Whether you’re a parent gearing up for another year of nightly homework battles or an educator wading through an onslaught of parent queries around math instruction, a recent University of Chicago study on the relationship between parents’ math anxiety and their children’s academic achievement might pique your interest.  

After observing several hundred elementary students and their caregivers over the course of a school year, the research team, led by psychologists Sian Beilock and Susan Levine, discovered that when math-anxious parents provide homework help, their children learn less math and are more likely to experience math anxiety themselves—a finding that has big implications not just for parents, but for the districts and schools working to support them.

Erin A. Maloney, the study’s lead author, emphasizes that parents are their child’s “first and most sustained teachers.” She also notes that schools consistently message to parents that their involvement in the learning process is key to their child’s success. Unfortunately, parents are rarely provided with the tools and resources they need to support their child’s learning with confidence. As a slew of news items and viral posts on social mediademonstrated last school year, parental math anxiety is a reality that has only been exacerbated by the use of unfamiliar teaching methods and new standards, leaving parents everywhere frustrated and discouraged.

So what’s to be done? Maloney suggests that schools combat parents’ math anxiety by providing them with “structured activities that allow [them] to interact with their children around math in positive ways … in the form of math books, computer and traditional board games, or Internet apps.”

She says families might also benefit from general tips for homework help and video models of effective teaching. Resources like these can act as a lifesaver for parents who feel lost at sea when faced with number lines and area array diagrams, but want desperately to connect with and encourage their child’s learning.

Creating and distributing resources to support parents is a huge job (especially when you consider that many parents of elementary school kids don’t speak English as their first language). Yet forward-thinking school districts across the country are making significant strides in supporting their parents. For many, Upraised Math is a key element of their strategy to build parent capabilities by explaining new teaching methods in parent-friendly language, and encouraging structured at-home learning experiences. Upraised offers an exciting opportunity for schools to lower parents’ math anxiety and drive student achievement simultaneously.

The 2014-2015 school year has been abuzz with conversations about Common Core. Regardless of your stance on the new standards, chances are you’ve heard or provided a long-winded explanation of these Math and ELA benchmarks at some point over the last few months.

We’ve seen lots of in-depth guides that aim to explain “the shift”, but we loved the simplicity and directness of this recent 3-minute video from Vox. After all, who has more than three minutes these days?

 Still have time to spare?!

We’re also following The Hechinger Report’s ongoing Core Debate between Jayne Ellspermann, a principal in Ocala, Florida and Carol Burris, a principal in Rockville Centre, New York. Their open letters are spirited and thoughtful. 

• Here’s Jayne arguing that schools should help parents understand the value of the common core standards. 

• And here’s Carol arguing that common core is going to widen the achievement gap. 

Big news! We are joining forces with Peter Bergman, Assistant Professor of Economics and Education at Columbia University, to advance the critical work of helping schools engage and support families in meaningful, innovative ways. Peter has joined the Upraised team as an advisor, and we are super excited about the opportunity to incorporate his expertise, creativity, and insights into our work!

Earlier this year, amidst an outpouring of headlines highlighting controversial education policy decisions, the New York Times published a thought provoking piece entitled Helping the Poor in Education: The Power of a Simple Nudge. The article didn’t focus on sweeping reforms or widely disputed assessments, as a great deal of media coverage has recently, but instead outlined a new and encouraging approach to addressing educational inequity: providing students and families with targeted, personalized information via text message.

Arguably the leading researcher in this field, Bergman is investigating simple and scalable ways to address parents’ lack of information about their child’s education (“information asymmetries” in behavior economics parlance), as discussed in the article. In a recent study conducted in mostly Hispanic schools in Los Angeles, he found that a simple intervention in which parents were sent personalized text messages about their child’s academic performance resulted in significantly improved homework completion, better test scores, and higher rates of interaction between families and teachers than a control group.

All too often, there’s a disconnect between research and practice in education. At Upraised, our approach to family engagement is rooted in research that’s begun to shed light on the family/school interaction models that lead to student achievement gains, and how we might leverage technology in our efforts to connect with and support all parents.

You can read Peter’s study in its entirety here, and we look forward to sharing more about his research in the future!

At Upraised our core mission is to help families help their kids succeed in school–and life. We think the deepest learning happens when schools and families work together, and we’re excited to connect with people who feel the same way.  

The Upraised family is now spread across six states, and we’re rolling out our blog to highlight relevant news and research, suggested reads, product updates, partner spotlights, innovative family engagement strategies, tips on where to join dynamic conversations, and other cool edustuff.