School plays a large role in our kids’ lives. As parents, we have to navigate conflicting data, news, and what other families are doing, when we send our kids off to school. How involved should a parent be with their kid’s schoolwork? Do classroom incentives motivate or deter students? What’s the deal with school rankings and are they useful?
Below, you will find 10 of my most popular articles on ParentData about school. Feel free to ask a question if you have something else on your mind.
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How Much Should Parents Help Their Kids With School?
What the data says on how involved parents should be in trying to fix things for our kids and when it’s better to step back rather than intervening. Read more
Is There an Ideal School Start Time?
Many things get in the way of sleep — activities, phones — but it remains true that kids are often not sleeping enough, and this impacts their mental health, school performance, and other outcomes. There are some changes that parents can make (fewer activities, phone limits), but there’s also a policy change that might matter: delayed school start times. Read more
How School Rankings Work
The choice of where to send your child to school can feel unbelievably consequential. This stress translates into parents looking to find the “best” school for their child, leading them to school rankings. Despite their influence, the data cautions strongly against their overuse in decision-making. Read more
Why Schools Always Call Moms
A research paper proves schools are more likely to call mom than dad. This paper, created by three women, tackles parental workload inequality in the household and how these issues impact equality in the labor market too. Read more
Every Kid is a Math Kid
I chatted with Shalinee Sharma about her book, Math Mind, a guide to how we can make all kids “math kids.” We discuss why she wrote it, what she hopes people will get from it, and how schools can do math better. Read more
Is Homework Important?
Participating in your child’s homework can be a big part of your day. Is homework important? Does it actually help our kids learn, or is it just a way to torture us parents with Model Magic clay and billboards? What does the data say? Read more
Is Montessori School Better?
Many people have asked me the question “Is Montessori school better?” Or other parenting philosophies like Reggio Emilia, Waldorf, and “traditional.” I dive into the limited data and then explain why that question is unanswerable and makes no sense to ask. Read more
Why Adolescent Boys Are Struggling
An increasing number of boys are feeling lonely and isolated, underperforming in school and opting out of college, overdosing on drugs, falling under the spell of extremism, and engaging in lethal violence and self-harm. It can be scary to think about all the issues boys are struggling with today, but there are some powerful things parents and schools can do to intervene. Read more
Is Homeschooling Worth It?
Is one kind of schooling (public, private, charter, homeschooling, forest school, unschool) better than others? This question is extremely difficult to answer and heavily depends on logistics, your child, and family structure. Read more
Do Classroom Rewards Work?
While helpful for motivating good behavior, do classroom rewards have downsides like crowding out a love of learning? Before asking this, we check what the data says about if they even work, then dive into risks and implementation. Read more
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