in to take advantage of more liberal charter authorization laws.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Michigan began the new school year with 31 new charter schools and a 32^nd in the works. Eighteen of those schools are in the Detroit area. Those numbers represent the largest charter school growth in a single year since 1990. Currently, the state has 277 charter schools operating, with three-fourths operated by for-profit