【推荐1】Parents are an enormously powerful force in the lives of children. Whether Johnny can read, whether Johnny knows right from wrong, whether Johnny is a happy, well—adjusted kid, or shy and bad—tempered, has a whole lot to do with the kind of parenting Johnny has received. If Johnny’s mom and dad have been able to come through with lasting, determining, loving attention, the odds are Johnny is on track to become a productive, compassionate citizen. If they have not, Johnny is in trouble—and so is our nation.

Thirty years ago Chicago sociologist James S. Coleman showed that parental involvement mattered far more in determining school success than any quality of the formal education system. Across a wide range of subject areas, in literature, science and reading, Coleman estimated that the parent was twice as powerful as the school in determining achievement at age fourteen. Psychologist Lawrence Steinberg, who recently completed a six—year study of 20 ,000 teenagers in nine different communities, confirms the importance of parents. Steinberg shows that one out of three parents is “seriously disengaged” from his or her adolescent’s education, and this is the primary reason why so many American students perform below their potential—and below students in other rich countries.

A weight of evidence now demonstrates obvious links between absent parents and a wide range of behavioral and emotional problems in children. A 1997 study of 90 ,000 teenagers—the Add Health Project undertaken by the Carolina Population Center and the Adolescent Health Program at the University of Minnesota—found that youngsters are less likely get hopeless, use drugs or become involved in crime when they spent significant time with their parents. This study found that only the physical presence of a parent in the home after school, at dinner and at bedtime significantly reduces the incidence of risky behavior among teenagers.

【推荐1】Whether your kid can count on a sizable inheritance (遗产) or your family is living pay period to pay period, a college degree is a must. Along with the invisible life skills you get from those formative years on campus, college comes with a bankable payout: A Georgetown University study found that, on average, college graduates make a million dollars more over a lifetime than people who stop at high school.

Recently, a Bronx nonprofit asked me to speak to a group of high schoolers whose families were struggling financially. The participants were (rightly) worried about taking on too much college debt. Here’s what I told them: Even when you subtract (扣除) tuition, lost earnings during the college years, and other factors, an average college grad will still take in $300,000 more than those without a college degree.

And while rising tuition fees are a serious worry, free college programs of one kind or another have sprung up in more than 20 states. My own home state, New York, boasts one of the most comprehensive efforts. The Excelsior Scholarship program guarantees that students at public institutions attend tuition-free if their family earns under $110,000 a year.

Even in Silicon Valley, where there are many successful people who don’t own a college degree, I asked a group of parents there if it’s true that kids are giving up a college degree because they’re sure they’ll be rich people. The answer was a resounding, unapologetic no.

The truth is that in this STEM (science, technology, engineering and math)-centric age, any form of home-schooling or social education can’t replace the formal school education. Especially in an age when many low-end careers are being replaced by artificial intelligence (AI), a college degree can give your kid an edge.

【推荐2】Could school exams of the future be taken online?   Ofqual, the organisation that makes sure exams in England are fair, is looking at the possibility of online testing for pupils.

Ofqual says it will explore the use of online testing over the next three years. The plans could be the first step towards online GCSEs and A- levels — the exams taken at the end of high school and beyond. At the moment the idea is in its early stages, but Ofqual says it wants to“explore the role of adaptive testing”— when online exams would automatically adjust to suit a pupil’s ability level.

Currently, exam papers are sent to schools where pupils sit in a large hall, on a specific date, to complete the tests on paper. Ofqual says the pandemic highlighted how this is not suitable under all circumstances.

Ofqual isn’t going to rush to make big changes. Ofqual chair Ian Bauckham said:“All proposed changes need to be carefully assessed for their impact on students, including those with special educational needs and disabilities. ”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the plans to move away from exam papers. “Our current reliance on a pen-and-paper exam system, organised on an industrial scale (规模) with strict security arrangements around the transportation and storing of papers, is hopelessly outdated. ”

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said that a greater role for technology was“worth researching”but that public opinion showed many people felt using“exams alone”was outdated. She would like to see a broader way of measuring pupils’ abilities, such as grading the work pupils do in class and for projects.“Education, and the proof of what a student has achieved in their time at school and college, is about far more than showing what can be remembered in an end-of-course exam. Grades and assessments should reflect this, otherwise, we are doing young people a disservice, ”she said.