Jun 09 2026

How Students Can Self-Assess Their Writing

In my previous blog post, I described how our primary grade students completed a 10-page report primarily in their own words on mud and soil. Our team then completed a Mud Report Student Evaluation for each student that highlighted their abilities to complete their mud report.

Five Mud Report Components

Listed below are the five questions that were used to evaluate each student with comments on each student’s report:

Did the student research and copy text on the internet and from books with ease?
Did the student write the report from multiple sources and combine information without help?
Did the student blend information from various sources and apply what was read to personal life experiences and other experiences?
Did the student work diligently with ease on the project?
Is the report’s content, spelling, punction, and printing easy to read?

[Read more…]

Mary Ann Burke, Digital Education Expert

Mary Ann Burke, Ed.D., Digital Education Expert, is a substitute distance learning teacher for Oak Grove School District in San Jose, California and the author of STUDENT-ENGAGED ASSESSMENT: Strategies to Empower All Learners (Rowman & Littlefield: 2020). Dr. Burke creates digital language arts and substitute teaching K – 12 activities for teachers and parents. She is the Cofounder of the Genparenting.com blog. Burke is the former Director II of Categorical & Special Projects for the Santa Clara County Office of Education that supports 31 school districts serving 272,321 students in Santa Clara County. She is also a previous Director – State & Federal Compliance for Oakland Unified School District, the former Director – Grantwriter for the Compton Unified School District, and was the initial VISTA Director for the Community Partnership Coalition in southern California. Much of her work focuses on creating innovative digital trainings and partnership programs for teachers and families to support students’ learning. These programs were featured as a best practice at a National Title I Conference, California’s Title I Conferences, AERA Conferences, an ASCD Conference, the NASSP Conference, and statewide educator conferences.

Jan 20 2026

Student Report Cards

Parents try a wide range of strategies to ensure their children are putting in the effort needed to bring home a strong report card. Many parents offer incentives, special meals, trips, events, and even cash to get kids to put in the work for their grades. While these tactics may work in the short term, the real goal should be to build intrinsic motivation for kids to do their best. Research shows that these external rewards (also known as extrinsic motivation) may fall short in the long run. [Read more…]

Kevin Myers

Dr. Kevin Myers is an Executive Administrator for YPI Charter Schools and the Principal at Bert Corona Charter School. He has served the Los Angeles community as a teacher, administrator, and grant director for over 20 years. He has a passion for developing teachers and educational leaders to engage in the challenging work of bringing equity to our schools and our communities. Dr. Myers has developed an expertise in supporting underserved communities, building effective and cohesive school leadership teams, and engaging parents to uplift their communities through engagement at their children’s schools. He wrote his dissertation on teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction and is a strong advocate for supporting and working with teachers to build a strong and successful school community. In addition to his work at YPI Charter Schools, Dr. Myers is also a faculty member at Cal State Fresno and works with student teacher candidates to earn their credentials as they work through the CalState TEACH program.

www.GenParenting.com

May 13 2025

Why Does My Child Need Assessments?

Springtime on any school campus brings a schedule jam-packed with activities, events, celebrations, and, everyone’s favorite, standardized testing. Right at the time when students can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel, they are hit from left and right with test after test, and assessment after assessment. Some forms of standardized testing start early, even in Kindergarten or first grade. My daughter is only in first grade, and at our last parent-teacher conference, we were shown almost 2 years worth of diagnostic and assessment data about her performance. [Read more…]

Kevin Myers

www.GenParenting.com

Dec 10 2024

What Does Your School’s Student Performance Data Mean

What Does Your School’s Student Performance Data Mean?

Schools are required to share outcomes with parents. Frequently, schools share information about the state student assessment outcomes on the school’s website or they invite parents to an informational session where they share and explain their outcomes. Most schools even have a specific plan for addressing gaps or areas of lower performance, and they often share these plans with parents. But parents need to ask, “Where is my voice in addressing this data?” [Read more…]

Kevin Myers