By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — With the end of a grading period coming up later this month in Nickerson-South Hutchinson USD 309, parents being engaged in monitoring their children's ongoing classwork is key, before we get to conference time later in the month.
"Engagement from parents at home has a real impact on their student at school related to graduation rate, test scores, post secondary success, just based on the engagement of parents at home," said USD 309 Superintendent Curtis Nightingale. "Instead of just worrying about that aggregate grade, dig into the weeds a little bit and find out, how many missing assignments are going on there? I'll tell you, that's probably the number one issue that effects students and impacts their grades is a missing assignment."
It's important to prepare students for the daily expectations they will have in the workplace.
"If you've got something due at work and you don't turn that in, that doesn't go away," Nightingale said. "It's still got to get done, right? That's a major impact on the system if you don't get your stuff done. Helping students learn that lesson early is a huge part of the education model."
There is responsibility on the teaching side of the equation, as well.
"As soon as you start to take the attitude of, I taught it, it was their job to learn it, maybe it's time to find the door," Nightengale said. "You've really got to focus on the fact that your responsibility is to reach out to these students and make sure that they're grasping the content that you're delivering, because if they're not, you've got to change."
The grading period ends October 15, with evening parent-teacher conferences on October 21.