Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) has partnered with North Carolina’s Guilford County Schools (GCS) to provide educational content for the recently launched Guilford Parent Academy. The free online resource puts materials previously available only to teachers into the hands of parents, guardians and other family members. GCS launched the Parent Academy last Wednesday, January 19, at GCS’ State of Our Schools event in Greensboro.
The goal of the Parent Academy is to engage the family members of GCS’ more than 71,000 students in their efforts toward higher achievement. By clicking the curriculum links on the Parent Academy homepage, parents can access up-to-date supplemental curriculum lessons, engage with students on specific assignments, or isolate materials related to discrete skills. In addition to online resources, the Parent Academy also offers local classes, workshops and learning events for students and families.
“We know that when parents get involved, great things can happen for our students,” said Maurice “Mo” Green, Guilford County Schools Superintendent. “By providing access to valuable educational resources, we are giving parents the tools they need to help their children be successful in the classroom and in life.”
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Parent Academy content includes Destination Math, a comprehensive K–12 mathematics program; Destination Reading, a comprehensive pre-K–8 reading program; The Edmark House Series, a supplemental curriculum for grades pre-K–2; NetTrekker, the leading educational K–12 search tool; Science Builder, a K–8 science reference program; and Math Builder, a K–12 math reference program. Each program builds vocabulary, essential skills and conceptual understanding through interactive components — Science Builder's virtual experiments feature, for example, allows students to complete step-by-step procedures like metal oxidation and animal dissection through a series of mouse clicks.
All Parent Academy resources, including the online educational content and local classes, are provided to GCS parents for free through donations from Action Greensboro’s Businesses for Excellence in Education and Parent Academy’s more than 20 community-based partnerships.
