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New Tools for Parents: Getting Informed & Getting Involved - Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Time: 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM ET
“Parents know what is best for their children. Expanding educational options for parents is one of the hallmarks of the No Child Left Behind Act.”
--U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings
All parents want a quality education for their children. Regardless of what they earn or where they live, all parents want to send their children to schools that have high expectations and high standards. And when schools fall short of these standards, families deserve to be given choices. The No Child Left Behind Act provides parents with information and access to a greater range of educational options that ever before in our nation’s history. Under the law, states and school districts must provide "report cards" for parents—tailored information telling them about the quality of education at their children's schools; public school choice and free tutoring when a school is specified as “in need of improvement;” the expansion of charter, magnet and other innovative public schools; and funding for some private school services for children.
No Child Left Behind arms the parents of the nation’s 48 million public school students with information to be effective educational consumers and powerful advocates for their children. And, today, more and more of them are taking advantage of opportunities under the law: the number of students in free tutoring programs increased fivefold in just the first two years of the law; charter schools have grown from about 2,000 nationwide in 2001 to over 3,600 today; and in Washington, DC, the first-ever federally funded opportunity scholarship program was recently launched, giving 1,700 low-income students the chance to attend the school of their choice.
The May edition of Education News will highlight the latest tools for parents under No Child Left Behind and provide tips, resources and advice on how parents—especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds—can access valuable information on the performance of their children’s schools and exercise the full range of options available to them under the law. Educators, policymakers and parent-leaders will discuss key issues such as:
- What are the latest tools and options for parents under No Child Left Behind?
- What does the research show about the results and “success stories” of parental options? How do these options enable student performance?
- How can parents access their children’s NCLB school “report cards” and take full advantage of the options available to them under the law?
- If a child is attending a school “in need of improvement”, where does a parent go to find out information on school choice options and approved supplemental service providers?
- What are Opportunity Scholarships and how might they benefit parents whose children attend chronically underperforming schools?
- What resources does the Department provide to inform parents about the full range of options available to them under the law?
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Disclaimer
Permission: Programs produced by the U.S. Department of Education are in the public domain. Use, duplication, and distribution are free and unrestricted. Thank You!
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