There are several things parents should do before school officially ends for the summer.
If your child comes home with a final report card indicating that he has failed something or is deficient in some way, now is the time to go to school, preferably with the child, to determine what action can be taken so his work will improve next year.
It is not enough for a school to indicate failure without indicating that it has some plan for next year to help the child to succeed.
At a meeting, you, your child and the teacher should look at his past work and his test scores in order to determine where he is deficient. If your child has low scores in reading and math on school-wide standardized achievement tests, you might ask that he be given a diagnostic test to further pinpoint the difficulty. The number of questions on the standardized achievement tests are too few to really identify the problem.
It is not enough for a school to indicate failure without indicating that it has some plan for next year to help the child to succeed.
If the decision is made that tutoring would be helpful, it is best to do this toward the end of the summer, just before school opens again.
Do not get just any tutor.
Look for a capable, experienced tutor and ask for references.
The school might have recommendations. Sometimes there is an excellent teacher on the staff who does tutoring in the summer or a retired teacher for year-round help. Often a child's underlying problem is deficiency in reading and his other problems may just be symptoms of this. With the school's help, find out if this is the case and choose the tutor accordingly. It is important that the tutor works well with your child and that your child does not view it as punishment. Otherwise, he will never learn. When you engage a tutor, you should know what she hopes to accomplish and how.
If your child is going from elementary to middle school or middle school to high school, now is the time to look at his cumulative record folder. You want to know what records and comments are going to follow him. If you disagree with the comments, ask that they be deleted. Most comments tell you more about the writer than the child.
If you feel the record is very negative, might want to add some of your childs accomplishments that maybe the school knows nothing about.
For example, he is a wonderful musician, he acts in plays, he can organize his friends to go on trips, he does community service.
If your child is a slow starter, you might want to ask the teacher he will have next year to suggest some summer activities which will enhance his learning or spur his interest.
For example, if they are going to study American Indians, you could take him to the museum or incorporate a trip to a reservation as part of your summer vacation. This does not mean that you spend the summer doing school-type activities--workbooks, etc. If you do, he will be so tired of school he will not want to go back next September.
If your child is going to start school next September as a kindergartner, he may be given a kindergarten screening test. Ideally, the results of this test should be used to plan a program appropriate to your child. If that is not the case, you might want to ask how the results are to be used.
If you have a son who the school system says, as a result of this test, is not developmentally ready to do the pre-determined curriculum, you might consider waiting a year thus giving him time to develop so that he can be successful. These tests do not measure intelligence and you have in no way failed as a parent. Your child will get there eventually and successfully if you and the rest of the world allow him to follow his own unique rate of progress.
The most important thing to remember is that you are your child's advocate.
And as his best friend, look forward to an enjoyable summer with him.
First published in 1995
Permalink: https://www.cassandrasclassroom.com/columns/end-of-the-school-year