What Parents and Individuals Can Do
Here are some ideas for improving school success for your children. Send us a note to recommend the resources you find useful.
= high impact activity 
= your recommendations
General
For pre-K through sixth grade
For middle school students
For high school students
General
- Volunteer. Check with your local school about opportunities, share your speaking or technology skills with Minnesota schools through BestPrep or search for opportunities with children and youth in the Twin Cities area.
- Speak up about the importance of helping more kids succeed in school. Use LearnmoreMN statistics and resources to make your case.
- Give money to schools and nonprofits that work on college access. Search Hands On Twin Cities for organizations that work in your area of interest.
- Become a mentor or find a mentor program for a child in your region through the Mentoring Partnership.
- Involve students in college access programs designed to put them on the path to college (especially minority and low-income students and those who are the first in their families to go to college, and students with disabilities).
- Provide enrichment activities that increase students' chance of going to college. See CYFERnet's Out-of-school time resources or the Minority Education Partnership’s Academic Enrichment Guide.
- Encourage your employer to start a mentoring, e-mentoring or tutoring program.
- See Schools First 10 Steps You Can Take Now to Support Your Public Schools.
- Encourage policymakers to increase funding for education. See the 2007 Education Policy Proposals and Minnesota Council of Nonprofits' Contacting Elected Officials.
For pre-K through sixth grade
- Prepare young children for school with Ready4K’s Math Tips for Parents and Language Tips for Parents (available in six languages).
- Know the do's & don'ts for encouraging early childhood literacy — from the Children, Youth and Family Consortium, University of Minnesota.
- Blast Off to Kindergarten gives hints and activities to get your child ready for kindergarten (a joint project of the St. Paul Public Libraries, St. Paul Public Schools, and the Mayor’s office).
- Help children learn skills and ways of thinking needed for science and math with the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Science Activities.
- Share The Great College Mystery with fifth graders and What Will I Be? with fourth graders. Parent guides in English or Spanish are also available.
- For African-American and Latino children — Read and Rise provides tools for helping children achieve reading success. The ToolKit for Hispanic Families provides guidance and ideas to help students succeed in school.
- For grandparents: Bonding with Grandchildren over Books.
For middle school students
- Encourage students check out these resources — Think MTV, I Make It Happen, KnowHow2Go, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and Future choices.
- Do Figure This! math challenges together (also in Spanish).
- Find out what parents can do to help their child prepare for education after high school with the Parents' College Planning Guide or From Aspirations to Action: The Role of Middle School Parents in Making the Dream of College a Reality.
For high school students
- Encourage students to check out these resources — Think MTV, KnowHow2Go, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), First in the Family and FuturePlan: Life After High School.
- Find out what parents can do to help their child prepare for education after high school with the Parents' College Planning Guide.
- Find out how students can prepare, select and pay for college at Get Ready for College, iSeek’s Plan Your Education, the College Board's Plan for College or the Minnesota Private College Council's Thinking of attending.
- Find out how you can Help Someone Stay in School. From the National Dropout Prevention Center/Network.
