From Educators to Parents: Effective Parent Involvement in Diverse School Settings

From Educators to Parents: Effective Parent Involvement in Diverse School Settings

Almost clich is the saying that the parent is the child's first teacher. Clich or not, PreK-12 schools and districts would be wise to give ongoing and strategic attention to the positive influences on a child's education that exist outside of the school. It's fairly routine for us to lament the negative influences that many students are exposed to out of school, but allowing this to give us a deficit-based outlook on parent involvement and partnerships compromises powerful opportunities. Schools are often challenged in determining what roles are appropriate for the involvement of parents and other partners, and to what extent these roles are interrelated. Joyce Epstein identified six types of involvement for comprehensive school, family and community partnerships. These types are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and community collaboration. For these types of involvement, Epstein and her colleagues added that it is necessary to form teams, secure funding, identify starting points, develop an action plan, and to continue planning and working (Epstein et al. 2002).

Fundamentally, it makes sense to be positive, think strategically, and plan collaboratively when pursuing benefits that can emerge from parent involvement and partnership initiatives. The Epstein framework makes sense and is supported by print resources readily available to schools wanting to create partnership programs. Also plausible is the clustering of themes that are found in reviews of the professional literature on parent involvement. Essentially, a great parent involvement and partnership effort will address needs commonly agreed-on by school personnel, parents, students, and others. The literature suggests that, collectively, these groups want (1) an assurance that schools are safe, secure, and well-disciplined, (2) effective two-way communications, (3) access to instructional resources, and (4) positive relationships among staff, families, and partners.

Assurance of Safety, Security and Discipline

Although school personnel ideally accept responsibility for all activity on school grounds, it is clear that activity at the home has an influence on student behaviors at school. There is a blended home-school culture, however, that has both shared and distinct norms. Students are a product of this blended culture, displaying behaviors learned at school in the home and vice versa. A progressive mode of thinking doesn't force a compartmentalized notion of socialization on students, but rather see the development of students as being dependent of the sum of their experiences.

Nearly all parents want to be effective, but many need help. To the extent that schools can provide referrals or direct services that convey effective parenting skills to adults, expectations within the blended home-school culture are enhanced. Collectively, we want all parenting to produce students who are healthy, happy, safe, and successful. Schools can help to improve parenting by providing child-rearing workshops, family literacy training, transition services, and referrals for health and nutrition services. Schools can also provide or encourage training in areas that empower parents to become better educated themselves or achieve skills and credentials that lead to better employment (Appleseed Project, 2010). Notice how the word referrals is used. Schools can provide support and direction in many areas, but should be primarily accountable for quality instruction.

In America's schools, growing diversity and poverty present a unique group of challenges. Diversity and poverty among students are not academic deal-breakers. They are, however, correlated with low academic performance and behavior challenges. Despite this, effective and caring teachers overcome these challenges on a daily basis. Ruby Payne (2006) points out that many high school teachers use humor to successfully manage classroom behavior. She suggests that explaining the importance of manners, identifying key phrases for student use, modeling the courtesies that are expected, clearly knowing which inappropriate behaviors do and do not warrant a response, using humor to diffuse and redirect, and outright bans on certain behaviors are important actions that teachers should be capable of taking. These measurable and replicable teacher behaviors have great potential to take away excuses for behaviors that can wreck school climates. Schools must commit to data-driven behavioral plans that are positive, mutually agreed on, and based on proven strategies.

Effective Two-Way Communications

One of the most reliable tests of integrity in two-way communications is the degree to which suggestions from one party are acted on by another. Listening is not enough. In many situations, parents and partners feel that they receive lip-service, and that their questions, comments, and concerns aren't taken seriously by school staff. These situations are in direct opposition to the development of partnerships that could actually encourage and support school personnel. In my estimation, concerted attention needs to be given to the development of trusting and supportive relationships with Hispanic families particularly. Too little attention has been given to the challenges that Hispanic students face in school. The pervasiveness of literature that focuses on deficits and socio-cultural challenges is important, but can easily be viewed as rationalizing poor school success (Reyes et al., 1999). This reality is exacerbated by barriers related to language and residence. Schools must convey to families that the educational needs of the student are the focus areas, and that we will do our part to not only overcome language barriers, but to embrace the power of diversity. With regard to the legality of residence, the school should be a safe haven, consistently focused on instruction.

There is also the need to embrace the tremendous potential of technology to enhance communication. Many schools have recognized that the challenge of communicating with parents from poor households is less than it was in the past. The realities of the information age have made it a necessity for people to carry mobile devices. Cell phones, text messaging, and email have made communicating with parents of all economic backgrounds exponentially easier than ten years ago. These technologies, websites, online profiles, and social media have also made it easier to identify and build partnerships with organizations that share similar missions. Parents and partners that are willing to support instruction want to be able to do so conveniently. This means being able to access information about courses, appropriately monitor progress, and plan for support of future assignments. When this is possible 24/7, there is greater potential for the work of teachers to be meaningfully supported beyond the classroom.

Access to Instructional Resources

We know that federal and state laws have increased attention to the performance of specific groups of students, rather than simply allowing judgments based on aggregate results. Less known is the fact that many organizations have started partnerships with schools specifically to support the performance of struggling groups. When partners are able to access appropriate data, they have objective bases for their efforts, and a means by which the impact of their efforts can be measured. As mentioned earlier, the academic condition of Hispanic students clearly needs attention. Their performance dramatically worsens as they progress through the grade-levels. The in-school problems faced by many Hispanics students are exacerbated by the fact that, in general, they lack access to professionals and other role models who share their cultural identity. Such role models could demonstrate that transcending problematic and cultural barriers can happen (Reyes et al. 1999).

Community leaders see the success of the next generation of their racial or cultural group as being partly their responsibility. Absent meaningful partnerships with schools, these groups will pursue their own means of supporting students. If appropriate access to information regarding benchmarks and assessments, homework, and ancillary support resources are made readily available to prospective and existing partners, there is a greater likelihood that there will be a consistent and well-aligned support structure for students. The positive power in this is that a team of people that students relate to in different ways can support student growth with a united focus.

Positive Relationships among Staff, Parents, and Partners

It is when school personnel and parents are trusting and confident in themselves and each other that appreciation for others is accepted and the expertise and value of others is recognized. Partnerships are essential as the needs of students become increasingly reflective of a blended and complex culture. When communication among school stakeholders becomes honest and flowing, all parties truly recognize that there is much that each constituent group can do to build relationships, enhance discipline, and increase academic performance (Nelson, 2008).

At some point, school personnel and partners should be able to objectively determine the success of parent involvement efforts. According to Joyce Epstein, schools that have developed successful partnerships have demonstrated incremental progress, connections to meaningful reform initiatives, relevant staff development, and a core of caring (Epstein et al., 2002). Clearly, we are in a time of accountability. We should be willing to be held accountable for all the things that we should influence. This includes educators, parents, students, and partners. It would appear that worthy goals for effective partnerships in an era of diversity and accountability include good school climate, effective communications, resources to support instruction, and positive relationships. While instructional achievement is important and safe and orderly schools are necessary for good teaching, neither can be accomplished without a sincere commitment to collaboratively planning and implementing procedures that reflect effective practice and lend themselves to being measured for effectiveness.

References

Epstein, J., Sanders, M., Simon, B., Salinas, K., Jansorn, N., & Voorhis, F. (2002). School, family and community partnerships: Your handbook for action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Payne, R. (2006). Discipline strategies for the classroom: Working with students. Highlands, TX: aha! Process, Inc.

Nelson, H. (2008). Partners in progress: School/community advocates address achievement gaps. Florida Association of School Administrators Communicator, Winter 2008.

Project Appleseed (2010). Six slices of parent involvement. Retrieved September 28, 2010, from projectappleseed.org.

Reyes, P., Scribner, A., & Scribner, J. (1999). Lessons from high-performing Hispanic schools: Creating learning communities. New York: Teachers College Press.

Author's Personal Website

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