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October is Anti-bullying Prevention Month Every October, people from across the U.S. unite to keep our nation’s youth safe from bullying.  It is important to increase the awareness of the impact and prevalence of bullying of kids of all ages.  School administrators can offer parents and students information and educational materials regarding how everyone can help to prevent bullying.  Education … Read More

5 Positive Parenting Strategies for Preschool Kids Your kids, especially, preschoolers, require a great deal of caring guidance and positive discipline.  Positive parenting strategies for preschool kids should place an emphasis on cooperation, learning, growing, and connecting together.  It is important to form a loving and respectful relationship with young kids, as the relationships formed now will be the basis … Read More

Bridging Research and Practice with Latino Family Engagement Family engagement has emerged as a key strategy for improving academic success over the past decade.  An ever increasing body of research has shown a positive association between parental involvement and academic achievement, as well as emotional and social development (Henderson & Mapp, 2002; Gutman & Midgley, 2000; Biag & Castrechini, 2014; … Read More

Brain Development in Young Kids An extraordinary amount of brain development takes place in young kids during a short period of time during early childhood. The early years of child development are a critical time for brain development, as this is the time that young kids learn an astonishing amount of skills and information that is needed to function throughout … Read More

The NASEM Report on ELs & Parent Involvement With the new school year starting, it’s worthwhile to review the report by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) issued in 2017 entitled “Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures.” The key takeaways from the report include the following: Parent involvement and engagement is … Read More

Engaging the families of English Learners (ELs) calls for goal setting. Begin by realizing that family engagement benefits all students. It leads to higher grades, higher test scores, classes passed, regular school attendance and higher graduation rates with the graduates then going on to college. Here are four goals to help you engage successfully with the families of English-Language Learners: … Read More

Stephen Krashen’s Monitor Model for Learning Language Stephen Krashen’s Monitor Model might be the most cited theory for learning a second language. This theory is quite popular, but has also received much criticism about the predictable order of grammar structures. There is so much that goes into this model for learning language, but here are the highlights: Language acquisition is … Read More

Creating a Welcoming School Environment Creating a welcoming school environment that is inclusive for all students requires a holistic approach.  It requires school administrators and educators to join together to create a learning environment that takes into consideration the language, cultures, and family structures of their students.  We have listed a few ways on how creating a welcoming school environment … Read More

English Language Learner (ELL) students and families make up a huge portion of today’s society in the US.  School leaders are in the position to create a culture of success within their school community. Therefore, it is important for school leaders to involve ELL parents in their children’s educational experience, since parental engagement is crucial for their children’s success in … Read More

Parents’ Attitudes and Impact on Learning Parents’ attitudes towards education play a huge role on learning and academic success of their children.  In this context, the term attitude refers to “a favorable or unfavorable evaluative reaction towards something or someone exhibited in one’s beliefs, feelings or intended behavior.”  Furthermore, attitudes are a social construct or position on how parents favorably … Read More