What Research Says About Parent Involvement In Children’s Education.

Schools are realizing the importance of parent involvement in education and are doing more to encourage parents to be involved in their child’s education. By sending this article home to all of the students in the elementary building it would be one way of communicating to parents that not only are they needed but that their involvement is essential for ensuring that their child is successful in school. Children only spend about 30% of their time awake in the classroom so to meet the demands of today’s education system schools need to encourage parent involvement. Schools should be welcoming and educating parents on ways they can be involved both inside and outside the classroom.
This article gives parents insight to various ways parent involvement or lack of impacts their child’s education. Research shows that parent involvement effects student’s achievement in a variety of ways including grades, test scores, graduation rates, attendance, behavior, drug/alcohol abuse, motivation, and self-esteem.
Parents are given research based, realistic examples of ways they can be involved both inside and outside of the actual school building. Suggestions of ways parents can help outside of school include establishing daily routines, monitoring out of school activities, and setting high but practical goals for their child. Involvement inside the school can comprise of being part of the PTO, volunteering in the classroom, and coming to parent/teacher conferences.
Parent involvement isn’t just about helping with homework and chaperoning fieldtrips. Epstein describes his six types of involvement in a parent friendly way. Parenting skills, communicating with the school, volunteering, helping your child learn at home, making decisions about school activities, and using community resources are all ways schools and promote parent involvement By sending this article home parents are receiving an invitation to be involved, research based reasons why they should be involved, and practical ways to be involved inside and outside of the school building. Read more!

Teaching Students With Learning Disabilities: Constructivism Or Behaviorism?

The article “Teaching Students With Learning Disabilities: Constructivism Or Behaviorism?” written by Marcee M. Steele discusses the ideas of using both teaching techniques in the classroom. Each theory is highlighted and discusses methods for teachers to utilize them. She “recommends taking some useful ideas from each theory [and practicing them] in the classroom." She also even suggests that using “both approaches could help special and general education teachers work more effectively as a team to teach children with learning disabilities." Read more!

Crisis in the Schools

This website discuss crisis in schools, what parents should expect and how to deal with situations and the information they are privileged to. At a time when every school has crisis plans and we have had emergencies ranging from terrorist attacks to a gun wars in this county, parents deserve to know what to expect from the school and their child and how they can help. The better informed parents are the more likely they will know what to do in a time of need. Read more!

Bringing Your Child's Future Together.

This website helps parents gear their child for the future. The site is valuable because it allows the parents to be part of the child's learning and growth. It is reader friendly; it is in the form of a list and is therefore a quick reference. The article provides information from pre-K through 12th grade, but the grades a grouped pre-k – 3rd, 4th- 6th, 7th-8th & high school. The website provides information on Development Traits, Career Needs and Parent Involvement for each developmental stage. Even if a parent is having a difficult time with understanding these expectations or developmental stages, the website can be a springboard for discussing it with a counselor. Read more!