What Every Parent Should Know about Schools, Standards, and High Stakes Tests

Help parents understand educational standards, mandated tests, No Child Left Behind, and other issues affecting their children’s schools with this reader-friendly guide.

"Full of wonderful information, and very thought provoking!"
-Susan E. Fisher, NBCT
Douglas County School District, CO

"Cuts through all the jargon."
-Stephanie A. Slowik, NBCT, Nationally Certified School Counselor
Wake County Public Schools, NC

"Gives a better understanding of what the standards mean, what to do with the standards, and what to do if standards aren't being met by a school."
-Shannon Journell, Teacher
Enon Elementary School, OH

"Not only am I an educator, but I am also a single mom of two. I read this book from both perspectives and was enlightened by the information. Every parent should be aware of the information in it, especially those who move frequently."
-Stacy Slomko, Teacher
Perth Amboy High School, NJ

The essential resource for parents who want to help their children succeed in school!

Expert educator and award-winning author Donna Walker Tileston helps parents take the guesswork out of understanding educational standards, mandated tests, No Child Left Behind, and the myriad other issues affecting their children's schools today. Within this concise, reader-friendly guide, parents will find a wealth of easy-to-understand information, including:

• How to understand and access local and national standards
• Five things parents can do to improve standards-based teaching and testing
• Ten guides to asking the right questions at open-school events and parent-teacher conferences
• Three ways to help children master high stakes tests
• What to do if schools don't achieve adequate yearly progress
• A glossarythat defines the buzzwords that mystify non-educators

With this one handy guide, all parents can become active, informed, and involved participants in their children's education.

Donna Walker Tileston has served education as a leader in teaching, administration, research, writing, software development, and national consulting for the past thirty years. She has been responsible for curriculum development, management, technology, finance, grants management, public relations, and drug abuse prevention programs. For the past twenty-five years, she has been actively involved in brain research, including research on factors that inhibit learning or increase the brain's ability to put information into long-term memory. Tileston's ten-book collection What Every Teacher Should Know (Corwin Press 2003) received the 2004 Distinguished Achievement Award for Excellence in Educational Publishing by the Association of Educational Publishers. Other Corwin press titles include What Every Parent Should Know About Schools, Standards, and High-Stakes Tests (2005), Ten Best Teaching Practices: How Brain Research, Learning Styles and Standards Define Teaching Competencies (2005), and Strategies for Teaching Differently (1998). Tileston has presented extensively at local, state, national, and international conferences, notably at The Hague in November 2005 and in Prague during March 2006.