Parent and family involvement in schools has been shown to make children: feel more connected to the school; have better academic performance and attendance; reduce internalizing behaviors such as depression and anxiety; reduce externalizing behaviors such as aggression or delinquent behaviors; be more aware of and avoid substance abuse and risky sexual behavior; and achieve and maintain health and fitness. In addition, involving parent and families in schools is cost-effective certain studies show that schools would have to spend $1,000 more per pupil to reap the same gains in student achievement that an involved parent brings.
If there are so many benefits to involving parents and families, why does this not happen in every single school in America? Well, for one, there are some barriers to getting parents to attend parent involvement intervention programs (and getting them to attend regularly). These can include: lack of child care and transportation, work schedule conflicts, stressful financial situations, residential mobility, marital or relationship conflict, and the lack of positive relationships with school teachers and administrators.
Another factor is the lack of “shared responsibility.” Shared responsibility requires parents to do their part to support their children’s learning, from turning off the TV, to checking homework, to communicating with teachers about their children’s progress. But although parents want the best for their children, many don’t receive the information and support they need to understand the importance of the parental role in children’s education and how to best fulfill that role. Parents are more likely to be engaged when school personnel inform them of the importance of being involved as well as value, expect, and invite them to be involved. As all you education policymakers know so well, knowledge is power.
That’s why BoardBuzz wants to share three new publications that can help school leaders relay the importance of “shared responsibility” to parents and families, but also learn which parent and family programs work and which don’t.
The first publication, jointly released by the PTA and Harvard Family Research Project, conveys the importance of “shared responsibility”; lists the core district-level components necessary for systemic family engagement; highlights five promising practices that ensure that family involvement efforts are established throughout the district; and describes the successful family engagement practices of six school districts. The two other publications, released by Child Trends, communicate what works for parent involvement programs for children and adolescents.
To learn more about these publications, click here.
Are your schools effectively involving parents and families? What have been the outcomes? Leave us a comment.
My own children have completed their K-12 education but to answer your question in retrospect, no. My schools did not effectively involve us parents. They even openly discouraged our participation when our children moved up to the middle school.
If I stated what I thought the outcome was, it would just be considered anecdotal by the experts. We didnt collect data and track it on a longitudinal data system! But I can tell you that my high school has never passed its annual yearly progress goals, almost half the kids disappear from 9th to 12th grade but we claim a 77% graduation rate, and only between 7-9% of graduates is benchmark ready for college according to ACT test scores. And those kids probably did a lot on their own to prep themselves for that test. Outcome?
It was interesting in your article that you put a dollar figure on parental involvement. Yet with all the lip service given to the importance of it and its ties to student achievement (and lifelong achievement), we parents are not a part of Race to the Top emphasis. And with No Child Left Behind, we are more of an afterthought.
There is an answer to this dilemma. But, is it an important enough issue to pay for? Or do we continue to depend on volunteers then wonder where all the parents are? Just blame it on the parents?