Parents need to know that skills matter MOST
Laying the Groundwork for Future Learning and Opportunities
All students, no matter which career path they choose, will need to develop strong foundational competencies for postsecondary education and lifelong workplace success. The relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities identified in Tier 1 - 3 of the Building Blocks for Competency Models Foundational Competencies represent the industry standard for common employability skills. For this reason, it is recommended that the foundational skills recognized by all major industry sectors also serve as the K-12 foundational skill competencies.
The Parent Curriculum for this stage will include:
- A comprehensive summary of the grade-level foundational skills students must master by the end of the school year and the end of fourth grade to be on track for middle school;
- Access to the information, strategies, resources, developmentally appropriate guidance, and support parents need to effectively support learning and foundational skill development at home;
- A comprehensive review of their child's progress towards meeting grade-level expectations as well as the middle school readiness milestone; and
- Targeted guidance based on student skill development evaluations to ensure parents have the information they need to encourage their child's efforts to master the foundational competencies needed for middle school success.
District-level Strategies
K - 12 Student Performance and Conferencing Protocol
Parents and teachers need a complete student performance protocol to reference when discussing student achievement and school performance during conferencing. The protocol must provide a comprehensive and measured performance review, including college and career readiness comparisons, and an evaluation of the universal skills students need now and will need in the future. For this reason, it is recommended that the U.S. Department of Labor Building Blocks Model - Foundational Competencies (Tier 1 - 3) serve as guidance for the development of the student performance and conferencing protocol.
It is vital that parents understand how academic achievement assessment results and classroom performance impact student outcomes so that parents can accurately communicate to their child their expectations for school performance. Classroom performance, most often represented by grades, indicates how well a student completed the requirements of a class or course. Standardized assessment results measure content knowledge, academic skill development, test-taking skills, and more accurately predict the level of work a student is capable of performing. Both types of evaluations are important to student outcomes and should be included in the student performance protocol and discussed during individual student parent-teacher conferences.
K - 12 Grade Level Annual Open House Presentation
Schools present a complete review of the previous school year's academic performance and explain the plan for the academic school year ahead. The beginning of the school year open house presentations will include the following information:
- Individual student state report card review
- District-level state report card review
- State-level performance review
- National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
- International education comparisons (PISA and PIAAC)
- Overview of grade-level student achievement expectations
- Review of relevant milestone requirements
- State and national education updates
- Calendar of parent learning opportunities
- Parent-teacher conferencing schedule
foundational skill development milestone: grades K-4
Kindergarten Orientation
The kindergarten orientation offers an important opportunity to welcome parents into the learning community and introduce the knowledge, skills, and behaviors parents will need to help their child become successful learners. The purpose of the kindergarten orientation session is as follows:
- Begin the process of assimilating parents into the school learning community
- Explicitly define the roles and responsibilities of parents, teachers, and students
- Provide an overview of the district policies and communication plan, homework and conferencing procedures and introduce the research-based rubrics and conferencing protocols the district will be utilizing to evaluate student performance
- Scaffold the family's ability to formalize home learning behaviors by facilitating the establishment of a learning, reading and study schedule
- Establish the relationship between industry standards for employability skills and school learning standards as well as high school graduation requirements
- Identify and explain how to avoid common pitfalls including poor school attendance and a premature focus on career aspirations rather than universal foundational skill development
- Share the "Calendar of Events" for parent information sessions and learning opportunities established for the upcoming school year
K - 4 Annual Classroom Orientation
Teachers share the information parents need to effectively fulfill their role and become integral members of the classroom learning community. The classroom orientation sessions will:
- Provide a detailed look at the grade-level achievement goals students are expected to master by the end of the school year
- Clearly define roles and responsibilities: teacher, parent, and student
- Review and explain report card performance information and the assessments students will be taking during the school year
- Review the classroom communication plan
- Include guidance to support school performance and home learning
K - 4 Parent-Teacher Conferences
Parents and teachers are provided adequate time to meet throughout the school year to review student cognitive and noncognitive development, discuss strategies they will employ to support student strengths as well as skills in need of improvement in an effort to encourage continued student growth. A standard for parent-teacher conferencing must be established to accommodate the following conferencing opportunities for all students' parents.
Individual Student Parent-Teacher Conferences
- Comprehensive fall goal setting parent-teacher conference
- Midyear student progress review parent-teacher conference
- End-of-year summer learning plan and schedule
Implementation of Academic Parent-Teacher Team (APTT) Conferencing Model
- Research-based teacher-led whole-class data-driven conferencing model
- Targets both cognitive and noncognitive foundational skill development
- Encourages parent-child interaction
- Supports the development of higher-order thinking skills
- Connects home and school learning
- Final APTT meeting focuses on progress made towards reaching middle school milestone and provides information on how to advance learning over the summer and prevent summer slide
K -4 Parent Information Sessions and Learning Opportunities
- A complete overview of all student standardized achievement and diagnostic assessment reports utilized by the district
- Foundational skill development information sessions
- Parenting problem-solving support sessions
- Parent organization sponsored family learning opportunities hosted at school to support learning at home
Resources for kindergarten through grade four
The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping School Performance
The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping School Performance
The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping School Performance
"Students who come to class and complete their work are likely to have developed the kind of work habits they will need in college as well as in the workforce."
Academic Parent-Teacher Teams (APTT)
The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping School Performance
The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping School Performance
APTT is a research-based data-driven whole-class conference model designed to provide families with the information, skills and materials they need to better support learning at home.
Parent Toolkit
The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping School Performance
GreatSchools Milestones
"The Parent Toolkit App is designed to help you navigate your child’s growth and development from Pre-K through 12th grade in the classroom and beyond. For each grade, the app offers benchmarks to see what your child will be learning in school, and recommendations for diet, sleep and physical activity."
GreatSchools Milestones
Growth Mindset for Parents
GreatSchools Milestones
"Milestones show students demonstrating what success looks like in reading, writing and math, grade by grade. High school Milestones shows some real-world skills kids should know as well as the academic ones."
Growth Mindset for Parents
Growth Mindset for Parents
Growth Mindset for Parents
"Learn how to promote a growth mindset through the types of praise we give kids and through our responses to mistakes."
YouCubed
Growth Mindset for Parents
Growth Mindset for Parents
Parent's Beliefs about Math Change Their Children's Achievement
"The parents’ math knowledge did not turn out to have any impact, only their level of math anxiety. "
Attendance Works
Parent Expectations and Planning for College
ACT Work Readiness Standards and Benchmarks
"Across the country, more than 8 million students are missing so many days of school that they are academically at risk. Chronic absence — missing 10 percent or more of school days due to absence for any reason—excused, unexcused absences and suspensions, can translate into third-graders unable to master reading, sixth-graders failing subjects and ninth-graders dropping out of high school."
ACT Work Readiness Standards and Benchmarks
Parent Expectations and Planning for College
ACT Work Readiness Standards and Benchmarks
"A 'work ready' individual possesses the foundational skills needed to be minimally qualified for a specific occupation as determined through a job analysis or occupational profile."
Parent Expectations and Planning for College
Parent Expectations and Planning for College
Parent Expectations and Planning for College
"The expectations parents have for their children’s educational future can provide a foundation for student achievement and educational attainment."