Parent Involvement In Education

REFLECTIVE ESSAY: PARENT INVLOVEMENT

Reflective Essay-Module 5

EDA614A- Theories and Applications of Educational Leadership

Prepared for Professor

Faculty at National University

In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the

Master of Education

Tier I Administrative Credential

by

Adriana Magallanes

October 15, 2004

PARENT INVOLVEMENT

Overview

Creating a successful school site involves many aspects of the "school community" to be involved. The school's community consists of students, faculty, staff, parents, and community. In is tremendously important that school sites build a partnership with parents for different reasons, primarily increasing student achievement. As it has been expressed and several times, "Parent (and community) involvement are essential ingredients--perhaps the most crucial components--of building stronger schools," (Jackobson, 1997). Unfortunately, is has been reported that parent involvement is a largely "untapped resource" for schools to increase student achievement and a sense of community and commitment (Regional Education Laboratory, 2004). As a result, higher student achievement would have a positive effect on meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals and also increasing the schools Academic Performance Index (API). In addition to the many benefits of parent involvement there are also specific mandates for it. In fact, under the No Child Left Behind Act any school receiving Title I funds must develop and establish a descriptions of how they will involve parents in the development of plan and the overseeing of them (California Department of Education, 2004). In addition, Title I schools must also disseminate the schools parental involvement practices, pertinent information in regard to teacher qualifications, student achievement, hold meetings, and offer parent involvement at different times, among other things (California Department of Education, 2004). As there many obstacles that administrators in the K-12 arena must confront and overcome to have a successful school, parent involvement may be one of the more challenging hurdles.

What it is?

The term "parent involvement" has a plethora of meanings and is used in many contexts. Parent involvement is really the participation of parents, not only in attending parent conferences and back to school night but much more. Parent involvement is really the ongoing active participation in education and schools in a variety of ways from attending school functions and obligations, to helping your child with homework, to volunteering time on site (Cotton and Wikelund, 2004). Each school site should allow parents the opportunity to participate in their child's education and engage in two way meaningful communication involving student academic learning, and school activities (National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education, 2004). However, at minimum, parent involvement should include parent-teacher conferences, a report about progress, and access to staff if needed (California Department of Education, 2004).

Challenges

According to a pole conducted by the 31st Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll, the majority of the public believes that the lack of parent involvement is the biggest obstacle that education is facing (Dunne, 2002). While there have been numerous studies and research done in regard to the positive influences that parent involvement has on various areas of student achievement, there is one inconsistency that remains, how the term "parent involvement" is defined (Baker and Soden, 1998). In fact there are various degrees and aspects of parent involvement, which may are also culturally variable (Trumbull et. Al., 2001), that can be focused on specifically which may have an adverse affect on data collected and reported, which would yield very different results. For example, there have been studies conducted that focused on the attitude component of parent involvement by focusing on parental aspirations and desire for their child's educational success (Baker and Sowden, 1998). Conversely there are other researchers who have focused on the behavioral aspects of parent involvement, such as helping with homework and attending parent-teacher conferences. Moreover, there are still others in the field who have decided to focus their research on parenting style and family interactions, or conceptualized parent involvement. Therefore, as evidenced though research that has been previously conducted, although all are components of parent involvement, the variety of inconsistencies in definition and focus needs to be united to render more concrete results.

Many assume that those parents who are not visible "don't care about their child's education," (North West Regional Education Laboratory, 2003). In fact, there are many others things that may be causing the insufficient parent-school relationship, such poor communication with parents. Communication is a vital aspect of getting parents involved and is really the foundation of success, as indicated by Sullivan of the National PTA (2004). Communication should be a regular habit that is meaningful and a two-way communication network. However, to achieve this there are a few items that must be given thought for example, who parents are and what they want. These questions can be addressed by providing convenient events where educators and parents can have meaningful interactions, conducting surveys, and also by developing and distributing a regular newsletter. Wanting to improve communication can also have obstacles of its own, language barriers.

Although research has shown the connection between parent involvement and student achievement, minority parental participation is decreasing (Floyd, 1998). It has been reported by Hyslop (2000) that many Hispanic parents feel intimidated by teachers, one reason being the language barrier. There are many teachers and other school personnel who may have difficulty dealing with parents due to language, which can make communicating grades, behavior, and homework very difficult (Tinkler, 2002).

Parents level of confidence is another obstacle we face in dealing with parent involvement (Tinkler, 2002). Many