Parent Involvement:
A ‘Win-Win’ for
Students and Teachers

October 8, 1998

By Barbara Pape

The end-of-summer blues have melted away, and you're caught up in the excitement of a new school year. Your class is larger than expected, with a broader span of student ability than you faced last year. You quickly recognize that some of your students will need strong support--not only from the school, but from home.

You've read all the articles and heard all the speeches about the importance of parent involvement as a key to student success in school. Now the rubber meets the road: it's time for "open house."

You've prepared well for this first meeting with parents. Sign-up sheets for various activities--from helping with classroom parties to volunteering for story time--are posted around your classroom. The students' work is nicely displayed. Notes went home to all parents about the evening meeting, with frequent reminders to the students.

The night has arrived, and by 8 p.m., reality bites. Only half your students' parents have shown up--and none of the parents of your students with special needs. Few of those who are there are agreeing to volunteer for anything.

Welcome to Parent Involvement 101

Few concepts in the education debate win approval across a wider philosophical spectrum than does parent involvement. Everybody is for it--and the research strongly supports the benefits of having parents involved in their child's schooling. Yet many teachers and parents struggle to connect in a meaningful way that helps improve student learning.

"A smile goes a long way, a handshake goes a long way, a brief phone call goes a long way toward making parents feel as if they belong"

While a schoolwide parent involvement program is preferred, it is possible for individual teachers to involve their students' parents in their children’s schooling—in the classroom as well as at home. A recent U.S. Department of Education survey, Family Involvement in Education: A National Portrait, found that parents crave information on how to support their children's learning--both at home and at school.

In many cases, teachers can meet the needs of parents simply by sending students home with instructional packets to be completed with their parents' assistance. Every Monday, first grade students at Somerset Elementary School in Chevy Chase, Md., bring home a folder that includes the week's homework assignments. Parents and student are requested to complete each night's assignment and sign the homework--each page is marked with a specific day to complete the work. The Monday folder also includes the previous week's homework--checked by the teacher, with comments throughout. Parents are expected to review the prior week's homework with their child.

On Friday, the same folder is sent home again, containing the work the child did at school that week. A "Friday Folder" sheet is attached with instructions to parents to review the work and make comments.

Nationally recognized parent involvement expert Dorothy Rich advises teachers that they must expect parent involvement. “Many teachers never had a sense that parental involvement goes along with the job," she says. "Not only must they expect parents to be involved, but teachers need to understand that communication with parents must be a two-way street."

Rich, who founded the Washington, D.C.-based Home and School Institute in 1972, wrote the bestselling MegaSkills, and has conducted workshops on parent involvement for many years, believes teachers should make every effort to help parents feel comfortable about school and schooling.

"Many parents get butterflies when they have to go in and see the teacher," she reminds educators. "A smile goes a long way, a handshake goes a long way, a brief phone call goes a long way toward making parents feel as if they belong."

One sure way to lose parents in the communication process is to speak in jargon. Parents want to hear how their child is doing in plain language, not educationese. They want to know what’s happening in the classroom, what the teacher's goals and objectives are, and how their child fits into the classroom scene.

Rich also suggests that teachers give parents a very realistic set of activities and ideas they can use at home to help their children. "Make the academic work understandable to parents so everybody knows what page we're working on," she counsels.

Hard-To-Reach Parents: Strategies That Work

Teachers faced with demands to increase parent involvement often shrug their shoulders after several attempts to involve parents fail. More often than not, the parents who do not get involved are those whose children need the most help or are the most disruptive. Notes go home informing parents of the upcoming 15-minute parent-teacher conference to discuss the child's academic progress. Yet few parents attend. Some teachers complain that parent-teacher conferences are akin to planning for a party where less than half of those invited show up.

While some parents certainly shrug off their responsibility to help their child in school, others do not attend school functions for more legitimate reasons. These hard-to-reach parents may have financial, time, or logistical problems that prevent them from visiting the school. They may lack child care and hesitate to bring their preschoolers with them. Or they may have a low sense of self-worth, negative memories of their own experiences in school, or limited English-speaking ability. Simply sending a note home requesting their presence does not work for these parents.

Many parents, rich and poor alike, may be uncertain about their role in a home-school partnership. They would appreciate guidance from the teacher to help them work with their children on homework and other school-related tasks.

Clearly there is no magic bullet to secure the participation of all parents. But here are four strategies for teachers and other educators who want to achieve maximum parental involvement:

Meet parents on their own turf. Home visits, while tough and time-consuming, are a great way to build trust--and often are the only successful way to reach parents who do not have a phone.
Make schools parent friendly. Start with the front office. Parents new to the school, or weighed down by unpleasant memories of the schools they attended, can be uplifted by a front office that looks cheerful--and that's staffed by welcoming folks who are helpful in navigating parents through the school process. Good clear signs to help parents find their way around the building help too. Some schools now provide parents with their own room or other space to meet and discuss school plans.
Cover all languages. Many schools that enroll students from diverse cultures provide school material in several languages. Some schools have hired support personnel whose job it is to reach out to immigrant families in their own language and help them adapt to a new culture and a new school.
Involve parents in the school's decision-making process. The work of James Comer at the Yale Child Study Center illustrates the benefits of creating a school governance team composed of parents, teachers, support staff, and others who work together to develop a comprehensive school plan addressing the academic and social needs of the students. When it works, the management team of home and school creates an environment in which children thrive --academically, personally, and socially. However, Comer cautions that before parents will take the risk of becoming active players on such a team, schools first must cultivate a sense of trust and offer parents more than make-work activities.

Coping with the Opposite Problem

Not all teachers face hard-to-reach parents. Some perceive they have the opposite problem: overzealous parents who “want to take over the classroom.” Longtime parent involvement guru Dorothy Rich counters that such parents aren't really interested in taking over classrooms--rather they are very anxious and worried about whether the school is doing a good enough job with their child.

She recommends teachers learn the three Rs of working with today's parents: reassurance, recognition, and respect. Parents need to be reassured, and not in trite terms, that the school is meeting their child's academic needs. Teachers need to recognize the key role parents play in the academic lives of their children (this recognition doesn’t mean teachers give up all professional leadership and responsibility). And teachers need to respect the role and responsibility of the parent.

Building Partnerships for Students: Where To Start

Although it is possible for teachers to launch their own parent-involvement program, a more effective approach is a comprehensive schoolwide model. Teachers and parents interested in spearheading a comprehensive, schoolwide plan to encourage family involvement can consider the following framework:

Parenting. Help all families establish home environments that support their children as students.
Communicating. Design effective forms of school-to-home and home-to-school communications about school programs and students' progress.
Volunteering. Recruit and organize volunteer help and support.
Learning at Home. Provide information and ideas to families about how to help students at home with homework and curriculum-related activities, decisions, and planning.
Decision Making. Include families in school decisions, thereby developing family leaders and representatives.
Collaborating. Identify and integrate resources and services from the community to strengthen school programs, family practices, and students' learning and development

Some schools have found it helpful to include parents in staff development. In a joint workshop, teachers and parents can begin to build bonds that help them better work with students. For example, often parent-teacher conferences are a source of trepidation for parents. By mixing parents with teachers through a number of workshops, a relationship develops, allowing for a more productive conversation at the next parent-teacher conference.

Some schools' parent groups offer special learning opportunities for parents that tap teacher, parent, and community expertise for speakers to lead discussions on topics of concern to parents—at times most convenient for working parents’ schedules.

Parents at Overbrook Elementary School in Charleston, W. Va., participate in "Parent University," a program held one evening during the first week of school. The school's teachers, central office staff, and community volunteers lead discussions on computers, latchkey safety, child development, and other topics.

"Reaching out to families and communities is not an add-on, something separate from the regular work of the day," points out National Education Association President Bob Chase, who like most teachers is also a parent. "Family involvement in a child's academic life is critical. A balance must be struck between family, school, and community that allows a child to flourish, both in academics and as a person."

* Barbara Pape is a former middle school teacher, now a freelance education writer in Washington, D.C. She was recently named editor of Teaching & Change, a quarterly academic journal published jointly by the NEA Professional Library and Corwin Press, Inc.

Just the Facts: Parent Involvement Helps Kids Learn

Parents who are involved in their child's academic life have a profound effect on the child's ability to learn. Involved parents also help instill in their children an appreciation for learning that can last a lifetime. A comprehensive review of the parent involvement research literature, conducted recently by Anne Henderson and Nancy Berla and published by the Center for Law and Education, found that:

Educators hold higher expectations of students whose parents collaborate with the teacher.
In programs that are designed to involve parents in full partnerships, disadvantaged students’ achievement not only improves, but can reach levels that are standard for middle-class children.
Junior and senior high school students whose parents remain involved make better transitions, maintain the quality of their work, and develop realistic plans for their future. Students whose parents aren’t involved are more apt to drop out of school.
Schools that work well with families have improved teacher morale and higher ratings of teachers by parents.
A school’s practices in informing and involving parents are stronger determinants of whether inner-city parents will be involved with their children's education than are parent education, family size, marital status, and student grade level.

Henderson and Berla summarize their conclusions: "The research has become overwhelmingly clear; parent involvement--and that means all kinds of parents--improves student achievement."

Family Involvement: A National Portrait

Key findings from the U.S. Department of Education's 1998 survey Family Involvement in Education: A National Portrait include these:

90 percent of parents report at least two different opportunities per year to be involved at their child's school.
38 percent of parents have never been invited to observe their child's classes while in session.
85 percent of schools schedule meetings or call-in times on weekends, early mornings, or evenings, to make it possible for working parents to participate. Of parents who do not have these options, 90 percent would like them and say they would make it easier for them to be involved.
75 percent of parents report receiving a school newsletter. However, fewer than one in four report having school news made available via higher technology options, such as school web sites or cable TV.
While over 70 percent of parents report that their children's school does "very well" in explaining how their children are expected to behave, fewer than half think their school does "very well" in explaining what children should know and be able to do at their grade level.
One in three parents say their child's school does "very well" in providing samples of successful work done by students at different grade levels.
79 percent of parents say they would pay a fee for their child to attend an after-school program. Computer technology classes are the most popular choice among parents, followed by arts, music and cultural programs, supervised recreational activities, community service, and basic skills tutoring.

Groups Specializing in Parent Involvement

Family Education Network, 20 Park Plaza, Suite 1215, Boston, MA 02116. Phone 617-542-6500. (www.familyeducation.com)

Hand-in-Hand -- Parents, Schools, Communities United for Kids, 1001 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 310, Washington, DC 20036. Phone 202/822-8405.

Home and School Institute (Dorothy Rich), MegaSkills Education Center, 1500 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, DC. Phone 202/466-3633, or 1-800-MEGA-USA.

National Association of Partners in Education, 901 N. Pitt St., Suite 320, Alexandria, VA 22314. Phone 703/836-4880. (http://www.partnersineducation.org)

National Black Child Development Institute, 1463 Rhode Island Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20005. Phone 202/387-1281.

National Education Goals Panel, 1255 22nd St., N.W., Suite 502, Washington, DC 20037. (http://www.negp.gov)

National Head Start Association. 1651 Prince St., Alexandria, VA 22314. Phone 703/739-0875. (http://www.nhsa.org)

National PTA, 330 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 2100, Chicago, IL 60611-3690. Phone 312/670-6782. (www.pta.org)

Parents as Teachers National Center, Inc., 2228 Ball Drive, St. Louis, MO 63146. Phone 314/432-4330. www.patnc.org

School Development Program (James Comer). Yale University Child Study Center, 47 College St., Suite 212, New Haven, CT 06510. Phone 203/737-1020. (http://www.info.med.yale.edu/comer)

Parent Involvement Books, Reports, Videos

Burns, Rebecca Crawford, editor. Parents and Schools: From Visitors to Partners. Washington, D.C.: NEA Professional Library, 1993 (available from 1-800-229-4200; member price $11.95).

Giles, Hollyce. Parent Engagement as a School Reform Strategy. ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education, Number 135 (May 1998). Available free from 1-800-601-4868.

Henderson, Anne T. and Berla, Nancy. “A New Generation of Evidence: The Family Is Critical to Student Achievement.” Washington, D.C: Center for Law and Education, 1994. ( http://www.cleweb.org/catalog/respci.htm, or phone 202/986-3000).

Henderson, Anne T., Marburger, Carl, and Ooms, Theodora. Beyond the Bake Sale: An Educator's Guide to Working with Parents. Washington, D.C.: Center for Law and Education, 1996. (http://www.cleweb.org/catalog/respci.htm, or phone 202/986-3000).

Rich, Dorothy. MegaSkills: In School and in Life--The Best Gift You Can Give Your Child. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1992.

“Teacher TV,” episode #5 (Parents as Partners, 1992) and #34 (Parental Involvement, 1994). Videos, about 22 minutes each, available from 1-800-229-4200; member price $15.95 each.

U.S. Department of Education. “Family Involvement in Education: A National Portrait” (1998) and “Questions Parents Ask About Schools” (1998). Available free from 1-800-USA-LEARN.

White-Clark, Renee, and Decker, Larry E. (Mid-Atlantic Center for Community Education). The ‘Hard-to-Reach’ Parent: Old Challenges, New Insights. 1996. Full text available at http://eric-web.tc.columbia.edu/families/hard_to_reach.

Posted October 9, 1998