Parent involvement is consistently cited as an important correlate of effective schools. For nearly a quarter of a century, research on Parental and family involvement has documented that Parents can do much to reinforce positive attitudes toward school, to prepare their children for school, and to support their children's efforts once they are in school.
In an effort to improve student achievement and to help to close the
achievement gap, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
(MALDEF) and the National Education Association (NEA) partnered through
their Parent Engagement initiatives to increase the inclusion and engagement of
Parents of color in their children's education.
Latinos1 have been continually overrepresented in low-skill and service sector U.S. jobs. One of the
factors accounting for this is the educational experience of the Latino community, which has been
characterized by low high school graduation rates, low college completion rates and substandard
schooling conditions.2 As schools and policymakers seek to improve the educational conditions of
Latinos, parental influence in the form of school involvement is assumed to play some role in
shaping students' educational experiences.
This guide provides ideas and suggestions taken from research on family and community
involvement in schools and can help school staff and others design a long-term approach
to garnering the positive involvement of all concerned. These ideas represent the tip of
the iceberg of what is possible. There are as many solutions for creating a comprehensive
plan to involve parents, families, and the community in the education of children, as there
are schools. Each school has its own demographic mix, community context, and history.
Following are ideas that can be modified and expanded upon to suit the needs of the
school.
Child Trends improves the lives and prospects of children and youth by conducting high-quality research and sharing the resulting knowledge with practitioners and policymakers.
Focus on parent-child interactions, and informal learning intervention to strengthen children's number understanding (link between museum-based learning to informal learning)
When schools, families, and community groups work together to support learning, children tend to do better in school, stay in school longer, and like school more." That's the conclusion of A New Wave of Evidence, a report from SEDL.