Children with parents involved with school perform better academically, attend school more regularly, have better social skills and have an increased chance of graduating high school and attending college, according to the National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education. Despite the benefits of parental involvement in the lives of students, schools often struggle with getting parents involved. Focusing on communication and forming partnerships with families will help your school improve parental involvement.
Communicate
Communication is essential to all relationships, including the relationship between parents and schools. Schools can improve communication by holding events where the school, students and parents work together such as fund raising events, open houses and parent-teacher conferences. Communication can also be improved with a monthly newsletter and school website.
Form Partnerships
Develop partnerships with parents that stress the importance of parents and the school working together. Collaborative and trusting relationships can be developed by sending learning materials, such as homework packets, home for parent and child to work on together. This gets a parent actively involved in the child's education, forming a partnership where the school and parent work together towards a common goal. Familial needs can be accomplished by implementing parenting workshops.
Decision Making
Parental involvement and forming partnerships with parents is improved by including parents in important school decisions. According to the Project Appleseed website, the best way to involve parents in decision making is through an active parent-teacher organization or through a school advisory committee. Schools may also designate parent representatives that communicate with other families in the school and provide information on decisions the school is making, as well as information about local elections for school representatives. To effectively involve parents in decision making, schools must includes parent leaders from various racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds representative of the school as a whole, and provide training to these parent leaders.
Open House
A school-wide open house invites parents and other family members into the school to see what the children have been working on and to meet with teachers, administrators and other families. Jeri LaBahn in an article for Educational Psychology Interactive for Valdosta State University suggests greeting visitors of the open house with a sign in the native language of the family. To do this, find out what languages are spoken at home and be sure to include all of those languages on a welcome sign.
Volunteers
Parental involvement in schools improves when volunteer opportunities are provided. When working with new parents, it may be best to offer low-commitment volunteer opportunities to avoid overwhelming or pressuring parents. To further encourage volunteering, provide a book that outlines the interests and availability of volunteers for teachers to utilize, and provide volunteers with a guidebook that outlines how to sign up for opportunities, the types of volunteering available and the rules that apply to volunteers.
References
- National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education: A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family and Community Connections on Student Achievement
- Project Appleseed: Parent Involvement Checklist
- Valdosta State University: Education and Parental Involvement in Secondary Schools: Problems, Solutions, and Effects
- Education World: Parents On Board: Persuading Parents to Join the Team
