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School Success: An Introduction


Parent involvement in school is crucial to our children's success, but for many busy parents, making time to support academic success can be a challenge. It can be easy to assume that your child's education is the sole responsibility of schools, but remember that education is most effective when parents and schools work together. By practicing a few simple steps for preparing your kids for school, and doing what you can to encourage learning outside of school, you’ll be helping your child succeed in school—and in life!
  • Simple tips for supporting academic success >

    • Did You Know?

    • 80% of adults say that encouraging young people to do well in school is the most important thing adults can do for kids.1

    • 34% of 6th- through 12th-grade students say that their parents are involved in their education. 2

    • Children and teenagers spend more time in school and learning settings than in any other structured activity.3

    ParentFurther This Back to School Season and Beyond!

    Kids going back to school.

    Whether you’ve experienced sending your children back to school several times or you’re sending your child to their first day of school ever, planning and preparation are always essential elements in a successful transition from summer vacation to a full-fledged school routine. We’ve compiled some simple, everyday tips—for all ages and stages—to help make this back-to-school season, and school year, as stress-free as possible.

    5 Simple Tips for Back to School Survival

    1. Pack up the kids and pay a visit to school on the Saturday before opening day. A tour around the campus can be a simple way to ease the first-day jitters— especially for those students who will be starting a new school.

    2. Try to schedule a brief introduction with your child’s teacher before school starts, or send your child’s teacher an e-mail introducing yourself. Download our free Parent-Teacher Introduction e-mail template to send out before the first day of school. Your enthusiasm will give teachers a positive outlook on parent involvement in the classroom.

    3. Make a decision— with your child, if she is old enough— about school lunches. Will she be taking a bagged lunch to school or purchasing lunch at the school cafeteria? It’s helpful to plan out bagged lunches at least a week in advance. Most schools now offer healthier school lunch options, so there’s no need to stress over whether or not your kid is getting her proper nutrition.

    4. Address your child’s social anxiety at home. Grab a stuffed animal, or a spouse, and role play out some of the potentially stressful scenarios your child may encounter at a new school: making friends, encountering older kids and encounters with strangers.

    5. Keep back to school supplies together, by the door. Encourage your child to clean up his homework area every evening after homework is complete. Books and homework should be placed inside backpacks, and backpacks placed near the door to eliminate rushing around, searching for school items in the morning.

  • 10 Back-to-School Tips for Parents of Preschoolers

  • 10 Back-to-School Tips for Parents of Kindergartners

  • 10 Back-to-School Tips for Parents of Elementary School Aged Kids

  • 10 Tips for Parents of Middle School Aged Kids

  • 10 Back-to-School Tips for Parents of High-School Students

  • Healthy Recipes For Healthy Kids

    • Supporting School Success

    Every child’s needs are different, but it takes more than just being smart to do well in school. Support academic success at home, and help your child succeed in school with these simple tips.

    • Instill good study habits,
    • Instill a love for reading,
    • Instill a commitment to learning.

    Everyday Tips

    • Start at Home: School success starts at home. Create a homework center, a specific area in the house (such as an office desk or the kitchen table) where your child can do homework each evening. Make sure that it’s stocked with enough supplies, such as pencils, erasers, paper, a folder or two, and a calculator.
    • Do: Sit with your kids when they’re doing homework. If you have work you need to do for your job, bills to pay, or some other project, do it while your child is doing her homework, and let her know that even adults have homework. Model what it takes for school success by staying focused and not leaving until you’ve accomplished what you set out to do.
    • Encourage Critical Thinking: Help your child with his homework, but make sure that you’re not doing it for him. Your role is to help him succeed in school by asking questions, giving examples, and assisting him in learning concepts, not giving him the answers. Critical thinking skills are crucial for doing well in school at every age.
    • Stay Involved: Work with high school counselors, teachers that know your child well, and your teenager to create an academic schedule from ninth to twelfth grade that challenges her and deepens her school success skills. Do: Keep your teenager growing (without boring or placing too much pressure on her) so that she gradually masters skills that will be useful for doing well in school and beyond. After each semester, talk with your teen and make necessary adjustments to the schedule to make sure that it is still appropriate.
    • Interests are Important: Encourage your kids to find books that excite them. Don’t overlook graphic novels, comic books, magazines, or other types of reading that may not interest you, but interests them. The point is to keep them reading, which promotes school success. Talk to them about what they’re reading on their own and in class, and ask which books they like and what they’re learning.

    Encourage Learning: Summers, Weekends, and After School

    Times when your child is out of school, like weekends, holiday breaks, and summer vacations, don’t need to be times spent away from learning. Researchers are finding that too long of a break (particularly during the summer) can be detrimental to kids’ academic achievement. Encouraging your kids to participate in learning activities during their free time is an effective way to support academic success. Kids don’t have to study textbooks to learn; read on to find out more about how your kids can learn when they’re outside of school.  

    Did You Know?

    • Good summer programs can help kids improve their reading, develop math skills, increase high school graduation rates, make kids more likely to stay in college, and increase their college employment rate.1
    • Between kindergarten and sixth grade, the decrease in summer reading causes a gap between low-income and middle-income students of up to 18 months.5 By the end of middle school, the cumulative loss has expanded to two or more years.6
  • 80% of the achievement differences between low-income and middle- to high-income students may occur because of summer reading loss.7
    • So, what can you do? No matter what your income level, encourage your kids to keep reading, and to keep learning during out of school times.
  • Simple tips for encouraging kids to read >
  • Easy ideas for finding effective summer programs >  

    • School Problems


    School expectations have proven to be challenging and overwhelming for students. It can be tough learning that your child is having difficulties in middle school, whether they're social, educational, or behavioral. It can also be very difficult to take the first steps in helping your child address the underlying issues that are causing those difficulties. But as a responsible, caring parent, it's your job to help your kids get past their troubles at school and make it a place for effective learning.

    Did You Know?

    • The more Developmental Assets a child has, the less likely he or she is to engage in high-risk behaviors such as illicit drug use, violence, and premature sexual activity. This allows the child to focus more on--and do better in--school.
    • Students with higher levels of Developmental Assets have been shown to have higher GPAs, on average, than students with lower levels of assets. They are also more likely to maintain those higher GPAs.1
    • Learn more about Developmental Assets >