Kaplan now offers an indispensable tool for parents who want to help their elementary-school child perform well on standardized tests.

Take the mystery out of Common Core ELA! Designed to be a set of national educational standards, the Common Core has been adopted by 45 states across the nation. But if you're accustomed to traditional English courses, you may be having a hard time understanding what your kids are bringing home from school--and why. With easy-to-understand examples, comprehension tips, and practice exercises, this complete guide help you understand: The reasoning behind the Common Core English Language Arts standards What your child will be learning at each grade level The types of books and passages your child will be reading The new requirements on nonfiction texts and the rationale behind them The focus on finding evidence and formulating arguments The Everything Parent's Guide to Common Core ELA: Grades K–5 will give you the confidence you need to help your children meet the new ELA expectations for their grade level and excel at school.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Millions of people have fallen in love with Auggie Pullman, an ordinary boy with an extraordinary face—who shows us that kindness brings us together no matter how far apart we are. Read the book that inspired the Choose Kind movement, a major motion picture, and the critically acclaimed graphic novel White Bird. And don't miss R.J. Palacio's highly anticipated new novel, Pony, available now! I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse. August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face. Beginning from Auggie’s point of view and expanding to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others, the perspectives converge to form a portrait of one community’s struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance. In a world where bullying among young people is an epidemic, this is a refreshing new narrative full of heart and hope. R.J. Palacio has called her debut novel “a meditation on kindness” —indeed, every reader will come away with a greater appreciation for the simple courage of friendship. Auggie is a hero to root for, a diamond in the rough who proves that you can’t blend in when you were born to stand out.

Did you know that one of four college students was diagnosed with a mental health disorder in the last year? College students are experiencing anxiety, depression, alcohol abuse, and other mental health issues at alarming rates in a landscape of growing academic, social, and financial pressures. As a college mental health psychiatrist for over two decades and a mother of two twenty-somethings, Marcia Morris has witnessed the ways problems can derail students from their goals, while parent interventions at critical junctures can help get students back on track. The Campus Cure: A Parent Guide to Mental Health and Wellness for College Students is a first aid guide to your child’s emotional health, preparing you to handle the mental health problems and emotional ups and downs many young adults experience in college. With anecdotes and the latest scientific literature, this book will increase your awareness of common problems, pressures, and crises in college; illustrate how you can support your child and collaborate with campus resources; and provide stories of hope to parents who often feel alone and overwhelmed when their child experiences a mental health problem. While you have the passion to help your child, this book will provide you with the tools to guide your child toward health and happiness in the college years.

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.

Study tips and test-taking techniques, special introduction to standarized tests for parents, and full-length sample test with answers. Identifies and explains verbal and math question types.

Spending a year as teachers at one of the poorest elementary schools in Louisiana, the authors witnessed first hand the damages of the standards and accountability measures forced on poor children. They present their story in journal form, demonstrating how the poverty of the children, the lack of resources of the schools, the demoralization of teachers, and the imposition of the accountability "reforms" are some of the prime factors for the failure of American education. They offer advice for some real reform that would focus on the economic inequality of school districts.