Involving Parents to Impact Student Achievement

Parent Involvement When schools care about families and support parents as equal partners, children reap the benefits.

There is a wide body of research that reveals the critical role parent involvement plays in children's academic achievement:

Children thrive in the context of close and dependable relationships, love and nurturance, security, responsive interaction, and encouragement of exploration (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000).
Parent and family involvement help children transition to kindergarten and elementary school (Carter, 2002).
"Children who learn from their parents that literacy is a source of enjoyment may be more motivated to persist in their efforts to learn to read despite difficulties they may encounter" (Snow, Burns & Griffin, 1998, p. 143).
"The more families support their children's learning and education progress, the more their children tend to do well in school and continue their education" (Henderson & Mapp, 2002, p. 30).

Parent involvement impacts children's literacy development and overall student achievement. Sénéchal (2006) shares that parent involvement has a positive impact on children's reading acquisition. But Epstein and colleagues (2002) point out in their handbook, School, Family and Community Partnerships, that "the way schools care about children is reflected in the way schools care about the children's families" (p. 7).

Henderson and Mapp (2002) have found that:
"parent and community involvement that is linked to student learning has a greater effect on achievement than more general forms of involvement. To be effective, the form of involvement should be focused on improving achievement and be designed to engage families and students in developing specific knowledge and skills" (p. 38).

Parents and children Schools understand the significance of parent involvement for children's academic success. Research shows that parent involvement is important. Although schools recognize the "why," they say they do not know "how" to get parents involved. In this age of accountability, adequate yearly progress, and achievement gaps, we need to look beyond the traditional ways parents were involved—bake sales, classroom parties, or chaperoning events. While this type of support is valuable and needed, schools will benefit even more when parents know how to actively support their children's learning.

Parent involvement is important in children’s first years of life and it continues to be important during children's school years (Jacobs, 2006).

Click here to complete an online survey to determine how parent-friendly your school is.

Click here to download a printable copy of the survey.

This survey may be used to generate a discussion about how family-friendly your school is and ways to make your school more welcoming. Think about the responses that match your school's family-friendly environment and make plans with staff that will enhance or expand your parent involvement plans.

All Your Parents = AYP

After a review of the current literature and successful parent involvement program models, and in consultation with parents and experts in the field, the National Center for Family Literacy determined six important areas for successful engagement of parents to support children’s academic achievement.

The following chart was created by NCFL through All Your Parents = AYP, a comprehensive framework for parent involvement and professional development. All Your Parents = AYP was developed with generous support from the Annenberg Foundation.

	Key Ideas	Thoughts for Teachers	Ideas for Parents
Set the Climate Districts, schools and teachers set the climate for parent involvement. Parents need to know that they are valued members of the school community and that they are equal supporters of their children's academic success. Parents, in turn, must set the climate for learning at home, demonstrating that education is important.	Schools, staff and parents are integral in setting a positive climate for parent involvement. Differing attitudes can affect the parent involvement climate. Family-friendly school and classroom environments invite parent involvement. Parents' comfort levels at school often determine their levels of involvement. A family-friendly climate contributes to effective communication, relationship building, engagement in learning, and parent leadership. Parents support the learning climate at home.	Assess your classroom environment. Does it say "Welcome" to families? Do you have one or two adult-sized chairs so parents can sit comfortably? Do you have an open door policy? Have you asked parents what would make them more comfortable in your classroom? How do you greet parents when they come to your door? Do you have visual displays (cultural photos and posters, pictures of family events, etc.) that reflect all the families in your classroom? How do you support parents in setting a learning climate at home?	Set the climate for learning at home. Establish routines for children around schoolwork. Set your expectations for learning. Be a learner role model. Let your child see you learn about and explore new things. Provide the tools your child needs to read, write and do homework.
Communicate Communication between schools and families must be a two-way street. Too often parents miss the messages that come from school—whether written or verbal. Perhaps the note was left in the book bag, but maybe it was discarded because it wasn’t written in the parent’s language, or the parent didn't have the skills to read and understand it. How do schools best support parents' differing communication styles? How do parents become more comfortable communicating with schools and teachers? How do parents communicate messages to children about the importance of school?	Communication with families should: Be regular, two-way, purposeful and effective. Be conversational as well as provide information. Employ various methods and strategies. Consider the communication skills of all families, e.g., disability, culture and/or language differences. Provide a means to build rapport and relationships.	What methods do you use to communicate with parents? Have you asked parents how they prefer to receive communication from you? Do you write notes at a reading level most parents can read and understand? Do you know the preferred languages of all the parents of children in your classroom? Do you listen as well as talk? Do you use multiple formats for sharing information with all parents?	Ask your child questions about his schoolwork. Talk about school and classroom projects, homework and school issues. Show her you are interested. Practice using open-ended questions when talking with your child to find out more information. Talk to your child’s teacher about curriculum, your child's grades, homework expectations, etc., and discuss with your child. Let teachers and the school know when you feel you are not being heard.
Develop Relationships Without trusting relationships, partnerships often fail. Building relationships is critical for parent-teacher collaboration. In order for parents and teachers to be full partners, rapport and trust must be developed. Relationship building takes time—between parents and teachers, but also between parents and children—particularly if the relationship contains new or changing expectations.	Building rapport is an important first step toward developing parent-teacher relationships. Recognizing barriers helps teachers understand the challenge of parent involvement. Community-school-family relationships provide the collaboration to strengthen learning. Meaningful parent-child relationships impact children's academic achievement. Supporting parent involvement as a partnership strengthens efforts.	Recognize and support differing levels of parent involvement. Do you work to build rapport and trust with parents? What are some non-threatening activities you provide to get parents involved? Do you welcome parents as classroom observers? Have you asked parents about any barriers to their involvement? Acknowledge that parents know their children best. Create multiple opportunities for parents to feel successful.	Build learning relationships with your children. Recognize yourself as an important teacher of your child. Take advantage of school parent-child activities. Practice parent-child responsive strategies. Ask your child about school and have discussions about learning.
Provide Information & Strategies Many teachers are not prepared to work with parents and need new skills to develop partnerships with families. As schools and districts seek professional development opportunities, parent involvement often tops the list. Teachers want information. In the same respect, parents often are not prepared to work with teachers. Additionally, they sometimes struggle with the best ways to work with their children.	Providing new information for teachers about how to work with families happens through ongoing, systematic professional development. Professional development for staff includes understanding how to best work with all families. Parent education supports parents as they reinforce parenting skills, understand child development, and learn new strategies to support learning. Parent education happens through informal conversations, workshops, written communication, one-on-one parent conferences, and a variety of appropriate means.	Do you choose and attend ongoing professional development about working with families? Do you embed new strategies into your everyday work with families? Do you share your ideas with other teachers and staff and learn new strategies for working with parents from them? How do you provide information to parents to help them support their children's learning? Do you make provisions for providing information (flyers, handouts, workshops, voice messages, e-mail, etc.) in ways that all parents can understand? Are you involved in your school's parent involvement plan?	Look for parent workshops available to you at your child's school. Ask who the parent liaison is in your school, or work with your child's teacher to understand the parent services available to you. Tell teachers and staff about the kinds of supports you need as a parent. Seek out new ways to engage your child in learning; share new things you have learned. Apply strategies learned in workshops at home with your children.
Engage in Learning Once teachers and parents have information, they usually feel more confident in their abilities. Professional development for teachers and training for parents should mirror each other and have the same end in mind— children’s academic success.	Schools provide the means for learning at school—curriculum, instructional strategies and environment—to promote student success. Teachers use strategies and knowledge gained in professional development to engage parents as they support children's learning. Parents provide a supportive home learning environment to promote student success. Parents use the strategies and knowledge gained in parent education to support children's learning at home. Parents and teachers form an equal partnership to support children's learning—at home and at school.	Employ strategies learned in professional development to engage parents to support children's achievement. Do you assess parents' levels of involvement and determine how best to engage parents? Do you conduct parent workshops, family nights or other activities to share information and strategies with parents? Do you use a variety of methods to share information? Do you schedule activities for parents during times that meet their needs? How do you support parents who need ideas of how to better engage their children?	Ask teachers for ways to better support the learning that is happening in the classroom. What support can you provide at home? Learn how to best structure time for homework. Provide experiences for children that support learning. Take advantage of sharing information and learning within everyday routines and experiences (e.g., mapping the bus route, buying groceries).
Develop Leaders & Mentors Both teachers and parents can, and should be, leaders and mentors in a parent involvement partnership. As leadership and mentorship is built within the school or district, sustainability is magnified, schools meet their goals, and children succeed. Parents and teachers feel success as well.	Parents become involved at varying points along a continuum, building skills along the way. As involvement skills strengthen, parents become confident leaders and mentors. Involving parents in decision making, providing them with a voice, and including them on school committees and councils promotes leadership. Parents can and should be involved in the planning, review, evaluation and improvement of school programs. As parents become leaders and mentors, they build capacity within the school to support ongoing parent involvement efforts. Mentorship involves peer support for teachers and staff to impact parent involvement; peer support for parents inspires new leaders and mentors.	Build your own skills as a parent involvement leader and mentor with other teachers. Do you provide ongoing support for parents as leaders or mentors? How do you identify and work with parents who show leadership skills? How often are parents involved in decision making in the classroom, school, or on advisory councils? Do you support parents as they work to achieve their leadership goals? Do you seek out parents' ideas and opinions, and welcome their questions about school?	What skills have you gained to share with other parents? Mentor other parents to help them support their children's learning. Form parent networks and join parent organizations. Assume leadership responsibilities when comfortable. Advocate for parent involvement. Model for your child the importance of being a leader.

For more information

All Your Parents = AYP is available as a professional development opportunity that includes research-based materials for administrators, teachers and parents as well as training and technical assistance for parents, teachers, schools and districts. This professional development system can be customized to meet the needs of individual schools, districts and communities. For information on how to bring this professional development system to your school or district, please visit NCFL's website at www.famlit.org.

References

Carter, S. (2002, Fall). The impact of parent/family involvement on student outcomes: An annotated bibliography of research from the past decade. Eugene, OR: Consortium for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education (CADRE).

Epstein, J.L., Sanders, M.G., Simon, B.S., Coates, L., Salinas, K.C., Jansorn, N.R. & VanVoorhis, F.L. (2002). School, family and community partnerships: Your handbook for action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.

Henderson, A.T., & Mapp, K.L. (2002). A new wave of evidence: The impact of school, family, and community connections on student achievement. Austin, TX: National Center for Family & Community Connections with Schools: Southwest Educational Development laboratory.

Jacobs, K. (2006). All Your Parents = AYP. Louisville, KY: National Center for Family Literacy.

Sénéchal, M. (2006). The effect of family literacy on children's acquisition of reading. Louisville, KY: National Center for Family Literacy.

Shonkoff, J.P., & Phillips, D.A. (Eds.). (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Snow, C.E., Barnes, W.S., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). (1998). Starting out right: A guide to promoting children's reading success. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

This information was produced by the National Center for Family Literacy for use on www.thinkfinity.org, a powerful educational platform supported by the Verizon Foundation. This information may be reproduced for noncommercial purposes without permission.