The website of the California Department of Education can work for you and your family: you just need to know how to use it. That may sound like I'm referring you to the tax code for recreational reading, but let me explain.

Although we're divided on how much local control our schools should have, and how seamless a process we want when we move to the next town, there isn't much you'll get from the state to solve that. But for a grasp of long term policies and goals that will certainly affect the lives of your kids, you can't beat what's available at www.cde.ca.gov Here's what to look for.

On the start page, you want the second link under Highlights, which gets you to the STAR page. STAR is Standardized Testing and Reporting. It's a way of comparing schools. You want to know when it's coming to your local school, and that's about it, unless there's a Special Needs kid in your household. If so, you may want to look at CAPA, the California Alternative Performance Assessment, near the bottom of the page, for more choices.

Back up to the start page, and this time select Curriculum & Instruction at the upper left. Then you want All Curriculum Frameworks. Here the information under Math, Science, and Reading is critical: the better acquainted your family is with these three areas, the more sense you and the kid will have of what's happening at school. It's a reality-check, an anchor, to keep from being set adrift when the flood of information from school and about school hits you (if your kids are really little, just wait). For example, Draft Math Framework 2004 offers you ten chapter headings that will clue you in on the math problems your kids will bring home (and ask you to help with). Insulate yourself against later shocks and take a look now. Then check out Reading and Science: you'll find the same solid focus on subject-matter, relatively free of educational jargon. (Where jargon trips you up, see the Glossary -- it will give you terms like "axiom" and "binomial theorem" sure to get somebody's attention at the family dinner table.)

Now back up again to the start page and choose the scary one, Testing & Accountability. You REALLY need this one. The first page is a reasonable exposition of three strategies: finding out what the kid knows at the beginning of the school year; systematically monitoring, during the year, that progress is happening; and summary testing at the end of Spring term to be certain the significant things to be mastered at that grade-level have actually been assimilated. An appendix gives the actual problems your kid will bring home during the monitoring process. Spend a little time, at least with key spots in Math learning. Kindergartners are asked things like how many kids are in the class and how many chairs are in the room. Middle schoolers are given a word-problem asking how fast Mary drove, and another about mixed nuts, pricey cashews and cheaper peanuts in proportions that put the cost halfway between them. If you're brave, you can jump to the Algebra II problems at the end of twelfth grade --- the reason you're being so thorough in the earlier grades is that you definitely don't want the kid coming to you for help with these!

Save your last few minutes for the California High School Exit Exam, the last choice under Testing & Accountability. Anybody who had a fairly good year in tenth grade will do just fine on this test. The only reason it has grabbed media attention is that California, unlike all states in the eastern half of the country, has never bothered to require anything at all for a high school diploma. "Resources" is the link you want: it has actual test questions.

An hour of your time spent exploring just the portions I've talked about can save time and stress for your family, so I hope you'll give it a try and help your kids have the best chance of tests that show their real abilities. I'm hoping you'll jradcli [at] mystudybuddy [dot] org (email me) with your thoughts and comments.