John Monfredo: Reassessing Parent Involvement in Our Schools

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Saturday, November 16, 2013

John Monfredo, GoLocalWorcester Education Contributor

As we enter the third month of the new school year it is essential that all schools review their most important partnership … parents. There is an increasingly persuasive body of research that indicates that parent involvement in their children’s education improves student achievement. Programs with a strong parental involvement component produce students who perform better than identical programs that do not involve parents.

We all know that the home is the child’s first classroom and the parent the child’s first teacher. Therefore, it is incumbent upon all schools as the educational leaders in the community to form a strong partnership with parents. Those in the field of education are aware that the only way to improve education in this nation is to combine the educational resources of the home, school and the community.

Education is not a spectator sport for it is an effort that requires partnerships. Schools need to commit to the African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” There is not blueprint for success but as a former principal I do know one thing, schools need to reach out to parents, not out of weakness, but out of strength. Research states that parental involvement with their children’s education has a direct correlation to how those children do in school, and how they feel about themselves.

If we give up on our families, we give up on our community. Thus more needs to be done. Today, the rhetoric of family involvement is nationwide and has shifted from a policy that was community based and into building relationships into one that is test based. While the U.S. Department of Education espouses the importance of Race to the Top policies they have not read the research on family engagement and therefore have not championed the cause in our schools.

Let’s work on having schools that embrace parent classes in areas such as effective parenting, helping their child with homework, nutrition and career awareness. If schools have the room let’s have a “Parent Room” for parents as their home away from home. The room could have materials, suggested ways of assisting their child a home. Additionally, parents could volunteer as another hand in the classroom and assist the teacher.

Let’s expand “Family Night” activities such as a reading night, books for bingo, readathon, and game night or have some fun activity nights.

Another suggestion is to 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. 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.

Take the time to talk to parents. One of those common assumptions in education are that everyone has the same belief or understanding about student learning, but this is actually seldom true. Therefore try this:

• Educators should meet with family members and talk about key classroom issues such as student learning and classroom expectations. These sessions can be formal or informal. (Some of this can be accomplished at a Know your School Night but I would advise parents to call the school for an individual conference and meet with their child’s teacher.)
• Let’s make learning at home a priority for school can inform families homework policies and how to monitor and discuss schoolwork at home… calendars with daily or weekly activities for parents and students to do at home or in the community… and summer learning packets are also important.
• Let’s be sure that the schools have welcome signs up and follow up by greeting parents who enter the door with a smile and a kind word. Be sure to post the mission of your school at the entrance to your school.
• Let’s include families as participants in school decisions and develop parent leaders and representatives... active PTO’s and site councils need to be established at the school. Schools should school-business partnerships. Match business and community volunteers and resources with school goals.
• Communicating is essential and when possible establish an easy to use two way channel for communications from the school to home and from the home to school. Consider parents who do not speak English well, or do not read well.

 

I’m sure that many of these ideas mentioned are taking place at your child’s school but if they are NOT you should be an advocate for your child and work with your Parent Group on the implementation of some of these research based ideas. Other suggestions are for you to volunteer as a tutor, be active in your Parent Organization, participate in parenting classes, literacy classes, and in school – parent decision making activities. Remember, parents, you are part of the school community and need to form a Home - School partnership with your child’s school.
 

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