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Parents want to ensure their children obtain the best education possible, but few know how significantly their input can turn a campus into a top public school. There are numerous ways parents can get involved to raise the bar for the neighborhood school system. Consider these four ideas to help your schools achieve the quality you want for your children.

Parental Involvement in the Classroom

When parents enter the classroom, they obtain a better perspective of the teacher and students' challenges. Parental involvement encourages better communication between the teacher and parent and between the parent and child. According to a study by Henderson and Berla, the benefits of parental involvement to students include:

• Higher grades and test scores
• Better attendance
• More homework completed
• Improved attitudes
• Higher graduation rates

Benefits are not restricted to students, however. The school also benefits from parental involvement in the following ways:

• More support for teachers from families
• Improved teacher morale
• Higher student achievement
• Better reputation in the community

Parents also benefit from getting more involved in school business. By becoming involved, parents develop more confidence in the school and teachers. Moms and dads also become more confident in their parenting abilities and their children's potential for success.

In this TEDX Talk, Megan Olivia Hall discusses building robust relationships with teachers and parents.

Better Nutrition and Fitness

Obesity is becoming a national epidemic in the United States, and

While the Civil Rights era made tremendous strides in fighting for equality, could segregation still plague our public schools five decades later?

In April, a federal judge found that a Mississippi school district was "flagrantly" violating a desegregation court order. The Walthall County school district has been ordered to change its attendance policies, as reported by . Unfortunately, this report is not the first to appear about a southern school in the throes of resegregation accusations.

Is segregation returning to our public education system? Perhaps it is time to look at the policies surrounding our schools to find out.

A Brief History

The history of government involvement in desegregation only goes back about half a century. In 1954, the case resulted in the Supreme Court's decision that "racially segregated schools" were "inherently unequal." The following year, the Court outlined a plan for racial desegregation, with orders for segregated schools to make the appropriate changes "with all deliberate speed."

However, some schools did not make the necessary adjustments expeditiously, and in 1969, the Court came out with another ruling to push the desegregation process along. Alexander vs. Holmes County Board led to the Court requiring schools to desegregate right away and operate only as "unitary" schools in the future.

Today's Problem

Since the Alexander vs. Holmes County Board decision, schools have worked toward desegregation

In a country as diverse as the United States, where nearly is not English, public schools have embraced the linguistic challenge presented by immigrant students. A rising number of public schools are gaining recognition for their outstanding efforts in working with immigrant students and non-English speaking learners. In fact, according to The Statesman, ELL students across the nation have made significant gains on standardized tests over the past three years.

The ELL Concern

The English Language Learner (ELL) population in the United States has grown significantly in the last several decades. While only 9 percent of students in 1979 reportedly spoke a non-English language at home, as of 2007, 20 percent of students claimed to speak a non-English language at home.

By law, public schools are mandated to provide the appropriate language and academic support for English Language Learners (ELLs), but some school districts have failed dismally in judging test scores.

Subsequently, the U.S. Education Department Office for Civil Rights began investigating school districts accused of not meeting the rights of their immigrant students. Specifically, the Education Department is looking into California’s Los Angeles Unified School District, as only 3 percent of its ELLs have achieved a “proficient” score on their high school math and English tests. Due to this low success rate, leaders seek to “determine whether those students are being denied a fair education.”

This video looks at the marginalized nature of the ELL

In an age of perfect SAT scores, 4.5 GPAs, and the most competitive college admissions in history, some students are gaining an edge by obtaining their associate's degree before their high school diploma!

Many "underage" students opting to take college courses are enrolled in "early college high schools," Other public schools nationwide provide students with dual enrollment programs that help them earn their associate's degree during high school.

Doubling the Degrees

As a brainchild of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the "early college high school" trend is growing. Since 2002, more than 200 schools across 24 states and in Washington DC have been designated as early college campuses, according to the . Specifically designed to cultivate the academic achievement of all students across socioeconomic, cultural, and language barriers, these high schools have helped many students obtain their associate's degree or earn credit towards their bachelor's degree – all while enrolled in high school. Better yet, students from these high schools make all this college credit tuition-free.

While most assume that only the "brightest and best" high school students can earn college degrees while in high school, this is not the case. In fact, according to , "Programs that allow students to earn college credit while in high school sound as if they have been designed for the smartest, most