subject: PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN THE EDUCATION PROCESS [print this page] PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN THE EDUCATION PROCESS
Parental involvement in the educational process of their children is of paramount importance. From elementary to high school, children in New York City (NYC) are tested so as to ensure preparedness and mastering of the fundamentals that they've learned. However, the question that comes to mind is: Is testing a process only for the children taking examinations, or, is it a process that involves students, teachers, and parents? The answer lies in the latter where each entity has its own unique role to play.
The measure of success that students achieve in classroom examinations is a function of the teacher-parent relationship coupled with student preparedness. Parents and teachers are equal partners where the student acts as a catalyst between both entities. Both groups must formulate a symbiotic relationship for the common good of the students involved. This relationship must begin when a child first enters into a new class and continue throughout the students' duration at school. During the academic school year children are tested periodically in all subject areas. The better prepared students are, the better they will perform on examinations. Conversely, the less prepared students are for examinations, the less confidence they will have, which in turn can result in their low performances.
The 2010 data on fourth and eighth grade English Language Arts (ELA) and Math Competency scores issued by the New York State Education Department (NYSED) revealed that children who attend schools in low socioeconomic environments perform worst than children from a higher socioeconomic background. This was most evident throughout the inner city and the suburbs where test scores for children who attend schools that were predominated by Black and Hispanic children were in many instances lower than their White counterparts in similar grades. One can argue that the disparity in performance levels is due to better preparedness and more parental involvement in their children's academic process, hence better performance. The 2010 data is similar to 2009 data published by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a congressionally authorized clearinghouse for collecting and publishing data on performance levels of students across the contiguous United States. The NAEP 2009 report shows that White and Asian/Pacific Islander students in general outperform their Blacks and Hispanics counterparts in the 4th grade Reading by an average of 25 points. In addition, the report also showed that students who were eligible for free lunch (usually low income) scored on average 32 points lower than students who were not eligible (usually high income) for free or reduced lunch. On the other hand, the 2009 NAEP report showed those scores for lower and middle performing students in eighth grade increased by 1 point in 2009 than what it was in 2007. Overall performances of all ethnic groups showed a slight increase for all eighth graders, but Black students performances were the lowest of all groups from a low of 3 points when compared to Hispanic students to a maximum of 27 points when compared to Asian/Pacific Islanders.
The shift in the educational paradigm nationwide implies that there is little room for failure. Failure, especially on city and statewide examinations will prevent the promotion of children from one grade to another. As a result, it is imperative that parents familiarize themselves with the nuances of standardized examinations months in advance. Quite often, it is observed that a number of parents are unacquainted with the contents of the fourth and eight grades standardized English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum, the high school Regents examinations that their children must take, or the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). As a result of their lack of acquaintance, the onus lies with the child and the teacher. But, should this be the modus operandi for parental involvement in their children's education? The answer is no. Parents need to be more proactive and directly involved with their children education all steps of the way. Parents need to work closely with their children because the children's report card is also theirs. The grade that the children receive is also the grade that the parents receive; this known fact is sorely underscored. Parents need to get to know their children's teachers not merely from picking up and dropping off their children, but, through being acquainted with their child's needs. In so doing measures addressing deficits in the child's learning can be immediately resolved since what the child learn at school should be reinforced at home. In addition, a closer relationship between parents and teachers compels the child to be more cognizant of his or her behavior, which can sometimes interfere with the teaching and learning process in the classroom.
The argument made for parental involvement in their children's educational process is not a new one. Many academic scholars have been calling for parental involvement to have a higher prominence in k to 12 children's education. Epstein (1992) developed a six point outline for parent involvement, which includes but is not limited to communicating, volunteering, learning at home, and collaborating with community, to name a few. Her main reason for developing such an outline stemmed from her belief that parental partnerships with schools, which includes teachers, helps children to succeed not only in the time spent at school, but later on in life. Similarly, a 2001 article published by the Michigan Department of Education (MDOE) titled, What Research Says About parental Involvement in Children's Education In relation to Academic Achievement stressed how parental involvement, or lack thereof, can impact children both positively and negatively.
Not only was the view shared by educators that parental involvement in their children's education have more positive than negative effect which can aid in the improvement of schools, but a survey conducted by Rose, Gallup and Elam (1997) showed that 86% of the public also believe that one of the most essential ways to improve the schools is to have more support from parents. This is quite evident in the performance of students from a higher socioeconomic background whose parents in most instances is more involved and aware of the educational processes, tends to perform better not only in the classroom, but on statewide examinations as well. Hence, the argument must be made and demonstrated for parents in the low socioeconomic backgrounds that their children's performance can improve, albeit their involvement in their children's educational process. The converse is that children, who continue to perform poorly on class and statewide examinations, are at a higher risk of dropping out of school (Wood, 1994).
The 2005 to 2010 New York State Education Department (NYSED) State Performance Plan (SPP) indicates that a student is counted as a dropout if on the last day of required attendance for the school year, that student has 20 consecutive unexcused absences. An interesting correlation was shown in a 2010 National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) survey which showed that drop-out rate for White and Black native-born children were higher than their foreign-born counterparts. On the other hand, the trend was quite the opposite for Hispanic children. Foreign-born Hispanic children were three times more likely to drop out (34.3%) than their native-born counterparts whose drop-out rate is 11.5%. Of all the Hispanic speaking countries that were mentioned in the survey, foreign children from El Salvador and other Central American countries had the highest drop-out rate 41.1% and 40.8% respectively.
A 2004 report published by two non-partisan groups, the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University and the urban institute noted that in New York, White students were 25% more likely to graduate from high school than Blacks or Hispanic students. White students averaged a 75% graduation rate as compared to Black students whose average is 50% and Hispanic students whose graduation rate is 51%. These numbers do speak volume. Unfortunately, as a result of the low graduation rates for both Blacks and Hispanics, there is a deafening silence in both communities, as to these abysmal numbers. To address the undeniable low graduation rates and poor performance in the Black and Hispanic communities, calls for the role of parents in their children's education process to be of higher prominence, similar to the framework outlined by Epstein (1992). Furthermore, there is also a need for parents to be major partners in the decision making process that affects their children. This formula should be fully embraced by school districts all throughout the state of New York. If we are to observe any measurable changes in the education gap between White, Black and Hispanic students, the one indicator that May studies have shown to improve children's academic performance is parental involvement and expectation.
