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| "I love this book! Choosing a school is a very personal decision, and Picky Parent Guide
will enable parents to make the best decisions possible for their children. In writing this book,
Bryan and Emily Hassel have provided a real service for parents, children and schools." |
| —Gaynor McCown, Executive Director, The Teaching Commission |
Teachers, you are the keepers of the key to each individual child's educational success, both
in learning at school and later in life. We have enormous respect for your work.
One of our goals is to ensure that you have the support you need to be successful. More and more
parents (and policymakers) have already come to expect results, so it is urgent for you to get the
tools, support, materials and inspiration you need to help every child learn. We know that it's a
rare person who can achieve greatness in the classroom for every child without well-planned and
well-delivered support from the larger school. This is true in all professions, in fact. Doctors,
lawyers and other professionals perform better when they have clear goals, helpful coaching,
ready-made tools and just-in-time assistance from a varied group of skilled professionals and
support staff. What you do is really important. So we say: Why not you? If you are important
enough for all of us to expect so much from you, then you are important enough for all of us
to support heartily and reward accordingly.
Parents can help. Yes, highly motivated and focused parents will expect more (and some will go
overboard, and some will shirk their home duties, and some will communicate with less-than-desired
tact). But in the end we will all be better off as parents become better-informed about what both
schools and parents can do to support each child's education success.
Many of you will find the child and family sections of Picky Parent Guide (Chapters 2-10)
helpful for identifying child needs, assessing family issues, and communicating with parents about
their children. Many of you will find the child (2-6) and school quality (11-14) chapters,
added to your own wisdom, useful when trying to improve individual children's learning experiences.
For the future, we're exploring ways to link resources for educators to the Great School Quality
Factors and Fit Factors described in Picky Parent Guide and embedded in the Confident Choice Tools.
We want to help you do what you love to do even better, using the best available research and meeting
the needs of the particular children who learn from you.
Here are some ways you can act now to help parents make critical decisions about their children's
educations:
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