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.