As the school year draws to a close, teachers, staff and administrators begin the annual process of assessing programs, funding choices, special projects and a host of other initiatives and strategies. Many schools recognize the important contributions that parents have made, and vow to work harder with outreach projects to increase parental involvement. The term parent involvement includes several different forms of participation in education. Parents and caregivers can support their children`s schooling by attending school functions and responding to school obligations (parent-teacher conferences, the Parents Association, for example). They can become more involved in helping their children improve their schoolwork, providing encouragement, arranging for appropriate study time and space, modeling desired behavior, monitoring homework, and actively tutoring their children at home.

A review of the literature (Cotton & Wikelund, 1989) on the issues of parent involvement focuses, in particular on the following five areas:

1. Does parent involvement have positive effects on student achievement? If so, what type of involvement works best?
2. What are the effects of parent involvement on other student outcomes, such as attitude, self-concept, classroom behavior, and attendance?
3. Is parent involvement useful beyond the preschool and early elementary grades--in middle school and high school? If so, what form should it take?
4. What is known about the uses of parent involvement in predominantly minority and/or lower income communities?
5. What, if any, effects on children`s schooling can be attributed to parent involvement in the governance of schools?

Is parent involvement a valuable, if largely untapped, resource for schools struggling to provide state-of the-art instruction with diminishing funds--a way to instill pride and interest in schooling, increase student achievement, and enhance a sense of community and commitment? Or is it one more responsibility to add to overburdened teachers and administrators--or even a threat to the autonomy and professionalism of the schools? Considering these questions, it is no wonder that parent involvement with the schools has become a major educational issue. This is an era of increasing concern about the quality of education in this country. Almost all states are taking a greater role in monitoring and maintaining academic standards. Communities are ever more watchful of the expense of public education. Local schools are concerned about continuing to provide high-quality teaching and other services with dwindling resources. And parents want assurance that their children will receive adequate preparation to lead rewarding adult lives.

Professional development initiatives can begin by assessing present parent-school partnerships. Project Appleseed, a project of the National Campaign for Public School Improvement, has developed the following questions which can help you evaluate how well your school is reaching out to parents.

• Which partnership practices are currently working well at each grade level?
• Which partnership practices should be improved or added in each grade?
• How do you want your school`s family involvement practices to look three years from now?
• Which present practices should change and which should continue?
• Which families are you reaching and which are hard to reach?
• What can be better done to communicate with the latter?
• What costs are associated with the improvements you want?
• How will you evaluate the results of your efforts?
• What opportunities will you arrange for teachers, parents, and students to share information on successful practices in order to strengthen their own efforts?

Educators sometimes are content to let parents and families take the initiative in becoming involved in their children`s education. But for a real partnership to occur, educators must look at ways in which the school can initiate this involvement. In such a partnership, the school and the home share responsibility for children`s learning; the relationship is based on mutual respect and acknowledgment of the assets and expertise of each member. As an extension of this partnership, schools can emphasize a broad base of community involvement. When schools develop and implement strategies for promoting effective school-family-community partnerships, the result is improved learning for all students and strengthened schools, families, and communities (Caplan, 1998).

The research overwhelmingly demonstrates that parent involvement in children`s learning is positively related to achievement. Further, the research shows that the more intensively parents are involved in their children`s learning, the more beneficial are the achievement effects. This holds true for all types of parent involvement in children`s learning and for all types and ages of students. Epstein (1995) notes that the school, the family, and the community are "three major contexts in which students live and grow"; these overlapping spheres of influence are extremely important because they "directly affect children`s learning and development". She calls for schools to work together with families and the community as partners who share responsibility for the education of all students. This joint effort, explains Epstein, contributes to improved outcomes for children: "Partners recognize their shared interests in and responsibilities for children, and they work together to create better programs and opportunities for students".

To emphasize the importance of schools sharing responsibility for student learning, federal legislation relating to family and community involvement has called for the development of school partnerships with families and community groups. A partnership approach gives families and community members a greater opportunity to participate in the wide range of school involvement activities, but it also gives them a voice in the school`s decision-making process as well, as real roles and responsibilities in school-improvement efforts.

When schools regard their relationship with families as a partnership, in which school and home share responsibility for children`s learning, the result is an increase in the levels and types of parent involvement, as well as the support that families demonstrate for the school. When this partnership is extended to include the larger community, the benefits are greater yet. Perhaps most important is that when responsibility for children`s learning is shared by the school, home, and community, children have more opportunities for meaningful, engaged learning. Students are able to see the connection between the curriculum in the school and the skills that are required in the real world

The earlier in a child`s educational process parent involvement begins, the more powerful the effects will be. Educators frequently point out the critical role of the home and family environment in determining children`s school success, and it appears that the earlier this influence is "harnessed," the greater the likelihood of higher student achievement. Early childhood education programs with strong parent involvement components have amply demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach. There is consensus that this early parent involvement can strengthen a student’s concept of becoming a meaningful and engaged learner (Jones and others, 1994).

Vision of Engaged Learning

What does engaged learning look like? Successful, engaged learners are responsible for their own learning. These students are self-regulated and able to define their own learning goals and evaluate their own achievement. They are also energized by their learning; their joy of learning leads to a lifelong passion for solving problems, understanding, and taking the next step in their thinking.

Tasks for Engaged Learning

In order to have engaged learning, tasks need to be challenging, authentic, and multidisciplinary. Such tasks are typically complex and involve sustained amounts of time. They are authentic in that they correspond to the tasks in the home and workplaces of today and tomorrow. Collaboration around authentic tasks often takes place with peers and mentors within school, as well as with family members and others in the real world outside of school.

Assessment of Engaged Learning

Assessment of engaged learning involves presenting students with an authentic task, project, or investigation, and then observing, interviewing, and examining their presentations and artifacts to assess what they actually know and can do. This assessment, often called performance-based assessment, is generative in that it involves students in generating their own performance criteria and playing a key role in the overall design, evaluation, and reporting of their assessment.

Instructional Models & Strategies for Engaged Learning

The most powerful models of instruction are interactive. Instruction actively engages the learner, and is generative. Instruction encourages the learner to construct and produce knowledge in meaningful ways. Students teach others interactively and interact generatively with their teacher and peers. This allows for co-construction of knowledge, which promotes engaged learning that is problem-, project-, and goal-based. Some common strategies included in engaged learning models of instruction are individual and group summarizing, means of exploring multiple perspectives, techniques for building upon prior knowledge, problem-solving processes, and team teaching.

Learning Context of Engaged Learning

For engaged learning to happen, the classroom must be conceived of as a knowledge-building learning community. Such communities not only develop shared understandings collaboratively but also create empathetic learning environments that value diversity and multiple perspectives. These communities search for strategies to build on the strengths of all of its members.

Grouping for Engaged Learning

Collaborative work that is learning-centered often involves small groups or teams of two or more students within a classroom or across classroom boundaries. Heterogeneous groups (including different sexes, cultures, abilities, ages, and socioeconomic backgrounds) offer a wealth of background knowledge and perspectives to different tasks.

Teacher Roles for Engaged Learning

The role of the teacher in the classroom has shifted from the primary role of information giver to that of facilitator, guide, and learner. As a facilitator, the teacher provides the rich environments and learning experiences needed for collaborative study. The teacher also is required to act as a guide--a role that incorporates mediation, modeling, and coaching. Often the teacher also is a co-learner and co-investigator with the students.

Student Roles for Engaged Learning

One important student role is that of explorer. Interaction with the physical world and with other people allows students to discover concepts and apply skills. Students are then encouraged to reflect upon their discoveries, which is essential for the student as a cognitive apprentice. Apprenticeship takes place when students observe and apply the thinking processes used by practitioners. Students also become teachers themselves by integrating what they`ve learned. Hence, they become producers of knowledge, capable of making significant contributions to the world`s knowledge.

Turning from the matter of parent involvement in children`s learning, what about the outcomes produced by parent involvement in school governance? The term governance here includes any activity which provides parents the opportunity to take part in decision making about school programs. This may include being a school board member, a participant on a parent advisory committee or a local school improvement council, or an active member of the PTA. Areas in which parents may be helping to make program decisions include goal setting, development and implementation of program activities, assessment, personnel decisions, and funding allocations.

This area of parent involvement is one of the most controversial. Surveys show that most parents would like to play a more active role in this type of involvement, whereas most school administrators and teachers exhibit great reluctance to encourage parents to become partners in governance. Although many administrators agree that parents should be involved with the schools in a variety of ways and that school personnel should spend time encouraging parents to become involved, they disapprove of parent involvement in administrative areas such as teacher and principal selection and evaluation, and are less enthusiastic than parents regarding the utility of parent participation in other activities, such as the selection of texts and other teaching materials or setting priorities for the school budget. In New York City, the mayor and the school’s chancellor have created a Parent Academy to train parents to fulfill roles as parent coordinators and in the year 2000, the State of New York passed legislation mandating that all school create school leadership teams which must have a include parents.

Team at each school is responsible for developing an educational plan,
matching budget to needs, and building a sense of community.
Parents make up half of membership;
rest is teachers, school staff, union and Parent Association representation,
and possibly students or community members.

~From New York City Department of Education

The most successful parent participation efforts are those which offer parents a variety of roles in the context of a well-organized and long-lasting program. Parents will need to be able to choose from a range of activities which accommodate different schedules, preferences, and capabilities. As part of the planning process, teachers and administrators will need to assess their own readiness for involving parents and determine how they wish to engage and utilize them.

Other guidelines include, but are not limited to:

1. Communicate to parents that their involvement and support makes a great deal of difference in their children`s school performance, and that they need not be highly educated or have large amounts of free time for their involvement to be beneficial..
2. Encourage parent involvement from the time children first enter school (or preschool, if they attend).
3. Teach parents that activities such as modeling reading behavior and reading to their children increase children`s interest in learning.
4. Develop parent involvement programs that include a focus on parent involvement in instruction--conducting learning activities with children in the home, assisting with homework, and monitoring and encouraging the learning activities of older students.
5. Provide orientation and training for parents.
6. Continue to emphasize that parents are partners of the school and that their involvement is needed and valued.

Barriers of time, cultural differences, socioeconomic status, and changing family structures impede partnerships between schools and families. Outstanding suggestions for overcoming obstacles and impasses are contained in Engaging All Families: Creating a Positive School Culture by Putting Research into Practice by Steven M. Constantino (Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2005). I would highly recommend that any school that intends to develop PD efforts to increase family involvement get and read this book.

References

Caplan, J. G. (1998). Constructing School Partnerships with Families and Communities. Oakbrook, IL: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.

Cotton, K., & Wikelund, K. R. (1989). “Parent Involvement in Education,” School Improvement Research Series. Portland. OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratories.

Epstein, J.L. (1995, May). “School/family/community Partnerships: Caring for the Children we Share.” Phi Delta Kappan, 76(9), 701-712.

Jones, B., Valdez, G., Nowakowski, J., & Rasmussen, C. (1994). Designing Learning and Technology for Educational Reform. Oak Brook, IL: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.