Sage Advice: Parent Involvement
How do you keep parents involved in their child's education?
Start early. Once parents register their child for school, link the "new" parents to veteran ones. This buddy connection helps keep parents engaged in their child's education and strengthens the wider school community.
Patricia Geary
Professor of education
Georgian Court University
Lakewood, New Jersey
Working with inner-city low-income families requires a special creativity, and one strategy for parent-teacher conferences has been very successful: When parents visit their child's teacher, they receive a voucher for one bag of groceries from a local food bank. If they have three children, they receive three bags. Meeting this basic need has helped parents come and work with teachers for a student's academic needs.
J. Dianne Anderson-Nickel
Arthur M. Hamilton School
Phoenix, Arizona
We opened a drop-in center for parents where a bilingual instructional aide teaches them how to use office machines and engage in a variety of activities to help classroom teachers.The friendly kaffeeklatsch environment helps them relax, and we encourage them to bring other parents with them.The plan has been so successful that some have been hired at other schools as instructional aides themselves.
Ann Bradley
Administrative instructor
University of La Verne
La Verne, California
I call or write a handful of parents and students at the end of each week to inform them about something positive the child has said or done and why it makes me proud. Not only does this involve the parents, it continues to motivate the students as well.
Kendra Wold
Fifth-grade teacher
Oyster Creek Elementary School
Sugar Land, Texas
Keeping parents involved rests entirely on communication. A simple phone call, a quick note sent home -- even a visit to their homes -- helps build a positive (and necessary) relationship between parents and teachers. When teachers show they care enough to communicate with parents about their child, they gain an ally in helping the child be a success.
Matt Brown
Academic dean/English department
Chair, Santa Clarita Christian School
Canyon Country, California
At each open house, I ask parents to write down their email addresses. I then send home a monthly newsletter (both electronically and on hard copy). I also send digital pictures of their children doing activities throughout the day, as well as school board minutes, grading rubrics for long-term assignments, PowerPoint presentations, and positive notes when I see students doing something kind or above and beyond what's required. It's the best way for me to keep parents informed. I end my emails with the tagline "Partners in education."
Nancy Diestler
Fifth-grade teacher
Northside Intermediate School
Milton, Wisconsin
Don't be afraid to call with good and bad news -- in that order. If you get off to a good start at the beginning of the year with what a child does well, they are usually more receptive to bad news. Also, writing letters or email keeps lines of communication open in an informal way.
Leshone Hosang
Fifth- and sixth-grade inclusion teacher
Capital City Public Charter School
Washington, DC
Provide transportation!
Offer babysitting!
Feed them!
Entertain them!
Get them involved!
Give them stuff!
Folwell Dunbar
Educational consultant/artist
Collaborative Learning, Inc.
Westmont, Illinois
I prepared questions for my history students to ask their parents and grandparents about where they were during, and what they remembered about, certain important events in American history. The questions were always simple and were meant to start a dialogue as well as elicit information.
Mary McCoy
Lamar State College
Orange, Texas
We have parent coffees, which a Spanish-speaking interpreter attends and which include a drawing for grocery gift certificates. We have educational presentations and provide handouts with questions parents should ask their child at the end of the nightly required reading.
Gina Hall
Principal
Fillmore Elementary School
Stockton, California
I post our daily assignments on my class Web page. The kids keep assignment books in their notebooks, but this way, parents can check anytime to see what is due the next day. I also post my weekly newsletter online and send the link to parents on Friday mornings. I think I have better readership of the newsletter because busy parents don't always take the time to read the newsletter when it comes home on Friday afternoon, but if they can read it at work, they will.
Marty Kelsey
Fifth-grade teacher
Manor Hill Elementary School
Liberty, Missouri
I send home a monthly newsletter, "Mathematical Messages," which includes important dates and classroom snapshots of what we have been doing and special recognitions for student achievements. It also offers a "Parent Point," where I give advice on how to incorporate math in children's lives, from making a special dessert using a recipe and discussing fractions to having children help pay bills using the family checkbook.
I think it is important to keep the lines of communication open with parents. Call to tell them the good things. It is important for me to take time to do this. That way, if you have to call to talk about not-so-good news it is not your first contact and they are more likely to respond positively. I also try to send home postcards praising the students for a job well done. It keeps the parents in the loop as to what we have been doing. Another stratgey I use is offer extra credit to students who get their study guides signed. The hope in doing this is that the parents will help them study not just sign it. They will also get to know what we are talking about in class.
Parent involvement and communication is essential in student learning. I find that sending home a monthly learning/behavior report opens up communication with my families. This allows the parents to see areas that need to be reinforced at home as well as, what strengths their child has. Parents can can also reply back if necessary and have the option of requesting a conference.
I find that when the parents are not involved in students education, the students take less of a caring to their own education. Our district has a program called Parent Link where parents can get online or call in to check their students grades at any time. Our school belongs to Oncourse lesson plans online and we are automatically set up with website. Each teacher modifies their website to fit the needs of their class. The nice thing is that when we type in our lesson plans the homework is automatically posted to the calendar for parents to see. I also upload any rubrics or assignments that the students are given for parents to access.
I also send home a newsletter in the beginning of the year with all of my class procedures and policies that the students must get signed. Parents need to be kept in the loop.
I begin each year by inviting the parents into the classroom and talking with them about being a team. We discuss how important it is that we work together to help their child be successful. Each year it's a challenge to keep the lines of communication open with our parents. We always offer food and prizes to get them to come to school functions. One tactic that works well is the have the children perform. They parents will always make time to see their son or daughter in a program.
parental involvement
In a school with 35 staff members/teachers, etc:
Each MONTH each of the 35 staff members telephones 1 parent to say, "Just would like to tell you that it was nice to see .......in school today" or I enjoy ..... in my classroom.
In one 10 month school year these 35 staff members deliver 350 FRIENDLY messages from school.
As a mother of 4, I would always cringe when anyone from school ever called my home. It was never good news.
I send home weekly newsletters letting parents know the spelling words and what we are working on in class. I think they like positive notes home best though. Parents are just as happy as the students when a positive note is sent home. It's sometimes something as simple as "John didn't call out once today!" or "Jenny is a great helper." Sometimes it's more detailed, such as "Maria has learned all the sight words and is now helping other students learn them too!"
3rd Grade
I know that parent involvement is so important. I work in a district that is primarily English Learners. This makes it difficult to always communicate with the parents. I send home weekly homework papers that require a parent signature. This allows me to be able to have some involvement with the parents.
Parent Involvement
I feel that parent involvement is so important. Today there are so many parents that aren't as involved in their child's education. I send home weekly homework charts that the parents have to sign every night. This allows me to have some involvement with the parents on a daily basis.
summer study skills
Parent involvement is key. My dad gave us a choice: 4 hours of summer school or 1-1/2 hours of reading, vocabulary, Scripture memorization, and work on writing. We opted for Dad's "Summer Daily Brainwork." In fact, there's a summer study skills program that promotes parent-child involvement.
Parent Involvement
I am so concerned for our students today, when students get to high school it seems as though the involvment of the parent is nil to none. I am a special educator, so I attempt to contact my student's parents on a weekly basis to give them an update on what is going in their child's school life. It is very rare that I get feedback or even concern about the information that is given. I am trying to find a way to get my parents more involved in their child's education. Are there any suggestions?