Recognizing the impact parent involvement has on student success, and the urgency for schools to shift priorities to create a school environment that takes an active approach to parent involvement will find parent involvement can be easy and require less effort.
Easy and less effort is what you are striving for. When schools create an environment for parent involvement, it builds momentum. Schools, teachers and parents experience an important outcome, which is student success. I have created a starting point or ABCs of parent involvement as a guide to orient your thinking when considering strategies as you think how best to fully integrate parents in your school that is accessible and inclusive.
“A” or Attitude.
Despite the school’s best efforts to be seen as open and inviting to parents and families, schools are places whose primary role is to teach kids and are not always an inviting place for parents. Our kid’s school is not on the top of our list for hang-out spots and, for that matter, a place we associate as interesting or exciting. This is, of course, a two-way street. Schools and parents must find common ground, and that begins by recognizing how our beliefs and attitudes can either hinder or motivate interest in involvement. Views and attitudes held by schools regarding the type and extent of parent involvement. What does parent involvement mean, and what will be their role? The length of time and duration, and will it be disruptive to maintaining structure and cohesion?
“B” or Barriers
Identify barriers and find ways to reduce or eliminate barriers to parent involvement. Start by asking parents or providing them with a survey for them to complete. Each parent and situation is different and the survey results can reveal information that will allow schools to allocate resources to address those barriers.
Engaged parents make excellent partners. They work with the schools to enhance student performance and promote their children’s healthy development. So why does parent involvement decline? According to both research, five major barriers hinder parent involvement. Addressing these barriers and developing concrete solutions can help schools increase parent involvement.
Barrier One: Parents believe that their involvement is no longer needed. In their desire for independence, many young adolescents start pushing their parents away. Consequently, parents are tempted to back off and stay out of their child’s academic life. However, despite their desire to be treated more like adults, most young adolescents still respect their parents’ opinions and ideas, continue to seek their parents’ affection, look to them to define values and set rules, and ask them for help in solving problems (Dorman 1987).
Barrier Two: Parents feel they lack the knowledge and skills to help with their children’s school work.
As their children’s homework becomes more specialized, some parents may feel intimidated and stop helping to the same degree they did in elementary school. Schools can help parents by providing them with information about the school program and by engaging them directly in their child’s education.
Barrier Three: Parents don’t know what constitutes effective middle-level education. Another barrier to parent involvement is lack of knowledge about effective education (Jovenen et al. 2004).
Barrier Four: Parents sense cultural and power gaps between home and school. As curriculum becomes more specialized, the power imbalance between educators and families generally increases. This is especially true when teachers and families come from different cultures, class backgrounds, and levels of educational attainment. If parents perceive the school as judgmental or condescending, they may feel even more intimidated and unwelcome. If parents cannot speak fluent English, they may be reluctant to come to school for fear of embarrassing themselves or their youngsters. Too many educators, however, misinterpret lack of parent involvement at school as a sign of lack of concern.
Barrier Five: Schools don’t have the resources to facilitate family-school partnerships. Middle schools can be inaccessible to parents for a number of structural, psychological, and socio-cultural reasons.
“C” or Cooperation
Teachers or parents cannot educate children in the best way by working alone – they need to collaborate and work hand-in-hand for the best learning experience. Gone are the days when parents heard from teachers only when their child did not perform well in academics or was struggling with some other issue. Now, due to technological development and instant access to information, parents show more interest in their child’s education.
Most modern-day parents wish to collaborate with the teachers to ensure that their child gets the best education. They look forward to regular reports of their child’s progress and expect their opinions to be heard. Teachers also aim for a similar relationship with parents.
For the majority of children, the most significant people in their lives are their parents and teachers. These are the people they spend most of their time with, who influence their day-to-day activities and guide them through their schooling.
Children do best when their parents are connected to their school in meaningful ways. A perfect blend of teacher and parental involvement in a child’s education is one of the biggest contributors to their success.
Education is a consequential phase in a child’s development and growth. Parents and teachers should work together as a team towards creating the best possible learning environment for the child and fostering physical, emotional, and intellectual well-being.