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A new school year is filled with excitement and expectation for most children, but for those who are unsure whether they are prepared for the next grade, the time can also be filled with worry and trepidation. How can parents know definitively their children are ready to advance to the next step of their academic careers? There are several signs to watch for and many more tips parents can use to get their kids started on the right foot when the new school year begins.

Getting Started in Early Education – Separation, Focus, and Reading

The early years of school are an exciting time for children, but they can also be scary for some. To ensure your child is ready to enter the hallowed halls of academia, consider the following:

• Leaving Mom and Dad – Is your child ready to say goodbye to you every morning? If not, begin breaking those attachment ties down by enrolling your tot in a preschool or church program. According to , children entering Kindergarten should be happy away from home and be able to handle basic needs like bathroom trips on their own.
• Focusing on Tasks – Throughout the early years of school, children must learn to focus on tasks and see them through to completion. This process begins in Kindergarten with “circle time” and cut and paste projects and continues through first and second grade, with reading groups, math tests, and writing practice.

The term “gifted” has been thrown around in public education circles for decades – often misused, misdiagnosed and misunderstood. Gifted children may present in various ways; some are positive characteristics and some, are not as desirable. When determining giftedness in a student, it is essential to take a number of factors into consideration, since not all gifted children will exhibit the same characteristics at the same time. This list offers 10 of the most common characteristics seen in gifted students.

Verbal Ability

Gifted children often begin communicating verbally at an early age, and they use vocabulary far beyond their age. These children are often referred to as “precocious” because of their language usage. The website for Amend Psychological Services list some of the verbal features of gifted children as “avid storytellers,” early talkers or those with and extensive and precise vocabulary. These children often choose their words carefully, but tend to use a lot of them. They can also get frustrated with children in the same age group who are unable to understand them and often turn to older children or adults for conversation.

Information Processing

states that gifted children often have an “unusual capacity for processing information” and are often able to process that information more quickly and accurately than their peers. These children typically master subjects like reading and math much more quickly than their peers, which can make it difficult to keep them challenged in a regular school

Although Brown v. Board of Education eliminated school segregation 58 years ago, the idea of bussing students to integrate them more effectively is still going strong in some school districts. Today, the issue is not race as much as it is socioeconomic status—integrating wealthy and low-income students into a diverse student body that performs better academically. Does it work? The answer depends on who asks the question.

In this TED Talk, Kandice Sumner sees the disparity every day in her Boston classroom. In this inspiring talk, she asks us to face the facts and change them.

School Assignments by Socioeconomic Status Not a New Idea

reported more than two years ago that more than 60 school systems used socioeconomic status as a factor in school assignments. These schools made this decision primarily to improve performance in schools with a high concentration of poverty.

“To the extent that we can eliminate the highest concentrations of poverty, or spread more thinly those concentrations of poverty, I think we make the environment a little less challenging for students and staff to be successful,” Michael Rice, superintendent for Kalamazoo Public Schools in Michigan, told USA Today at the time.

Wake County in North Carolina was one of the first school districts in the country to consider bussing based on income level. In 2000, this school district shifted its bussing policy from one

With technology becoming a major component in all aspects of life today, it should be no surprise that this trend is hitting the public school sector as well. One way that technology is changing the face of education is through how information is distributed – through electronic means, rather than the traditional textbook. While more students are turning to the screen rather than turning pages, the verdict is still out on whether digital textbooks have what it takes to replace traditional books for good.

Defining the Digital Textbook

Students are tossing traditional textbooks with paper pages in favor of looking up their information on the computer, Kindle or iPad. These devices offer the ability to rent digital versions of the same textbooks, which are accessible through any online device. In some cases, digital textbooks can be accessed for free, if they are part of the public domain in cyberspace. Teachers, as a general rule, do not mind if students use the electronic or the traditional model of the textbook, as long as it delivers the same information and students remain focused on the task at hand, rather than surfing the Internet during class time.

“Kids are wired differently these days,” Sheryl R. Abshire, chief technology officer for the Calcasieu Parish School System in Lake Charles, Louisiana, told the . “They’re digitally nimble. They multitask, transpose and extrapolate. And

In the quest to ensure students are getting all the academic instruction they need throughout the school day, lunch breaks are often the first item to go on the chopping block. Some school districts have cut lunch to just a few minutes, forcing students to wolf down their food as quickly as possible so they can return to their more valuable classroom time. But is sufficient time for a midday meal really as non-essential as some school districts lead parents and students to believe? Some research and anecdotal evidence states otherwise.

A Rising Trend

reports on recent figures by the School Nutrition Association that show elementary school students have approximately 25 minutes for lunch, while middle and high school students have around 30 minutes. This includes the time it takes to get into the lunchroom, wait in line for a meal and find a place to sit. By the time some children get to their seats and open up their food, their time is down to 15 minutes or less in many cases.

Although shorter lunches have been the trend in U.S. schools since 2009, that has not always been the case. According to USA Today, children were getting up to five additional minutes a day to eat their midday meal than they do currently. In other countries, the contrast is even greater, with countries like France giving children up to two hours to enjoy their lunches in the middle of their school