Writing instruction in our schools is terrible. We need to fix it.

By Jay Mathews Columnist August 14

The organization [The Education Trust, a nonprofit that advocates for students from low-income households] collected 1,876 school assignments from six middle schools in two large urban districts in two states. The idea was to see how well English, humanities, social studies and science were being taught in the new era of the Common Core State Standards. The results are distressing and show that the instruction students are getting — particularly in writing — is deeply inadequate.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/writing-instruction-in-our-schools-is-terrible-we-need-to-fix-it/2016/08/14/a47b705e-6005-11e6-8e45-477372e89d78_story.html

FOR some parents primary and secondary school is just an enriched form of day care - a place for parents to send their children while mom and dad go to work. Others view educating their child as someone else's responsibility. For both, the lack of parental involvement can cause children to languish and fail to learn thereby falling behind their peers. No form of education, public, private, or alternative, can overcome parental apathy. In later years under-performing students tend to have more behavioral problems that disrupt the classroom. Some homeschoolers recognize this and decide to insulate themselves from it. A homeschooling parent is almost always a highly involved parent (for an exception see the unschooling movement).