Education Nation is NBC News' year-round initiative to engage the country in a solutions-focused conversation about the state of education in America.
"Education Nation" seeks to create a thoughtful, well-informed dialogue with policymakers, thought-leaders, educators, parents and the public, in pursuit of the shared goal of providing every American with an opportunity to achieve the best education in the world. These discussions cover the challenges, potential solutions and innovations spanning the education landscape. By providing quality information to the public, NBC News hopes to provide information to Americans so they can make decisions about how best to improve our education system both in the near and long terms, and to shine a spotlight on one of the most urgent national issues of our time. In September 2010, NBC News hosted our first Education Nation Summit in New York City, where parents, educators, and students met with leaders in politics, business and technology to explore the challenges and opportunities in education today. In the years that have followed, Education Nation has visited local communities across the country on the annual Education Nation Tour; developed a thriving online community; and launched the award-winning Learning Curve blog.
The Parent Toolkit
In 2013, Education Nation unveiled an easily accessible Parent Toolkit to help parents participate in their children's academic success and personal growth. It includes grade-by-grade academic benchmarks for both Math and English Language Arts, tips for parents to support their child's learning and guides to parent-teacher conferences. The goals of this free toolkit are to give parents a clear understanding of what is expected of their children at each step in their academic journey and to provide a comprehensive set of tips and tools to help parents engage in and monitor their children's academic development. The Parent Toolkit, sponsored by Pearson,is available in both English and Spanish and will be expanding in 2014 to include health and social developmental benchmarks.
