It’s never too early – or too late – to plan for your child’s college future and to develop your college-savings road map! California State PTA and ScholarShare, California’s 529 College Savings Plan, are teaming up to raise awareness about the importance of saving for college.
Here are a few steps you can take to develop a college savings road map for your child:
- Start Small and Early — The task of saving for college can be overwhelming, but the sooner you get started, the greater the likelihood that your child will go to college and have the funds to pay for it. Various studies show that a child with a college savings account is 6 to 7 times more likely to attend college. The key is to get started.
- Review Your Finances — Saving for college can be daunting. That’s why it’s important to take a careful look at your finances and identify any available funds that you can regularly contribute to your college savings. No contribution is too small. Every little bit helps.
- Define Your Goal — Paying for 100 percent of a child’s future college expenses may not be a realistic goal for some parents. Fortunately, the share you save is only a part of a larger strategy to help pay for college. Define a goal that makes sense for your family and plan accordingly.
- Understand Your 529 Plan — A 529 plan is a state-sponsored, tax-advantaged savings plan designed to help families save for college. The State of California offers the ScholarShare College Savings Plan. In addition to the many benefits, you can open a ScholarShare account with just $25. Visit scholarshare.com to learn more.
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Parents of high-school students — be sure to check out this helpful flier from California Community Colleges, California State University and University of California about the new assessments and college placement.
Download the flier.
Recommendations for making high-quality environmental education available to all students, finding a funding source to sustain and improve instruction, working with outside organizations to ensure the instruction is high quality, and providing students with a variety of learning experiences.
Download the full Blueprint.
With these new guides from the California Department of Education and California State PTA, find out more about what the new assessment scores mean for your child and use them as an opportunity to work with your child’s teacher for student success!
Grades 3, 4 & 5
Grades 6, 7 and 8
Grade 11
Spanish coming soon!
This Family Engagement Guide contains information on why family engagement in schools matters, how to grow family-school partnerships to enhance student achievement and ways to support student success and learning at home. Throughout the resource, the word “parent” refers to parents, guardians and caregivers who have the primary responsibility for raising children and are involved in their development, learning and growth.
Download:
There are many types of parent groups out there, but there is only one PTA. Part of school and family life for more than 115 years, PTA is the defining organization for family engagement.
Download this flier to share with your school community.
A Blueprint for Great Schools Version 2.0 builds on the groundbreaking 2011 report which helped usher in a new era in California schools that has included major increases in funding, more rigorous state academic standards, online student assessment testing, and greater support for the students and schools with the most needs.
Developed based on recommendations made by a team of 29 education leaders and experts, Blueprint 2.0 details next steps in five critical areas: California standards, teaching and leading excellence, student success, continuous improvement and accountability systems, and systems change and supports. California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said the California Department of Education will now work on carrying out the plans.
The Blueprint 2.0 Planning Team was co-chaired by Martha Infante, a teacher at the Los Angeles Academy Middle School; David Rattray, Executive Vice President, Education and Workforce Development for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and President of UNITE-LA, the school-to-career partnership of Los Angeles; and Chris Steinhauser, Superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District.
As well as detailed recommendations, A Blueprint for Great Schools Version 2.0 includes a call to action, a revised mission, and a review of guiding principles and the emerging “California Way.”
“We have worked hard to move forward together in California in a gradual, sensible, and collaborative way,” Torlakson said. “I call this approach ‘The California Way,’ and it is paying huge dividends across the board. Blueprint 2.0 is the latest example of what The California Way can do.”
Download the Blueprint.
National PTA offers family-engagement action steps for local PTA leaders.
The six steps align with the PTA National Standards for Family-School Partnerships, providing a guideline for connecting families and schools.
Download your free copy in English and Spanish and take action for family engagement!
The new assessment report uses four achievement levels: standard not met, standard nearly met, standard met, standard exceeded. The levels will designate the degree of “progress toward mastery of the knowledge and skills needed for success in future coursework.” For 11th-graders, they measure the degree to which students are on track to be ready for college or a career after graduating from high school. Download the sample Student Score Report for 2016-2017.
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