Children throughout Sacramento County are back in school now, getting reacquainted with friends and getting to know new teachers. As we start the new school year, parents send their children off to school with pens, notebooks and other necessary supplies to do well in the classroom. However, there's one thing that parents must now supply more of than ever to help their children succeed: their time.
We want to remind parents that in order for their children to succeed in the classroom, it is vitally important that mothers, fathers and guardians invest more of their time at home and at school.
As students step into the classroom this year, they face greater expectations and growing academic challenges. In order for children to succeed, it is vital that parents spend more time getting to know their child's teachers, help with homework and make sure that homework gets done on time.
Classroom challenges are greater now for both students and teachers. For example, within three years every California eighth-grader will have to be skilled in algebra under a policy recently approved by the State Board of Education, making California first in the nation to require a challenging math class before high school.
This new requirement will mean that parents will have to make sure their children get the help they need, whether it is in the form of study groups, extra help from teachers, or parents sitting down with children at the kitchen table and working through the algebra problems.
School district staffs throughout Sacramento County are doing their part to prepare for the algebra challenge. In the Sacramento City Unified School District, starting this fall, every elementary school will have a lead math teacher assigned to help ensure that students have the math skills necessary for middle school. The San Juan Unified School District has adopted an aggressive, three-year plan to increase the number of eighth-graders taking and successfully completing Algebra 1, and the Elk Grove Unified School District is examining a variety of tools to enable both students and teachers to be successful in algebra during the middle school years.
We also need parental and family support to keep our children in school and on the road to graduation and higher education. We now have a more accurate way of tracking student graduation rates and, as we have seen reported, the news is not good.
The California Department of Education reports that nearly one-quarter – 24.2 percent – of the state's high school students during the 2006-07 school year failed to graduate or move into another program to continue their education. Some dropout rates in Sacramento County schools were reported at higher than 50 percent.
Schools and districts are finding more ways to keep students engaged in school, through innovative classes and career and technical education programs designed to give students hope and keep them interested. However, while teachers are cheering on students at school, parents must encourage their children to stay in school, keep working hard and stay on the road to graduation.
Recent research proves what we already know, that parental involvement pays off. A study by the University of New Hampshire studied national data involving more than 10,000 eighth-grade students in public and private schools. The study showed that children perform better in school when their parents are actively involved in their education.
The Harvard Family Research Project studied family involvement for secondary students. To no one's surprise, the report found the positive impact on students' academic achievement results from higher levels of parental attendance and volunteering at school functions.
The project also pointed out that parents who are more involved on campus and in the classroom are better informed about how their children are progressing both socially and academically.
However, we shouldn't need research to tell us what we already know. In order for us to see better test scores, higher graduation rates and greater student achievement, we need to see more parents getting involved with their children's educations, at home and in the classroom.
Parents are a vital classroom supply that we can never have too much of. So parents, stay involved. As your children get older, they may not want you around their middle or high school – but we educators need you there.
David Gordon is the Sacramento County superintendent of schools.
