Is Parent Involvement the Missing Link in School Reform?

By guest blogger Eva Hardy, online content/data coordinator at the Center for Teaching Quality

In April, roundtable participants discussed the many ways in which parental engagement can elevate students' classroom performance. Participants agreed that parental involvement was a collaborative effort, requiring teacher, parents, and administration to get involved in the process.

Below is a recap of some experiences and insights from this month's contributors:

Activate Parents: Jose Vilson argues that parental involvement is the "missing link" in school reform and challenges fellow teachers to work to "activate parents into a collaborative role."

Create Resources: Parents can bring a diverse set of skills and experiences to the classroom. Cheryl Suliteanu reflects on how one parent's passion turned into a very memorable lesson for her students.

Communicate Effectively: Creating and maintaining open lines of communication between school and home is a first-step in actively engaging parents, point out David Ruenzel, Bill Ivey, and Lori Nazareno.

Establish Trust: Larry Ferlazzo suggests that teachers are able to establish and maintain trust when the focus is on building relationships rather than reporting problems.

Offer Opportunities: Schools must offer diverse and creative opportunities for parental involvement. Bill Ivey and Larry Ferlazzo describe a few ways in which their schools are reaching out and engaging parents.

Develop a Vision: Cheryl Suliteanu, David Ruenzel, and Lori Nazareno note that parents, teachers, and administrators must work together to set consistent expectations for students in and out of the classroom.

Connect Online: Jose Vilson and Ilana Garon describe their experiences with online grade books as a way to engage parents and provide accountability.

—Eva Hardy

Posted by Francesca Duffy at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

A commenter in my last blog felt that some of the work I did to be proactive might have felt like a little much. Conversely, sometimes I feel like I'm not doing enough. I have systems that work for me, but they're not as thorough as others I've seen. The key for a good system to work for me is efficiency. In other words, it's got to be in the flow of things I already do throughout the day.

1. Electronic grade books work.

For example, when I take attendance, I tend to use my electronic grade book (Engrade is my choice, though there's a plethora of other choices). The grade book allows me to log their grades and attendance with a few clicks, rather than the constant erasing and re-erasing I did with my old gradebook. The time it takes for roster changes gets minimized. Furthermore, and more importantly, teachers and students can log in and see where they stand in my class whenever they wish. Never do they have to worry about not knowing their grades because I've already given them the key to finding it out. For those students without Internet access, they can still ask me when they see me with my iPad or wait until a month into the marking period, when I give out paper versions of the progress report to that point (with a parent and student signature line, of course.)

2. Use both sides of the index card.

Logging parent calls gets a big trickier, but here's another trick: the front of the index card you gave to students to get their information can also be turned around and used for a parent call log. That way, when asked about calling parents (for commendations and recommendations please), you can just pull up the same card you used to call that parent and see when last you spoke to them. Also, if you have the incorrect information, you can change it on the spot and go from there.

3. Any time over three minutes merits a school visit.

Usually, my rule of thumb is simple: if your contact with a parent is going to be longer than three minutes, try to get the parent to set up a meeting with you in school. Some teachers think talking to a parent over the phone merits an extended conversation about issues that usually don't merit the length. Parents are people, too, and it's important to respect their time. If the parent seeks to speak for more than that, I oblige them. More often than not, parents work at their jobs or at home, and usually find phone calls about how bad their child is doing disheartening at best, reckless at worst. Instead, keep it to "I'm concerned about _____, please speak to your child about _____."

All in all, most parents just want to trust that their child is getting the best education possible. They tend to ask questions because they really want to know what's happening with their child and how best to affect that change. We all have ways to approach the tenets of parent-teacher relationships, but the guidelines remain the same. Stay one step ahead and the rest follows suit.

Posted by José Vilson at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Cheryl Suliteanu

I believe it really does take a village to raise a child. If we break down our priorities into basic needs for every child, we can easily come to common ground with parents: We want children to grow up to be successful, happy, and healthy adults.

Pointing the finger at teachers and saying we aren't doing our jobs when a child doesn't score well on a once-a-year exam isn't working. Pointing fingers at parents and telling them they aren't doing enough to prepare their child for school isn't working.

What is working? Knowing your students and their families, and inviting parents to be part of our classroom learning experiences. For my birthday and for Valentine's Day I received gorgeous bouquets of clearly home-grown flowers from a family. Friday, I asked the mom if she would bring me one flower from her garden today to help me introduce our new theme of growing things—I told her we would be learning about a flower: stem, leaves, roots, and petals. She said yes. However, she didn't bring me a flower...she brought in four different kinds of leaves with a full grown fruit of that plant; a vase with a flower whose roots she had carefully cleaned and placed in water so they'd be clearly visible; a bouquet of different flowers with different types of stems and leaves, and of a variety of colors; she brought in a selection of roses with the thorns cut off so children could handle them; and a geranium in a giant pot.

I don't think there is any one right answer to the question, "Is parent involvement the missing link in education reform?" I think that parents are an essential element in their child's success, and it's up to me to tap into them as the resource they are to find the unique and special attributes they have to offer. It seems so simple, yet it doesn't happen often enough.

Cheryl Suliteanu has taught elementary school students in Oceanside, Calif., for 15 years. She is a National Board-certified teacher with certification in English as a New Language, a Teacher Leaders Network member, and a virtual coach/facilitator for the NEA-Priority Schools Campaign.

Posted by Cheryl Suliteanu at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Bill Ivey

This discussion happens to parallel two intense weeks at my school: preparing for
Spring Family Weekend. The schedule for the weekend, as is typical at schools with boarding programs, is packed.

Families will attend classes on Friday morning. We will have an all-school
house-meeting (a weekly time for announcements and presentations) before lunch.
After lunch, we will have a performing arts show and then a number of parent
meetings, open sports activities, and conferences. Conferences continue after
dinner and into the next morning. Our Head of School will give a talk and facilitate
discussion.

Saturday afternoon, there will be more games as well as a horse show. Saturday
evening, the Parents' Association is sponsoring a dinner-dance fundraiser (their
idea, a "tradition" begun a year ago).

The spring meeting for middle school parents varies greatly year to year. This year, as I looked at how to most productively spend the half-hour we have with them, I've decided to facilitate small-group discussions looking back over the year.

By design, we also just had a middle school faculty retreat on Friday, taking the afternoon to give an in-depth look at some issues that are important to us: assessment, curriculum,
advisory, technology, and the concept of an exit portfolio and/or exhibition.

Some might ask why did we do this before the parent weekend? The answer is simple: So that our ears would be fine-tuned for comments that could inform our next steps. My initial list of questions for my small-group discussion with parents is deliberately very general. Considering all aspects of our program, I will ask them
to discuss:

1. What aspects of your daughter's experience have been successful this year?
2. What suggestions would you have for improving our program?
3. What level and types of communication and feedback have been and would be
most helpful in partnering with us to track your daughter's progress?

I will readily concede to knots in my stomach as we enter this experience—like
many teachers, I am something of a perfectionist even though I realize perfection is pretty
much impossible. (After all, one person's "perfection" is another person's "Are you
kidding?!") But if we listen to and embrace this input from people who care about
the school and their children, my colleagues and I have the opportunity to improve
the program in far more meaningful ways than we could otherwise manage.

Bill Ivey teaches 7th grade Humanities, French, and music at Stoneleigh-Burnham School, an all-girls private boarding school in Western Massachusetts.

Posted by Bill Ivey at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Ilana Garon

Of course, it is not solely the responsibility of the parents themselves to foster an attitude of engagement. I respect the efforts mentioned in Jose Vilson's post, "Building Proactive Parent-Teacher Relationships": Vilson describes a culture of accountability wherein teachers keep files of prior contacts, test scores, and behavior records to give parents up-to-date information. Furthermore, school systems can work to educate parents—starting when their kids are in pre-K—about their power to affect their children's education, ways they can affect it, and reasons it's important to remain involved.

Last week, I was in a conference with a parent who is fighting a serious illness, which she revealed to us will likely be terminal. She had come to school to make sure that her kids were getting the correct course-programming and help they needed so that they would ultimately graduate from high school. Because she was too sick to be able to oversee their study habits and homework completion the way she wanted, she hoped perhaps someone in school could step in—specifically, to help them study for their upcoming Regents exams.

The conference was heartbreaking. Yet, when her son and I talked later, he told me he felt the outcome had been positive. He was pleased to have been able to adjust his course schedule, and relieved, he admitted, that some adults would be "on him" to study for his Regents. For my part, I was humbled by this parent's efforts. In a situation wherein she couldn't "be there" the way she wanted, by coming and expressing her needs, she had enabled us all to help her kids more effectively. It was a stunning example of parental engagement—one that showed me what was possible when teachers, parents, and students work together.

Ilana Garon has been teaching high school English (and math, in emergency situations) in the Bronx since she graduated from Barnard College in 2003.

Posted by Ilana Garon at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

David Ruenzel

The assumption running through the accumulated blogs and postings is that parent involvement is always a good thing. But I find this assumption extremely questionable at the high school level. Indeed, I'm convinced that parents of adolescents should slowly fade out of the school picture altogether.

The parents of the more savvy kids do exactly this: They provide their children with whatever resources they can and then stay out of the way. They know that the best schooling, like the best parenting, has as its primary goal the self-sufficiency and intellectual independence of the young person.

Readers might agree that this stepping back makes sense if the student is well-adjusted and high-performing. But what about the student who is struggling socially and/or academically? Don't these parents need to be extra vigilant, checking, for instance, their children's daily homework?

Actually, no. Over 20 years of teaching I have sat in on countless strategizing sessions between parents, teachers, and students, have sent home endless weekly student progress reports to parents, and have witnessed parents hector their kids to work harder.

And how often have I seen any of this work? Never. Not once. Typically, the student becomes only more surly and rebellious, chafing at being under the parental spotlight. After all, young people most seek independence, not scrutiny.

Judith Martin, in her classic 1998 book The Nurture Assumption, argued brilliantly that it is peers, not parents, that make the real difference in teens' lives, and that parents think they are more influential then they actually are in guiding the lives of their children.

So should parents of struggling adolescents simply throw in the towel? Certainly not. Arrange for tutoring if the child is struggling in a subject. Get professional help for a child struggling with learning differences or emotional difficulties. And choose, if possible, a school where the child will have the very best peers and teachers that are the very best mentors.

But be realistic about how much difference you as the parent can really make at this point. And above all, remember this: that adolescence has been a tough time since time immemorial, and that the great majority of young people, with our love and support, get through it scarred but unbowed.

David Ruenzel is an English teacher at the Athenian School in Danville, Calif., and former senior writer for Education Week Teacher.

Posted by David Ruenzel at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Larry Ferlazzo

In my previous post, I highlighted what I characterized as the difference between parent involvement and parent engagement. Involvement, I suggested, was more of a "doing to" while engagement leaned towards a "doing with."

What would the roles of key players look like from these two different perspectives?

In involvement, the parent might be seen as a volunteer who is generally directed by school staff toward completing tasks or as a client who receives services and information. In engagement, the parent would be considered as a leader (or a potential leader) who is integral to identifying a vision and goals for the school and community. He or she would encourage others to contribute their own visions to that big picture and perform the tasks necessary to reach those goals.

In involvement, the teacher might be akin to a social worker, doing things for parents or tending to tell them what they should be doing with their children. In engagement, the teacher is more of an organizer who helps parents do things for themselves. He or she would elicit ideas from parents about what everyone (parents and school staff) could do differently to support students and their community.

In involvement, the administrator might develop a vision for the school and community and assign tasks to parents to help accomplish these goals. In engagement, he or she would encourage parents and staff to help develop a joint vision and exercise their own leadership abilities. He or she would recognize that volunteer tasks are important—but that it is important to involve parents in the end (not just the means to that end).

What is happening in your school—parent involvement or parent engagement? How important is that distinction? If you think it's significant, what do you do (or what could you imagine doing) to encourage engagement?

An award-winning English and social studies teacher at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, Calif., Larry Ferlazzo is the author of Helping Students Motivate Themselves: Practical Answers To Classroom Challenges.

Posted by Larry Ferlazzo at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

José Vilson

It's a well-known stereotype that parents in urban communities don't participate as frequently in their child's education. They "leave it to the school" to take care of all the students' academic needs and only care if the students are passing or not. Yet, for some reason, every year, there are always one or two parents in my school who become notorious for the way they interrogate and disrupt the normal machinations of the schooling process. They come in demanding answers for questions teachers might not have answers for, or flipping the comments we make about the students' behavior into a "What are you doing to help?" They're the parents that the adults in the building always tell the next teacher, "Watch out for the mother / father of this child. Woo boy."

I've had better success in working with these parents than many of my colleagues.

Other teachers ask me how I do it, and I tell them it's simple: Stay proactive and maintain your professionalism.

I didn't get that my first year. During the first semester, I called up all 90 parents of my students, but I underestimated one. Her child didn't behave very well, but she had been a middling performer throughout the year. Beyond trying to call, I didn't make any extra effort to reach out to her because I had 89 other parents to contact. I didn't see her for the first parent-teacher conference session nor the second, and assumed that she didn't care. That is, until she showed up at the school and I finally met her face-to-face. As it turned out, she was a veteran educator who had similar work hours to mine, not to mention two children and very little help.

After that moment or realization and embarrassment, I decided to get more proactive in my relationship with parents. I kept thorough files. I sent progress reports monthly. I made sure to call homes on occasion. Also, I made sure to be clear, concise, and hopeful about the child's performance, no matter where the student was.

This helped with another tough parent, whose daughter had just started at the school and already had a reputation of defending the child to the point of immunity. Upon first meeting her at parent-teacher conference, I introduced myself as I did with most parents by saying, "Hello, how are you? My name is Mr. Vilson." She brushed aside the civilities: "Take a seat and let's talk about my daughter." In Spanish, this sounded even scarier. But after waiting out the tough talk, I pulled up the girl's test scores, behavior records, and phone log to jog her memory about our prior contacts. At first, I didn't think this had much of an effect because she maintained her tough exterior, but soon she switched the focus from an aggressive voice to a collaborative stance with me. This in turn helped me gain respect from the student (who normally gave all her teachers headaches).

Parent involvement is one of the missing links in school change, and we as educators have to find ways to activate parents into a collaborative role. Surely, it's going to take a cultural shift in resources, job stability, and language acquisition to even approach 100 percent reliability on the parent voice, but the tide is starting to shift in that direction. As parents learn how to use their own voices for positive change about their child's education, teachers need to learn how to harness that power into a well-rounded accountability system for all people involved.

José Vilson is a math teacher, coach, and data analyst for a middle school in the Inwood/Washington Heights neighborhood of New York

Posted by José Vilson at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Cheryl Suliteanu

I've been hearing a lot of buzz about this year's MetLife Survey of the American Teacher, which include findings on parent engagement. I found much of the information to be predictable, if unsettling.

In particular, I anticipated the results would show, despite general growth in levels of parent engagement, a discrepancy between parents' and teachers' views on particular school-related priorities—and they did. Does this accurate prediction make me a pessimist or a realist? Either way, it is imperative to recognize that our perceptions differ, based on our roles in educating children (and our own experiences in the past).

According to the survey, teachers and parents differ on the level of priority for a number of school-related issues. For example, more teachers than parents say it is absolutely essential that parents support school rules for student behavior and ensure their child gets sufficient rest and nutrition. In contrast, more parents than teachers say it is absolutely essential that parents ensure their child completes homework assignments.

Before assigning a "right" or "wrong" to any of these, we must consider what each party has been exposed to, the basis for their opinions on educational psychology, and the physiology of learning. Teachers know (from experience and hopefully also their preparation for the profession) that rest and proper nutrition contribute significantly to a child's ability to learn. We also realize that a child will better function in a learning environment when they have experienced a foundation of rewards and consequences for behavior at home.

But do parents understand how an inadequate (or absent) breakfast can affect their child's ability to learn? Have they encountered strategies to create and manage a positive behavior system at home? In most cases, parents know what they learned through their own experiences at home and in school.

And these experiences vary. Some cultures place more value on discipline than others, and some allow children more freedom at home.

Where does that leave educators? There is nothing to be gained in assigning blame—instead, we must develop an understanding of our differences and then seek common ground. We may not share our students' cultures, bur, if we actively build connections with their families, we will begin to understand how we can work together to ensure every student's success.

Cheryl Suliteanu has taught elementary school students in Oceanside, Calif., for 15 years. She is a National Board-certified teacher with certification in English as a New Language, a Teacher Leaders Network member, and a virtual coach/facilitator for the NEA-Priority Schools Campaign.

Posted by Cheryl Suliteanu at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Lori Nazareno

My school, the Mathematics and Science Leadership Academy, was built on the idea that families are a tremendous resource and we seek to engage with them as vital members of our school family. This has required an intimate understanding of the culture of the families of our students.

Our parents are largely from a culture that believes that keeping their distance from school is a sign of respect for both the school and the teachers. As a result, we must actively support and encourage our parents to be present in our school and to provide feedback to us about how well they feel we are serving their children. In order to engage families in our school, we first establish open, two-way lines of communication. One simple thing that we do is invite parents into our classes to help us with our Breakfast in the Classroom program, or assist in any way they can. Simply opening communication between teachers and families in this nonthreatening way has been significant in increasing family engagement.

Family members can also sometimes feel as though they do not have the skills necessary to be able to effectively support their child. And, unfortunately, sometimes schools may make that assumption as well. I have often seen schools conduct parent meetings and spend the entire time lecturing family members about what they should be doing with their children. While it is important to communicate expectations to parents, it is also important to know what knowledge and skills they have to share with us. It is also important to develop a plan to strategically utilize the knowledge and skills that families have to support student learning. While parents may or may not be highly educated, they all have a deep body of knowledge that can only be gained through real life experiences. When we recognize that and tap into it, families then feel valued and validated and are more likely to engage with the school and the teachers.

Our success with families has come from establishing an environment that is welcoming and supportive to them. We intentionally balance listening with speaking and we value all of the knowledge and skills that our families possess. If you're interested in additional information, a profile of our schools family-engagement program is available here.

Lori Nazareno, a dually certified National Board-certified teacher in science, is currently the co-lead teacher at the Mathematics and Science Leadership Academy in Denver, Colo.

Posted by Lori Nazareno at 12:37 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Bill Ivey

When my school added middle grades eight years ago, we adopted the principles of This We Believe, now published by the Association for Middle Level Education. One of these principles is, "The school actively involves families in the education of their children." As a private school, we are acutely aware of the importance of family involvement.

At a parent meeting early in the year, the school counselor talks about young adolescent development and I explain how our faculty bases decisions on this research about what kids need and why. Parents are appreciative, and in many cases relieved, to hear what we have to say.

Sometimes we also hold a meeting at which parents set priorities for their kids to help guide us in our work. Parents brainstorm about all the things they hope will happen for their children as faculty members write each item on a separate sheet of paper. We then hang the pieces of paper around the room. Each parent receives five stickers to place on the signs referencing their highest priorities—such as "happiness" or "continued love of learning." Chris Toy, a former principal we engaged as a consultant, initiated the activity, and I've found it really helps set the tone for our school year.

We involve families more actively in conferences by asking students to lead them. Several parents have told me that this was the first time they'd ever enjoyed a conference!

There's an ongoing stream of information from the school to home. We send out a regular newsletter, including news from classrooms, announcements of upcoming events, and links to "thought leadership" articles from my blog. Advisors are in frequent contact, and try to share good news as well as concerns.

We also ask for and act upon feedback. Parents helped design our new standards-based progress report form, and brainstormed initial ideas for a new "Life Skills" course. Based on a parent's suggestion, we now announce the daily menu—and nutritional hints—in homeroom.

Although we're a private school, my friends and colleagues in public schools have had similar experiences, mostly positive. Of course, any program to involve and empower parents is bound to carry some risks, and we have had some missteps. Through it all, though, we do make an effort to listen to parents' concerns and ideas—even if we end up disagreeing. Of all the things we do, listening is the most important.

Bill Ivey teaches 7th grade Humanities, French, and music at Stoneleigh-Burnham School, an all-girls private boarding school in Western Massachusetts.

Posted by Bill Ivey at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

David Ruenzel

Parent involvement can make for better schools and improved student achievement, but only if teachers and parents have a shared sense of what that involvement means. This happens all too infrequently.

For teachers, parent involvement often means unwavering support for their efforts—they want parents to goad their students into doing homework and behaving in class. For parents, on the other hand, it frequently means narrow-minded advocacy—they want what they perceive as best for their child and will do whatever it takes to get it.

These competing visions of involvement can lead to painful conflicts, as I know from personal experience at a number of schools over the years.

Once, for example, a sophomore turned in an essay on a Robert Frost poem that was clearly plagiarized from the Internet; he received an "F" as a result. But the student's father, an acclaimed lawyer, challenged both me and the grade, parsing the sentences of the plagiarized essay and arguing that the words and phrases were very much in the public domain. While he lost his appeal, he extracted a measure of revenge by withdrawing his child from the school and then attacking the school on a parents' web site.

Another time, a mother went apoplectic when I gave her son a B- as a mid-term grade. She questioned my qualifications and attacked me in a vituperative 5-page single-spaced letter to the administration. She went away only when the student passed out of my class.

These cases, while extreme, are not unusual. They are most prevalent at highly competitive schools because parents fear that a single blemish on their child's academic record will derail their chances for admission into a top college.

Fortunately, my school decided to take action a couple years ago. First, they showed to groups of teachers, students, and parent the documentary "Race to Nowhere," which details the sometimes debilitating stress students endure when faced with overwhelming academic pressures. Discussions ensued, from which emerged a general meeting of minds. Faculty saw the need to assign meaningful homework but less of it, and to foster more intensely on a curriculum focusing on depth rather than coverage. Parents, for their part, perceived that unrelenting stress could tempt their children to cheat and undermine their creative and intellectual pursuits.

These sorts of meetings with parents continue to occur at potluck dinners and the like, and while misunderstanding between parents and teachers still occur, they are much less frequent.

In essence, we have come to think of parent involvement not as a battle of competing interests but as an on-going all-school dialogue about the ultimate goals of education. What should be at stake, after all, is not so much grades and SAT scores, but the emotional and intellectual growth of the student.

David Ruenzel is an English teacher at the Athenian School in Danville, Calif., and former senior writer for Education Week Teacher.

Posted by David Ruenzel at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Larry Ferlazzo

I'm not at all surprised by results from either survey. Plenty of research has documented what teachers—and probably most families—already know about the importance of parent involvement and engagement. (As I've written before, I think there's a continuum that extends from parent involvement to parent engagement—involvement being more like "doing to" and engagement more of a "doing with.")

Our school is very committed to making home visits to families before or near the start of the school year. Through these conversations, which are focused on building relationships instead of talking about problems, we're able to help create trust that can be beneficial to parents, students, and educators. We look to parents as the experts on their children, and we want to take advantage of their knowledge to help their child succeed. Parents can tell us about when their child has seemed most excited about attending school, how their child spends free time, and what past teachers have done to successfully connect with their child.

We use other strategies to support family engagement too. "Parent academies" are classes sponsored by schools to typically inform parents about the "ins and outs" of our education system and generally use a district-approved curriculum taught by school staff. However, at our school, parents themselves control the curriculum, which often explores non-school issues (citizenship, for example), and parents—with assistance from our parent coordinator—decide who they want to teach them. We arrange for supportive parent-teacher conferences, assign homework that encourages family conversation (for example, when my students do research on careers and colleges, they are assigned to get questions from their parents, too), and make positive phone calls home (rather than only being bearers of bad tidings.)

In the future, I hope that more schools will recognize themselves as neighborhood institutions that not only have a responsibility for what goes on inside their four walls, but also need to look outward at the challenges facing their families. I know that recent cutbacks have strained schools' budgets—and it's difficult to "squeeze blood out of a rock." However, schools can actively work with community organizers (if not be THE community organizers) and other local institutions (like religious congregations and block clubs) to help connect families who share common problems and take action to resolve them.

"Social capital" is the term used to describe the human connections that are created out of these kinds of interactions, along with the resulting benefits. Interestingly, the phrase was coined way back in 1916 by a state supervisor of rural public schools in West Virginia. L. J. Hanifan was describing local schools' community engagement efforts, which then included teacher home visits, parent academies that identified their own needs, making schools the conversation center of the entire neighborhood through community meetings, and organizing to get broader problems solved (in West Virginia, it was getting roads improved).

Maybe—when it comes to family engagement—our schools need to "go back to the future."

An award-winning English and Social Studies teacher at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, Calif., Larry Ferlazzo is the author of Helping Students Motivate Themselves: Practical Answers To Classroom Challenges.

Posted by Larry Ferlazzo at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Ilana Garon

Two weeks ago, the school I teach at held its bi-annual parent-teacher conferences, which were attended by the parents or guardians of approximately 40% of our student body. Of this group, the majority were parents of 9th graders—conference attendance always drops out after 9th grade, as though at age 15 kids stop needing their parents to supervise their education. As a 10th grade English teacher, I saw about 30% of my students' parents in total, and as usual, the parents who showed up were the ones I least "needed" to see: Their children, on the whole, are making excellent progress in my class. The parents of the kids who were failing my class—parents on whose answering machines I'd been regularly leaving messages, and to whom I'd been sending parental-notification letters—were typically AWOL.

There were two parents in particular I'd hoped to speak with, both of whose children are bright and hilarious but are experiencing sudden, precipitous declines in my class: One child recently stopped turning in any assignments, and another child left two consecutive quizzes completely blank. I called the first of these parents twice, leaving messages about missing assignments and both times ending my call with "and I hope to see you at parent-teacher conferences on Thursday or Friday." The second parent, I tried to contact on several provided phone numbers, but either the phone would ring eternally without being answered, or I'd get an automated message telling me the line had been disconnected. Letters to both these children's homes also went unacknowledged.

Naturally, neither of these children's parents showed up to conferences.

I know that many of the families in our high-needs school face enormous difficulties in their home-lives; however, education cannot happen without parental engagement. The parents whose children succeed in school not only provide up-to-date contact information, attend conferences, and return calls from teachers—they also provide their kids with assignment notebooks, check nightly (sometimes by cell phone, from the office) to see which teachers have given homework, monitor their children's progress in completing projects and studying for tests, and make appointments to come to the school when they are concerned.

Recently, our school began utilizing an online program called "Engrade," an Internet gradebook that students and parents can log into from their home computers; they can then check current grades in a given class, look for missing work, email teachers with any questions, and even download copies of assignments. The program makes it easy for busy parents to keep themselves informed about their children's progress—and all the more inexcusable for them to have no idea how their kids are doing in their classes, or to ask me when I call, "Why did you give my child this grade?"

A grade isn't "given"—it's earned by a combination of student work and parental supervision and support. The longer I teach, the more I see parental involvement as the strongest correlate to academic success. Parents need to empower themselves by being informed, engaged, and proactive partners with teachers in their children's education.

Ilana Garon has been teaching high school English (and math, in emergency situations) in the Bronx since she graduated from Barnard College in 2003.

Posted by Ilana Garon at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend