Educational support is a wide-ranging concept that encompasses everything from academic resources to emotional guidance. It is essential to students’ success and helps them overcome many of the challenges they may face in their learning journey.
Understanding the various forms of education support can help you identify and seek out the assistance your child needs. Here are a few examples:
Family Involvement
Family involvement encompasses parents’ behaviors at home and school that support their children’s academic achievement. It can include a variety of activities from homework assistance and helping with reading to volunteering at school functions and events. It also reflects parental values and attitudes about education and students’ aspirations (Dearing, McCartney, Kreider, Weiss, & Simpkins, 2004).
To ensure meaningful engagement, it is important to understand what family structures look like in your school community. Get to know families and create opportunities for them to collaborate with educators that work for their schedules. Many families face structural barriers such as busy work schedules, transportation challenges and limited access to technology that may limit their participation.
Educators can also partner with local businesses and community organizations to provide internships, job shadowing or guest speaker opportunities for students. Reaching out to these resources can help bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world experiences and make it easier for families to connect with outside resources.
School Resources
Having access to quality school resources plays a vital role in promoting learning. These can include physical facilities, human support, and funding. Addressing inequities in these areas is a major step towards creating equitable educational environments.
Today’s teachers utilize supplemental educational resources to engage students in their classes, fostering greater understanding and skill development. These resources can include hands-on activities that prompt students to learn through practical experience, rather than through traditional lecturing methods.
In addition to enhancing in-person classroom experiences, digital resources can also be used to help students with their homework and other tasks outside of the classroom. Examples of these online tools include educational videos, podcasts, and interactive tools. Many of these platforms cater to different learning styles, making it easier for students to engage with content and retain information. The resulting student engagement and achievement benefits can be significant.
Community Programs
A healthy community is a critical part of the education landscape. When students feel a strong sense of belonging, they are more motivated to learn and engage with their courses, leading to better academic achievement.
A wide range of community programs are designed to promote learning and provide help to individuals in need. They can include educational workshops, mentoring, or peer support groups.
Using participatory approaches, these community-driven initiatives ensure that their goals align with local needs and aspirations. They also enable communities to identify and implement solutions that address problems like drug misuse, crime, or chronic diseases.
These initiatives can take many forms, from education-focused workshops to fitness and health campaigns. When thoughtfully designed and inclusively implemented, they have the potential to transform neighborhoods into resilient, connected, and supportive environments. By encouraging diverse perspectives and enabling participants to contribute to decision-making, these programs uplift the lives of children and strengthen social ties. This is what community youth programs do best.
Online Platforms
An online platform is the functional base for many websites, including social, freelance or project platforms, learning portals and even e-commerce sites. It’s a practical and omnipresent tool that simplifies a website by managing core functions into a single interface.
Students of all ages respond well to visuals, so teachers can utilize platforms such as TikTok or Instagram for class-specific assignments and project results. For example, a teacher might ask students to create a visual “board” with infographics, artistic inspiration or tutorials that can then serve as an impromptu study guide for future exam review.
In addition to these visual tools, online learning platforms offer real-time communication that increases engagement and collaboration. Most online schools also include parent dashboards, which provide detailed data into academic performance and allow parents to monitor student progress without micromanaging. This real-time visibility into student performance enables parents to address challenges quickly, and may even help them prevent an in-school suspension.