Letter: Parent involvement critical to education

I was intrigued by your story on the test scores of our local schools. It does give a slight insight to the quality of education our students are getting.

My only disagreement with your story was it was data only. The biggest problem we face is parenting. Your child can't succeed if they don't attend school regularly. That responsibility is fully in the hands of the adults at home.

Another responsibility is completion of homework. My own daughter attends Stony Creek Joint School District, and is in the seventh grade. Last year, her fifth- and sixth-grade combined classroom had eleven students. She was top of her class as was another sixth-grade girl, probably due to two factors: Showing up for school and completing the work.

At our home, all homework is done before anything else. I am pleased to brag that my child's STAR scores were near 100 percent in every subject with three scores of 100 percent on the English Language Arts portion.

I don't think we have a right to point fingers at class size or school size and the quality of a teacher when, as parents, you don't provide a healthy learning environment at home. Home is much more than a place to sleep and watch television. If more parents truly cared, our test scores would be at record highs, and this is coming from a parent not too proud to say that her daughter's sixth-grade math was hard.

I challenge every other parent to attend every function their child's school offers.

Sandy Olson

Stonyford