Parental Involvement In Child's Education

The Key to Student Success

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PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT

Parental involve­ment is the active, ongo­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion of a par­ent or pri­ma­ry care­giv­er in the edu­ca­tion of a child.

Stu­dents whose par­ents stay involved in school have bet­ter atten­dance and behav­ior, get bet­ter grades, demon­strate bet­ter social skills and adapt bet­ter to school.

Researchers say when this hap­pens, the moti­va­tion, behav­ior and aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance of all chil­dren at a par­tic­u­lar school improve. The bet­ter the part­ner­ship between school and home, the bet­ter the school and the high­er the stu­dent achieve­ment across the board.

Three (3) key par­ent behav­iors are the most accu­rate pre­dic­tors of stu­dent achieve­ment, tran­scend­ing both fam­i­ly income and social status:

  1. cre­at­ing a home envi­ron­ment that encour­ages learning;
  2. com­mu­ni­cat­ing high, yet rea­son­able, expec­ta­tions for achieve­ment; and 
  3. stay­ing involved in a child’s edu­ca­tion at school.

WHY IS IT IMPOR­TANT TO INVOLVE PAR­ENTS IN SCHOOL?

Chil­dren whose fam­i­lies are engaged in their edu­ca­tion are more like­ly to: 

  • earn high­er grades and score high­er on tests;
  • grad­u­ate from high school and college;
  • devel­op self-con­fi­dence and moti­va­tion in the class­room; and
  • have bet­ter social skills and class­room behavior.
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WHAT IS PARENTAL INVOLVE­MENT, AND HOW IS IT DIF­FER­ENT FROM PARENTAL ENGAGEMENT?

Parental involve­ment is the active, ongo­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion of a par­ent or pri­ma­ry care­giv­er in the edu­ca­tion of a child. Par­ents can demon­strate involve­ment at home by:

  • read­ing with children;
  • help­ing with homework;
  • dis­cussing school events;
  • attend­ing school func­tions, includ­ing par­ent-teacher meet­ings; and
  • vol­un­teer­ing in classrooms.

While both parental involve­ment and parental engage­ment in school sup­port stu­dent suc­cess, they have impor­tant differences.

Involve­ment is the first step towards engage­ment. It includes par­tic­i­pa­tion in school events or activ­i­ties, with teach­ers pro­vid­ing learn­ing resources and infor­ma­tion about their student’s grades. With involve­ment, teach­ers hold the pri­ma­ry respon­si­bil­i­ty to set edu­ca­tion­al goals. 

But while teach­ers can offer advice, fam­i­lies and care­givers have impor­tant infor­ma­tion about their chil­dren that teach­ers may not know. So a student’s learn­ing expe­ri­ence is enriched when both bring their per­spec­tives to the table. 

With engage­ment, home and school come togeth­er as a team. Schools empow­er par­ents and care­givers by pro­vid­ing them with ways to active­ly par­tic­i­pate, pro­mot­ing them as impor­tant voic­es in the school and remov­ing bar­ri­ers to engage­ment. Exam­ples include encour­ag­ing fam­i­lies to join the fam­i­ly-teacher asso­ci­a­tion or arrang­ing vir­tu­al fam­i­ly-teacher meet­ings for fam­i­lies with trans­porta­tion issues. 

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