Engagement as a Framework for Change
"Parental involvement has been identified by research as the number one factor in students’ success” - M. Paredes
A few questions educators told us they often ask when it comes to parent involvement are: What impact does family and community engagement have in a school? What should this involvement look like? What is a school with high parent involvement to gain? Is too high involvement detrimental?
What does Parent Engagement and Involvement mean? The U.S Government has defined Parent Involvement in the NCLB Act of 2011, as regular, two-way, and meaningful communication to enhance student academic learning.
Aligning powerful forces of influence
The alignment of the conversation between what is happening at school and what goes on at home does have an enormous effect on the child’s future. When parents and teachers communicate well the teacher can appropriately react to the child’s behavior always aware of challenges faced at home that might impact the child's behavior. This “live” knowledge helps in the child’s education and eliminates frustration for the teacher.
Parent involvement is also a catalyst of change.Â
A strong group of parents are able to help innovation and push positive change. Some educators/schools are reluctant to foster family involvement. They shut down community participation. These schools are overlooking the importance of family participation in the child’s learning outcome, engagement in class and overall success. I believe parent involvement should be interwoven throughout the school. Fostering the exchange of information and knowledge is a great way to make a school a center of connection for the community. Parents are also great source through which innovation can take place. They provide not only their world views at meetings but also resources, and political pressure that will speed up innovation. Parents should never be involved in bureaucracy but school leaders have a important role to play in enabling involved parents to build social and political capital catalyzing innovation and learning outcomes.
Building Partnerships
The learning process is a partnership. Educators should embrace and involve parents in the process of learning by starting with personal communication with parents whenever possible. Tools like Sparkroad are one of the way to streamline that communication. Share your thought and ideas on how to get parents involved, how to help them engage and contribute to innovation and learning at your school.
For the best of learning to take place the whole child needs the whole school, the whole family, and the whole community working together in collaboration (Moles and Fege (pg:11))
How does parent involvement look like at your school? Do you have a School-Parent Compact (required for Title 1 schools)? What does it look like? Would love to hear your thoughts.
