Successful students frequently have teachers and parents who communicate often. With new, rigorous standards, it is vital for parents to understand policies and techniques that teachers use. This brief guide provides an overview of concepts parents will hear when they meet with teachers, attend the school board meeting, or talk with their children about what they are learning. Parents may have heard their children say they are doing close reading in social studies classes. In English courses, students might be writing an argument or analyzing one. Teachers in elementary schools are using...