Dive Brief
- As students prepare for the upcoming standardized testing season, parents can help by ensuring they understand what students are being tested on and what they are being tested for.
- Gaining this understanding comes from establishing connections with schools and teachers, but that responsibility doesn’t fall solely on parents, said Gabriela Rios, executive director for California’s Central Valley at the Parent Institute for Quality Education. Schools should also be fostering these relationships.
- Rios emphasizes that for parents to better understand their child’s academics, schools need to meet parents where they are. Schools, she said, should look at the demographics of their parents to ensure events and meetings are time and language accessible.
Dive Insight
“When parents have a sense of a partnership with a teacher, then all of the supports that are necessary by parents to help their kids succeed have a much better opportunity of happening, because there's communication and proactivity on the front end,” said Vito Borrello, executive director of the National Association for Family, School and Community Engagement.
A parent's first interaction with a teacher is often negative — like a student failing a test, said Borrello. However, establishing positive relationships early on can help equip parents to navigate the aftermath of a failed test or potentially prevent the failing grade altogether.
“Whether they were successful or they were less successful, how do you use that opportunity to help them? Their education is a journey; it's not about one test,” Borrello said.
He added that parents know their kids the best — some kids might not do well with testing, others might have anxiety — but good parent-teacher relationships allow parents to help the teacher understand the best way to maximize student success.
“It's important that parents are setting that framework, that they're creating a climate for studying, that there's a safe space where they understand how to be engaged in their child's learning, and that they know how to talk about academics,” Borrello said.
When it comes to testing, Rios recommends that schools host informational meetings months before testing begins, explaining what tests students will be taking and why they are essential.
Educating parents early on, Rios said, gives them a chance to learn about what practice exams are available and to have enough time to make sure their student takes them. Parents, she said, often don’t know that these resources exist.
Rios added that it is also crucial to encourage parents and ensure that they remain engaged throughout the entirety of their child’s academic career. Parents are often most engaged in the early elementary years, she said, but once students reach middle and high school, they’re perceived as more independent and able to advocate for themselves.
Parental engagement, depending on the grade level, "may look different — but in every stage, it's essential,” Rios said.
