Monfredo: Involving Parents in the Learning Process

Sunday, October 11, 2015

John Monfredo, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

It’s a new school year with “Know your School Nights” happening throughout the month of October and November. It’s a time when parents find out about their school and ways that they can assist their child at home. Research for years as suggested that when schools, families, and community groups work together to support learning, children tend to do better in school, stay in school longer, and like school more.

Although research has definitively proven that parents’ involvement in their children’s schools raises student achievement, most educators would agree that the process of getting parents fully engaged in school can be difficult. Sometimes one has to take that extra step and establish a relationship with a parent. As a former principal I remember visiting a home of a parent who just never came to parent meetings. When I visited the mother I told her about a parent-child event that was happening next week and told her that I’d love to see her there. Come the following week there she was walking through the school door.

When I greeted her I inquired as why she finally came to the school. Her answer, “ Because you asked me to come.” Many times we send out flyers and there are no responses but sometimes we need the personal touch in building a relationship with parents to get them to come. Can we do it often, perhaps not but we can try to reach out in a number of ways. Here’s another example... Twice a year, teachers and administrators in a community in the state of Maryland hold a “Walk in the Park” at nearby Mobile Home Park, where more than 60 percent of the school’s Hispanic students live. It’s a way to say hello to familiar faces, and to break the ice with new families and those who’ve been reluctant to visit the school, which is about a mile away.

Other ideas that can be effective in schools to make our parents feel that they are welcomed are the following:
   •   Environment of the school -
   •   Signs on the doors in many languages that welcome parents into the school
   •   The school environment is friendly and welcoming
   •   Workshop for office personnel on meeting and greeting guest into the building
   •   Workshop for principals and staff on parent involvement
   •   Each school has a policy for family involvement and it is written into the school mission and vision statements
   •   A culture is established that pervades in the school that parents are our
       partners in the learning process

   •   Communication between the school and the home
   •   Communications are clear and frequent
   •   Each school has a parent compact that is an agreed upon written parental involvement policy developed by staff and parents. The policy is updated yearly.
   •   Each school has a site council that assist the principal in developing a school improvement plan
   •   Each school has a Parent Group that meets periodically to assist the principal in planned parent activities
   •   Know your school nights and individual conferences take place with lots of parent involvement
   •   Monthly family nights such as math, science night
   •   Monthly newsletters are sent home to inform parents of school news, events, successes at the school and school activities
   •   All schools, with room, have a parent center in the school and the system has a family friendly web site
   •   The school uses connect –ed messages about school activities and promotes the positive about the school
   •   How parents can assist their child at home
   •   Workshops for parents are held on how parents can assist their child at home.
   •   Use connect-ed for homework messages
   •   ESL and GED opportunities of parents

Another final thought for the schools to consider… Have staff make phone calls to invite families to participate in special events, meetings or other activities. Here in Worcester we do have the Connect Ed. system where the school can invite parents to special events via the telephone. Hopefully, we are doing it in our schools. Let’s go a step further and call parents with good news. It could be if a child had success on a test, or just had a great day in school. Let me tell you it works for I did it for over 20 years. Parents loved hearing good news and were more receptive in coming to school because of the call. Let’s start with that one positive telephone call.

I’m sure that many of these ideas are taking place at your child’s school but if they are NOT parents should be an advocate for their child and work with the Parent Group on the implementation of some of this research based ideas. Other suggestions for parents are … volunteer as a tutor, be active in your Parent Organization, participate in parenting classes, literacy classes, and in school – parent decision making activities. Parents need to remember that they are part of the school community and need to form a Home - School partnership with your child’s school.
Parent involvement is so essential for once again there have been many research studies that show that no matter what the parents income or background was students with involved parents … earned higher grades and test scores and enrolled in higher level program… attended school regularly… had better social skills, showed improved behavior adapted well to school… and did graduate and go on to post secondary education.

Let’s all work together for the children in this community!

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Monfredo: Involving Parents in the Learning Process

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