Educators: Study Habits Improve with Parental Involvement

Two big transitions for school-age children are moving from elementary to middle school and middle to high school. Often these moves are accompanied by the realization that academic expectations are different.

Gone are the days of rote memorization. Studying now is a very personalized experience and one that can be enhanced through parent involvement. With the school year starting soon, parents have a natural opportunity to get involved in their child’s progress.

Is your child someone who thrives on peace and quiet or works best with a little background music? Was the lesson they learned taught by a teacher or was it self-guided? Do they lean on memorization skills then wonder why they cannot remember the information a few weeks later?

The act of studying has changed over the years as teachers work to improve the success rates of their students. At Peak Charter Academy in Apex, North Carolina, students are guided by leaders and teachers who focus on whole child learning and parental partnerships. It’s one reason they’ve outperformed the local district since opening in 2017.

Peak Principal Kacey Gorman has spent 11 years teaching students and guiding their learning process as teacher, dean, and now principal. She believes parental involvement, whether it be just in the initial direction of studying, or the daily guidance of it, is vitally important.

“Many of our parents still have the perception that just cramming the night before and trying to memorize everything can take the place of actually knowing something,” Gorman said. “It’s important to work with the parents to provide them with the skills so they can work with their kids over time and see the difference.”

While memorization is still an important element of learning, it’s not the long-term solution for life-long learning, she said.

“Can kids memorize something to ace a test? Absolutely, they can go in and do it, but typically, when you focus on just memorization, a week later you’re not going to be able to recall much of that information,” Gorman said. “You’re compartmentalizing it for a short amount of time instead of internalizing what you are truly trying to learn.”

For Peak Charter Academy Dean Savannah Angel, these lessons played out in real life. Angel is starting her first year as a dean after earning NHA’s Excellence in Teaching Award for the 2022-23 school year. She has taught for eight years and has been with Peak since its opening.


“I was the kid who could just sit there and absorb in class and not have to study,” Angel said. “I didn’t develop study skills until it was almost too late. I was in college and struggling because I didn’t home in on those skills earlier. I use that in parent-teacher conferences to talk about how important study skills are, how this is the time to make those mistakes to form those healthy habits, because it’s so much easier to do now and take those long-lasting skills into higher education.”

The challenge is everyone may need something different when they study. Angel said increased interaction at home can help guide that process of understanding.

“Have conversations at the dinner table about what your child is learning,” Angel said. “Have them tell you more about what they’re learning and why they think they’re learning it. How can they apply it? We talk about the CER method in science (Claim – Evidence – Reasoning). That can be applied at home. Say the student wants a cell phone, the parent can say ‘give me a claim, evidence and a reasoning for it.’ That helps the child understand there needs to be reasoning behind the information.”

If a student is struggling with vocabulary, Angel said reading just about anything can help improve that, whether it’s street signs or the back of a cereal box. Modeling is also a very effective way to inspire your child to learn and study. If they see their parents reading, it shows them the importance and value of that activity, so they’re more apt to pick up a book. Parents can model that CER method with their children as well.

“Just doing drills over and over again isn’t fun for anyone. Learning isn’t memorizing and regurgitating, it needs to be understanding and applying. I think switching that mentality of drilling them with flash cards until everyone is in tears at the dinner table is important. No one is going to benefit from that.”

There are clues to look for if you think your child is struggling with how to study, Gorman said. When you start to notice these indications, reach out to your child’s teacher to develop a plan.

“If you see that they're not studying at all, and this is a kid who is making A's and all the sudden is failing, what’s happening? It's trial and error to some extent, and that's one thing that I do mention to parents – sometimes you just have to try it and get a sense of how well they did with it. Start with that quiet study. See how it works. Watch your child's body language and be mindful of their attentiveness and that environment.”

You may need to move in a different direction after that. Some children benefit from associating information with other things, such as word puzzles, pictures, or songs. Others need to absorb information in smaller bits with frequent breaks in-between. Regardless of the technique, Angel knows parents can make a difference.

“When parents are involved in the learning process, so many good things happen. It’s building that rapport with parents so learning doesn’t just stop once they leave the building. We give them the tools to help them at home.”
About Peak Charter Academy
Peak Charter Academy is a tuition-free, public charter school in Apex, North Carolina, serving students in kindergarten through eighth grade. It is part of the National Heritage Academies network, which includes more than 100 tuition-free, public charter schools serving more than 65,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade across nine states. For more information, visit nhaschools.com.

Visit Peak Charter Academy's blog to read more stories like this.