Tadmore Elementary School in East Hall hopes to show 12 ways busy parents can help children do well on standardized tests.

The workshop is set for 5:30-6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Tadmore at 3278 Gillsville Highway.

Depending on the crowd size, parents will go into different classrooms to watch a DVD from The Parent Institute over the school’s closed-circuit TV system, with an administrator to lead discussion after the DVD is shown, said Pat Tilson, Tadmore assistant principal.

Sessions will be offered in both English and Spanish and open to all parents, not just those with children at Tadmore.

"Parents want to help. They want to know what they should be doing to help," Tilson said.

"This is just one more chance to meet with parents and let them know the importance of this test, what the format is on the test and ... ways busy parents can help their children succeed."

Every April, elementary and middle schools administer the state’s Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, which determine how well students have grasped the state’s curriculum.

Third-graders who don’t pass the reading portion and fifth-graders and eighth-graders who don’t pass the reading and math portions must pass a re-test of the exam for a clear path to the next grade. They still can be promoted on an appeal to the principal.

The state also uses the CRCT to gauge whether schools are making "adequate yearly progress," per the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Schools that don’t make adequate progress for two consecutive years in the same subject area are deemed as "needs improvement" and face sanctions, beginning with offering the parents the choice to move their child to another school.

"Research shows that parents ... play a huge part in motivating their child, in talking about the importance of education, in reinforcing skills at home, in reading to their child," Tilson said.

She added that next school year, Tadmore plans to hold four sessions "that will deal with specifics by subject area that parents can (use) to help their children" with the testing.