Getting involved in your child’s education – Part 4: Making it happen

In the final part of Lisa’s series on getting involved in your child’s education, she offers practical reasons for making communication and engagement a priority, and the positive impact it can have on student success.

By Lisa Saunders

Director of Programs, Bridgeway

The effectiveness of communication between home and school is essential to student success, not just in younger grades, but also in junior high and high schools (Shirvani, 2007).  Anecdotal reports highlight success for younger students in particular and students who are in need of extra support such as students diagnosed with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (Block, 2010).  Children spend approximately 85 % of their waking hours, outside of school, with their parents/guardians (Shirvani, 2007).  So, it would stand to reason that parents can influence a child’s education a great deal through creating a supportive and academically stimulating environment (Block, 2010).  Parents have a great deal of insight into their children, how they learn and what other circumstances may impact their school performance.  Working with their child and their child’s school can directly affect their child’s experiences in the classroom (Block, 2010).

Successful initiatives that actively include parents in the education of their children have been seen in the UK but have been elusive in the North American public education system.  Reaching out to parents in an effort to open the doors and dispel the mystery of our schools has been successful in many independent schools.  Guiding parents on how they can effect change in their child’s education starts with giving information educators work with day to day; career planning, navigating the school system and understanding educational jargon are some common areas parents request more information on (Black, 2010).  A fear of low parent participation and negative responses often prevent school leaders from burdening their staff with the responsibilities that come with an open door policy of parent-school communication.

Properly supported staffs who have the backing of a leader who establishes clear goals for parent-school communication will ultimately meet with increased student success.   Student success defined by increases in test scores, attendance and academic achievement as well as decreases in behavioral issues and referrals to the principal’s office are results of parent’s involvement in their child’s education.  Although the practice of open communication with families has been limited to report card distribution and calls home from the principal’s office, the practice of improved communication combining the efforts of both parents and school members yields positive results for the students.  Support from the educational leader comes in the form of fostering this concept within each school and each family through coaching both the teaching staff and the families in the most effective way to achieve their shared goal; student success.

If you want to continue the conversation with Lisa, or have questions about how you can further support your child’s education, you can reach her at 902-464-0134 or by email at lisa.saunders@bridgeway-academy.com.

Getting involved in your child’s education – Part 3: The role of the educational leader

How do you set the stage for parental engagement in education?  Today, Lisa discusses the need for leadership within the school to create an environment that fosters effective communication with parents.

By Lisa Saunders

Director of Programs, Bridgeway

Traditionally the educational leader’s role is more behind the scenes allowing assistances or vice-principals to run the staff and the staff to run the schools (Goldman, 1998).  It is up to the leadership of the principal or head of school to establish important practices; model what they want the teaching staff to emulate.  Creation of a welcoming environment where parents feel encouraged to come to the school, speak with staff, ask questions and offer feedback would be conducive to opening the door to parent involvement in their child’s education.  Not limited to parent organizations or parent advisory councils…just creation of a welcoming environment where parents feel comfortable asking questions and sharing information.  It is up to the person in charge, the educational leader to initiate this movement one school at a time.  “…the school’s characteristics are a reflection of the educational values of the leader” (Goldman, 1998).

Creation of individualized plans for children in public schools can be used as an example of an intimidating circumstance for typical parents to be involved in.  The individualized planning process includes parents but alienates them based on use of unfamiliar lingo and families having little influence over the process (Geltner & Leibforth, 2008).  Involving parents in their child’s education is not only focused on what parents can bring to the school, but what the school can offer the family. 

Tomorrow, Lisa will wrap up her series on getting parents involved in education with some advice on how schools can make it happen.

Getting involved in your child’s education – Part 2: The UK experience

Yesterday, Lisa Saunders presented the case for getting involved in your child’s education.  Today, a look at the UK and initiatives that encourage active parental participation.

By Lisa Saunders

Director of Programs, Bridgeway

Successful educational models out of the UK that have actively involved parents and focused on communication include Every Child Matters and Children’s Plan for Early YearsPractitioners and Leaders initiatives.   “It provides more support for parents to do the best for their child…shaped around the needs of children and their families…” (Children’s Plan for Early Years Practitioners and Leaders, info sheet).   Every Child Matters initiative recognized that parental involvement had been an aspect lacking in education, stating: “In the past it has been argued that children and families have received poorer services because of the failure of professional to understand each other’s roles or to work together effectively in a multi-disciplinary manner.”

In each of these models the educational leader’s role was to support their staff in bridging the gaps between parents, teachers and other professionals.  These educational models were created because educational leaders recognized that the education system was in need of improvement.  In fact, even on North American soil, the value of parental involvement was recognized and was addressed by the president of the United States (albeit a few years after the UK initiatives), “…parents are an important component of their children’s academic future success.”

In fact, in schools in the UK that had high implementation of the Every Child Matters initiative included forums that allowed parents to express their views and have a say in decision making processes (Harris & Allen, 2009).  Parent-school communication typically takes place one of two ways: written or verbal.  In either case there is opportunity for miscommunication and discrepancy between values and beliefs of the families and schools as well as the individual educators (Bridgemohan, et al., 2005).

In this time of pressure, on both students and educational leaders to perform on assessment scores, wouldn’t educational leaders adopt a practice, to improve performance of their students?   Through both formal and informal parental engagement, there is evidence of a major impact on the performance of students (Harris & Allen, 2009).

You’ll find more information on Every Child Matters on The Guardian website - http://www.guardian.co.uk/everychildmatters.  Tomorrow, Lisa looks at the educational leader’s role in engaging parents.

Getting involved in your child’s education – Part 1: Why it’s important

Bridgeway is blessed to have a wonderfully talented and creative group of staff members.  I’m going to tap into their expertise as often as I can and share their knowledge with you through our blog.  Over the next few days, I’ll be sharing some words of wisdom from Lisa Saunders, our Director of Programs.  Lisa has been with Bridgeway for ten years now, and is currently working on her Masters in Education.  Here is part one of a paper she recently wrote on why getting parents involved in their child’s education is so important.

By Lisa Saunders

Director of Programs, Bridgeway

In years past, children who have reached a magic age, usually around five years old, have left their family’s home and have gone off to school.  What a child did between the hours of arrival at school and dismissal was the responsibility of the teachers, not the parents.  Similarly, when a child left school and returned home, what happened there was of little consequence to the child’s school.  There is a shift coming within the traditional roles played by both parents and educators.  Parents and teachers both are beginning to agree that education of children should be achieved by a marriage of two communities; home and school.  Improvement of the practice of parental involvement in education through home-school communication will ultimately achieve the common goal that binds parents and educators together: student success.

Home-school communication is one of the most important practices in ensuring student success and forging successful home-school relationships.  However important the practice of “keeping in touch”, its effectiveness is difficult to measure (Bridgemohan, et al., 2005).  The measureable benefits of a close-knit relationship between home and school include increased assessment scores, decreased drop-out rate, a decline in behavior issues and higher learner achievement (Shirvani, 2007).  Bridgemohan, et al., 2005, also suggests that parental involvement in a child’s school has the ability to decrease the gap between achievement of high-income and low-income families.

Tomorrow, Lisa will share the experiences of educators and parents in the UK, where getting parents actively involved in the school system has been a priority since 2003.