Be A Learning Hero: New Public Service Partnership for Parents to Help Kids Succeed

As kids head back to school, parents and guardians across the country are asking similar – and important – questions: How do I help my child this year when I feel like I don’t have all the answers? If my child struggles, where do I go? I can see that the classroom is changing – what do I need to know and what can I do to help my child succeed?

I find myself asking the same questions as the mother of two sons attending public school. I know first-hand how hard it is to find answers and ways to help kids do their best in school. As someone who has dedicated my career to improving education for all students, I know there are many excellent resources available, but they can be hard to find.

So, I started talking with leading parent organizations, like the PTA, GreatSchools and Common Sense Media. Then, I listened to parents about their concerns and what keeps them up at night as they support their child’s education. I learned that there is a long overdue need for a resource that talks directly to parents and helps them to become more knowledgeable about the changes taking place in the classroom; a resource that offers parents easy-to-find and easy-to-understand information and tools they can use. The information is already out there, but making it accessible from one place ensures that parents will find what they need, when they need it.

This is the reason I launched Learning Heroes  ̶  to give parents the resources to engage in their child’s education. In some cases Learning Heroes curates information and in other cases we create it – with a goal of answering questions about the new standards, describing how the new state tests actually measure what students are now learning, and offering actionable and timely tools and resources so parents have an easy place to turn for help.

In our first year, we benefited greatly from the insights and resources of organizations that have been doing this work for years. They helped us identify resources that already exist and co-create materials that parents have said they need. In collaboration with the National PTA, Scholastic, GreatSchools, Common Sense Media, and other parent and education organizations, we recently launched a public service partnership called Be A Learning Hero. The online hub of this partnership is on our website, www.BeALearningHero.org, which features an easy-to-use search engine and free resources in English and Spanish, including:

• The Super 5 important and practical steps to help parents prepare for the new school year;
• Learning activities in math and English, sorted by grade level and aligned to the new statewide tests – Skill Builder – that help improve a child’s skills in areas where they need support; and
• The GreatKids State Test Guide for Parents, to help parents understand their child’s score report and connect them to targeted learning resources based on the report.

My hope is that parents will turn to www.BeALearningHero.org when they are looking to help their children succeed in school and, with the support of our partners, help parents across the country become true “learning heroes.”