WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PARENT INVOLVEMENT?
There are many advantages when parents play an active role in the educational process. Children spend much more time at home than at school. Their parents know them intimately, interact with them one-to-one, and do not expect to be paid to help their children succeed. The home environment, more familiar and less structured than the classroom, offers what Dorothy Rich (1985) calls "‘teachable moments‘ that teachers can only dream about."
Children whose parents are involved in their formal education have many advantages. They have better grades, test scores, long-term academic achievement, attitudes, and behavior than those with disinterested mothers and fathers (Anne T. Henderson 1988).
Many studies underscore the point: parent participation in education is very closely related to student achievement. A Stanford study found that using parents as tutors brought significant and immediate changes in children‘s I.Q. scores. Other research projects found that community involvement correlated strongly with schoolwide achievement and that all forms of parent involvement helped student achievement. The Home and School Institute concluded that parent tutoring brought substantial improvements to a wide variety of students (Rich).
Family and school benefit when they cooperate. Children feel that these two institutions--by far the most important in their lives--overlap and are integrated. Parents who help their children succeed academically gain a sense of pride in their children and themselves. Such parents are strong advocates for the district.
WHAT CAN PARENTS DO TO IMPROVE THEIR CHILDREN‘S PERFORMANCE?
Tutoring is probably the best way for parents to participate in public education, according to Rich. Intensive, one-to-one teaching is highly effective, and, unlike meetings, it does not take parents away from their children and their home.
Tutoring can be as simple as reading a book or discussing a television show. It may entail meeting with a teacher to determine how to help with homework. Or it can mean mastering a detailed curriculum written by specialists in home learning.
Parents‘ attitudes and expectations toward education can be as important as explicit teaching activities. The American Association of School Administrators (1988) suggests the following "curriculum of the home": high expectations, an emphasis on achievement, role modeling the work ethic, encouraging and providing a place for study, establishing and practicing structured routines, monitoring television, limiting afterschool jobs, and discussing school events.
To find out more, see the FamilyIQ Article, "Defining Your Family's Values and the FamilyIQ test, "Fostering Education: What's Your Grade?"
Sources
Henderson, Anne T. "Parents Are a School‘s Best Friends." PHI DELTA KAPPAN 70, 2 (October 1988): 148-53.
National School Boards Association. "First Teachers: Parental Involvement in the Public Schools." Alexandria, Virginia: NSBA, November 1988. 47 pages. ED 302 883.
Rich, Dorothy. "The Forgotten Factor in School Success: The Family; A Policymaker‘s Guide." District of Columbia: The Home and School Institute, 1985. 72 pages. ED 263 264. -----
Excerpted from ERIC Digest ED312776, 1989
