Posts by Kelly Hand — Contributor

Kelly Hand is the administrator for Machar, a humanistic Jewish congregation. She has taught ESL and family literacy classes for parents as well as college-level English composition and literature courses, and has worked for various educational organizations.  The author of a novel, Au Pair Report, she blogs about reading, writing, and parenting in Washington, DC.

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  Parents need more than numbers to rank school choices

  EducationBy Kelly Hand (Contributor) March 20, 2014 6

  For many DC parents trying to choose a public school, facts about test scores and demographics aren’t enough. They want to know what a school feels like. That information is available for many charter schools, but it’s spotty and hard to find. Parents often have to rely on hearsay about factors like school culture, workload, and student behavior when evaluating…  Keep reading…

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  How do you get parents to read to their kids? Get them to love reading

  EducationBy Kelly Hand (Contributor) January 17, 2014 5

  Students need to experience reading as a pleasure and not just as a chore.  One DC program aims to nurture a love of reading in a critical population: DC students who are also parents. Twice a month, a group of high school students at Columbia Heights Education Campus (CHEC), a DCPS school serving 6th through 12th grades, gathers over lunch to read and discuss books. The students,…  Keep reading…