Confidence in Our Children’s Futures
Ohio’s Learning Standards are designed to challenge and motivate our students, preparing them for success in college, on the job, and in life.
The standards are a list of things students need to know and be able to do in our modern society, to be ready for college or work. They don’t include curriculum, books, or teaching instructions. All of these education essentials remain under the control of local school districts, where they belong.
Some say standards are “one size fits all,” because they are minimum expectations. In some cases, it is helpful to set standards, both at a basic and more advanced level. One example of this is driver’s licenses. In order to obtain a driver’s license, each of us must know what a stop sign is. Yet we must also know how to operate a vehicle in challenging weather conditions.
Parents can support what their children are learning because expectations at each grade level are clear, thanks to Ohio’s Learning Standards. When parents clearly understand what students need to know, they can better support learning at home.
With the new standards, parents can feel confident in each child’s future because Ohio’s standards are designed with long-term success in mind—they prepare students to leave high school ready for a job or college study—without needing remedial course work.
Use the following resources to help support children’s learning.
Aven’s Corner: All of the free resources at Aven’s Corner are developed with young children with autism in mind, but they appeal to all children because of their simplicity. We have also included fun online kids activities for parents and teachers to do with their children.
INFOhio: This web site is a digital library available to everyone in Ohio, including schools, students, and their families. A host of resources are available through this site, including research databases, online encyclopedias, eBooks, and more. The OhioMeansJobs link on the educator resources page provides a user with practice tests and eBooks for grades 4 and up.
NewsELA: This site provides teachers and students with access to newspaper articles from reputable, nationally-recognized papers on stories of interest to students. It also allows teachers to select articles at various reading levels, so teachers can have students working with nonfiction at appropriate levels. This is a fabulous tool for differentiation across several subjects and grades.
Time for Kids: This site provides access to current and recent news stories written specifically for kids by one of America’s best-loved news magazines.
National Geographic for Kids: This web site provides links to articles, games, and activities. It’s a wonderful cross-curricular tool.
StoryNory: StoryNory provides audio stories, including myths, fairy tales, and original stories. This allows readers to listen to the story and follow along with the text.
MagicKeys: MagicKeys provides online, illustrated stories for children.
Matific: This web site offers a variety of online activities to help students develop their math skills. It focuses on grades K-6.
Toy Theater: Toy Theater offers a variety of games and activities to strengthen math skills.
OCSD Interactive Games: This web site is a great resource for teachers who want to create their own interactive games. Take a look at the variety of options. Scroll down for more information about how best to use these games.
Arcademic Skill Builders: This web site combines the fun of arcade games with the skills students need to practice.
Johnnie’s Math Page: This page contains links to hundreds of different activities and games, organized by math skill. It’s a handy resource for teachers and parents.
Cool Math 4 Kids: This web site contains several games that engage kids in using math to be successful in a game structure.
Homework Help Desk
Do you have a question about your child’s homework? You can visit the Homework Help Desk for answers, helpful videos or have your question answered by a trained teacher! For more information, watch the video below.
Draft Overview of Ohio’s State Plan
The Ohio Department of Education has released the draft overview of Ohio’s State Plan for the Every Student Succeeds Act; They are interested in hearing from you. If you would like to review the plan and submit your feedback, click here.
Telephone Town Halls
In order to help parents better understand their children’s educations, The Ohio Standard Coalition hosted seven tele-town halls across the state of Ohio in late October, early November, 2015. Along with the Ohio Department of Education, we spoke about Ohio’s Learning Standards and tests and answered questions from parents. Click here to read the original flyer.
Parent Guides
The Ohio Standard is excited to introduce new Parent Guides to Student Success for English Language Arts and mathematics. Co-developed by the National and Ohio PTAs with input from The Ohio Standard, each guide offers parents an example of the new standards and the knowledge and skills children will gain at each grade level, as well as activities they can do with each student to reinforce learning at home.