Back to School: How Parents Can Set Students Up for Success


As the new school year gets underway, many parents are eager to play an active role in their child’s education. But parents also have a flurry of questions: How can I understand what’s happening in my child’s classroom? How do I know whether my child is on track for success? How can I support my child’s learning at home?

To help answer these questions, the National PTA, Scholastic, and Learning Heroes are sharing tips and tools that parents can use to help their children succeed in school. The Super 5 is a list of the key ways that parents can start the school year on the right foot:

  1. Keep the goal in mind. Find out your child’s learning goals for his or her new grade.
  2. Understand your child’s potential. Know where your child excels and where there is room to grow.
  3. Be involved. Support your child’s teachers and principals and spend time in your child’s school.
  4. Embrace character and resilience. Understand how character is key to your child’s academic success.
  5. Bring it home. Get the best tools to support your child’s learning at home. 

A terrific place to find tools for at-home learning is Be A Learning Hero, a website dedicated to helping parents navigate the changes happening in classrooms. It includes parent-friendly information on state standards as well as videos, practice problems, and a Skill Builder that is searchable by grade level, subject, and test area.

Be A Learning Hero also provides parents with links to other trusted resources, such as Univision’s Clave al Éxito, which offers guidance in Spanish on how to support children’s educational success. The website features an online Parent Academy that helps give parents multiple ways to get involved in their child’s education and engage with their school. 

Have questions about your child’s homework? Head to the Homework Help Desk, where experts and teachers answer frequently-asked and user-submitted questions about math and English language arts—for free! Both sites are worth a visit (and a bookmark in your browser!).

In addition to these online tools, teachers are an outstanding resource for parents. Teachers are the experts on teaching and learning, and they have valuable insight into how parents can support their children. The beginning of the school year presents a prime opportunity for parents and teachers to talk about how to best support students. This is a conversation that will continue throughout the school year, but starting with a game plan is crucial to students’ success.

Supporting children in school is truly a team effort. Both teachers and parents play essential roles—now and throughout the year—in helping children grow, learn, and realize their dreams.