Elements of a Successful High School: Parents
PARENTS
CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
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Local |
State |
National |
| Visit your state’s school report card to learn more about your high school’s graduation, drop-out, literacy, and school safety rates and visit School Matters to compare your school to others in your area. | Invite your elected officials to visit your child’s high school to engage administrators, teachers and students in conversation about how high schools should be improved. | Invite your elected officials to visit your child’s high school to engage administrators, teachers and students in conversation about how high schools should be improved. |
| If you want your child to graduate on time prepared for college, talk to your child’s teacher and counselor to ensure that he or she is enrolled in a college preparatory curriculum and is on track to meet the school’s graduation requirements. | Write letters to, call, and/or request a meeting with your state elected representatives to share your concerns and the need for reform. Click here to find contact information. | Write letters to, call, and/or request meetings with your Congressional representatives to share your concerns and the need for reform. |
| If your child’s grades or teacher indicates that it is needed, make sure that he or she gets extra tutoring help after school. If your school does not provide after school tutoring, contact your city mayor’s office to locate programs run by community organizations. | Contact the Public Education Network to find an advocacy organization near you focused on high school reform. | Contact the Alliance for Excellent Education or the Public Education Network to find a national advocacy organization focused on high school reform. |
| Contact your school district superintendent to find out whether the district has plans to implement high school reforms. Request immediate action if no initiative is planned. | Work with the Parent Teacher Association or another advocacy organization to develop or participate in a lobby-day at the state capitol focused on high school education accountability and reform. | Join with an organization to participate in a lobby-day at the U.S. Capitol focused on high school education accountability and reform. |
| Write an article for your local paper or community newsletter about your observations or experiences. | Contact your chief state school officer to request more information about your state’s plans for improving high schools. | Contact the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Outreach at the U.S. Department of Education to request more information about its plans for reforming high schools. |
| Start or become active in your school’s Parent Teacher Association to get more resources to help your child and convince local members to champion high school reform. | If there are not enough library, computer, and/or textbook resources in your child’s school, ask your state legislators and chief school officer to seek more support for your high school and others like it. Click to locate your representatives and school officers. | Ask your Congressional representatives to increase federal funding support for high schools. |
| Contact your local school board to get a meeting schedule. Attend meetings and demand they give more attention to high school reform. |
Visit the Alliance for Excellent Education to sign up for updates about national high school reform initiatives and Congressional action alerts. |
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Although your local elected officials may not have direct responsibility for your area schools, request a meeting with, call or send a letter to your mayor and/or city council members to discuss strategies for raising community awareness about high school reform. |