How to prepare your child for success - Parenting

THE first step on the long road to preparing your child for success is ensuring that he or she is comfortable in approaching the hundreds, if not thousands, of tests students are forced to take. No factor in the educational process is more feared, or perhaps more dreaded, than standardized tests and the ultimate challenge--the SAT or ACT. Designed to create a uniform method of assessment, standardized testing, some say, has the power to get you in, or keep you out of the school of your choice and poses a particular challenge to African-American students.

"It is important to have an instrument that allows you to measure everyone equitably, but if the students who are taking the test haven't been taught equitably, then it's not fair," says Heather Duncan Witt, founder of Ahadi Early Learning Center in Chicago, who, along with her husband, Howard Witt, is training their two children under a progressive education program. "I'm not opposed to standardized test-taking, but I believe that it should be offset by a student's work ethic, their grades, their extracurricular activities and their leadership skills."

Although many agree that standardized tests are unfair and are not indicators of a student's success, it is important to prepare your children for the skills necessary to perform well on testing day.

START EARLY

Although standardized tests like the SAT can be administered as early as sophomore year in high school, parents should work with their child and their child's teacher, beginning in the primary grades, to build the skills that allow students to do well on standardized tests. "A good portion of being able to do well involves being able to read and being able to comprehend what you've read," says Duncan Witt. "It's really important to read to your kids every night and talk about what you're reading. Analyze, compare, contrast and assess the overall content of the subject material and ask questions about the plot, the characters, the setting and the theme," she says. "These are the kinds of reading comprehension skills that you will need to do well on standardized tests, including the SAT."

DON'T STRESS YOUR CHILD

As a parent, your attitude has a direct impact on your child's performance. If children are too stressed, too nervous, or too overwhelmed with the process of taking the test, they will have a difficult time tackling the content of the exam and will lack the confidence to perform well. Rather than stressing the importance of a single test, outline the significance of the child's strengths and how those will help the child to succeed personally and academically. Rather than memorizing the content of the test, children should be exposed to the strategy behind the way the test is given, and understand that it is not a definition of who they are, but a measurement tool, among many others, used in a student's assessment.

INCREASE YOUR CHILD'S EXPOSURE

As a student gets older, the primary focus on reading and comprehension should continue, while adding various forms of reading materials, including a daily newspaper. Turn off the television and expose your student to a variety of social settings, time frames, cultures as well as current events. Duncan Witt admits that some of the problems faced by some students are due to limited exposure. "We have to increase students' exposure to the world around them, and as they get older, that exposure should continue to increase in conjunction with their academic level," she says. "If you've never been exposed to a particular word, you cannot identify it, its meaning or its application on an exam. But when you expose children to a world outside of their own, you truly open the world to them and a host of possibilities." Make sure your child is exposed to libraries, theaters, literature, art, music, philosophy, foreign language and international customs. Take them to seminars, conferences, and cultural events. Allow them to listen to national speakers, political figures and leaders of industry. As you expand their field of knowledge, you expand their capacity to think, to analyze, to receive and retrieve information and to adjust to diverse environments--all necessary skills for success on standardized tests.

GET THE TEACHER INVOLVED

Although many factors contribute to academic excellence and success, getting your child's teacher involved is critical to the process. Starting in the primary years, students should be exposed to standardized testing methods. Using the current academic content at the current academic level, a teacher should begin to test, in part, using a standardized format that includes multiple choice questions, logical reasoning and critical thinking questions. In so doing, students are exposed to the look and feel of standardized tests and are better able to perform on them and eventually on the SAT.

"In middle school, parents should encourage their children to participate in an SAT preparation course," says Dr. Barbara Ford, associate professor of elementary education at San Francisco State University. A recent study indicated that at least half the high schools in the United States now offer some form of SAT preparation and most high schools now offer advanced placement courses which require a higher level of understanding and comprehension, as necessary for success on the SAT. In addition to preparation books, software programs, and practice exams, students should make sure that their high school years include at least four years of English and math, three in social studies and three in science.