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how to talk to your kids about gratitude

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Roll Out the Red Carpet for Literacy Night, Movie Style!

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Buzzing with Ms. B: Roll Out the Red Carpet for Literacy Night, Movie Style!

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Parent Handout

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Show Parents How to Read with their Child Productively

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A blog to help elementary teachers build readers and writers who think boldly and deeply.

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Most childcare centers find it a challenge to get parents involved, even though their involvement can mean a world of difference in their child's success. Here are some ideas that can help you to get some parental involvement going. Some of these ideas are perfect for school classrooms as well.Make refrigerator notes for parents.

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Washington Elementary Norman, OK

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Washington Elementary Rock Star Behavior

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You can get this through Greenbush!!!

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BLOCK Fest® is a research-based exhibit that helps raise awareness of early math and science learning by offering hands-on block play experiences to families with young children. Parents, preschool teachers and the community will become more knowledgeable about the importance of early math and science learning as it impacts both school readiness and later math success

BLOCK Fest® was developed to provide an interactive block building experience for young children ages 8 months to 8 years and their parents.

BLOCK Fest® supports parents and children to form an emotional bond during the learning experience. The exhibit has been shown to increase parent knowledge of early development in the areas of math and science education while providing opportunities to increase social skills and literacy opportunities for young children.

BLOCK Fest® is a family interactive event that uses five block play stations to introduce children and their parents to the educational value of blocks.

At BLOCK Fest® parents learn about early math and science concepts and that early math learning is a strong predictor for school readiness.

Parents discover how they can help their children learn early math and science concepts while they play with blocks through guided play and conversation.

BLOCK Fest® also educates communities about the short and long-term importance of early math and science learning.

A brief history of BLOCK Fest®

BLOCK Fest® was developed and piloted by the University of Idaho Parents as Teachers Demonstration Project in 2005. BLOCK Fest® reached thousands of families and was a nationally recognized recipient of the Parents as Teachers Losos Award for Excellence in 2006. In early 2008, the developers of BLOCK Fest® conducted a pilot Train the Trainer program with organizations in North Carolina, Indiana, Texas and Washington. Due to loss of funding in 2007, BLOCK Fest® became inactive until 2009, when University of Idaho signed an agreement awarding exclusive licensing rights to produce and distribute BLOCK Fest® to Twiga Foundation, Inc. Twiga Foundation, Inc. founded by Patricia Kempthorne, Idaho's former First Lady, is dedicated to inspiring, promoting and maintaining family-consciousness in the home, the workplace and the community. Twiga Foundation trademarked BLOCK Fest® and now trains individuals as Certified Trainers, hosts or volunteers to promote the value BLOCK Fest® can bring to their communities. Twiga Foundation maintains an ongoing relationship with the developers of BLOCK Fest® and together, they are working to expand the reach of this innovative and successful learning experience in STEM education. BLOCK Fest® meets Twiga's mission of inspiring, promoting, and maintaining a family-consciousness in the family, the workplace and the community by supporting the workforce development of the next generation.

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BLOCK Fest® is a research-based exhibit that helps raise awareness of early math and science learning by offering hands-on block play experiences to families with young children.

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Links for all age/grade levels

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Joyce L. Epstein, Ph.D., is Director of the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships and National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS), and a principal research scientist and research professor of sociology and education at Johns Hopkins University.

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1. Teaching strategies

2. Teacher parent collaboration

We found 136 items

A child's education can be greatly enhanced by their parents' involvement in the classroom and at home. Use these printables and articles to prepare for successful parent-teacher interactions during parent-teacher conferences, at an open house, and throughout the school year. Our collaboration forms will help you communicate with parents about their child's progress. You'll find great advice on how parents can support their child's development. Tapping in to the support of parents will enable you to teach more effectively.

Advice for Teachers

Whether you are a first year teacher or have been teaching for 20 years, there wil never be a moment where you aren't learning something new. In this section, puruse resources for working with your students in the classroom, students' parents, and utilizing strategies for teaching different grade levels. You're definitely going to want to put this in your teaching repertoire!

Top Teacher-Parent Collaboration Ideas
Encouraging parent participation in educating their children will help you to be a more effective teacher. Our Top 10 ideas on how to get parents more involved in many aspects of the school day are featured in this gallery of printables and articles. New teachers will find this resource particularly valuable.

Getting to Know Your Student
Send this letter home to parents to help you know your students better.

Parent-Teacher Communication Advice from Veteran Teachers
Communication with parents is an essential part of teaching. Here is a list of helpful suggestions from experienced educators.

Parent/Teacher Relations
Handy suggestions for creating and maintaining positive parent/teacher relationships.

Getting Parents Involved
Encourage parents to volunteer in the classroom year round as an important positive step in improving their child's education. New teachers, who are trying to build solid relationships with parents, will find this resource particularly valuable.

Reading Carnival
Host a reading carnival at your school -- it will give your students a chance to demonstrate the reading skills they've acquired and their parents a chance to be a more integral part of their education.

Advice for Parents

Sometimes as teachers we don't realize teaching our students' parents on how to work with our students at home is just as important as teaching in general. Work on the home-school connection and collaborating with parents with the resources in this section.

A Parent-Teacher's Guide to ADHD (K-12)
What is Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder? Get the facts about attention deficit disorders, current treatments, and what the experts have to say about medications in this printable book.

Back to School from A to Z: A Parent's Handbook (K-5)
Help your students' parents prepare for this back-to-school season, with this printable book of advice, activities, and more. These handouts will be a perfect supplement to your Open House.

Power in Math and Science: Advice for Parents
Help parents find ways to reinforce math and science skills.

Step 7: Inform Students and Parents About the Adaptation
Step 7 in the framework for adapting language arts, social studies, and science materials in the inclusive classroom.

How Can Families Help Students Improve Their Writing Skills?
Families are a powerful influence in children's academic development. When family members are involved in student writing projects, students' self-esteem, interest, and language skills improve.

Organization: Advice for Parents
Offer these tips to parents to help them teach their children to become more organized.

Report Cards: Advice for Parents
Distribute this handout to parents to help them respond to their child's report card constructively no matter what the situation.

Help Parents Deal with Homework
The strategies outlined in this article will help parents work successfully with their children to finish homework. Discuss these methods with parents at teacher-parent conferences or on the phone.

Multiple Intelligences Questionnaire
Hand out this questionnaire to parents to help them learn about Multiple Intelligences theory.

More Advice for Parents

Parent-Teacher Collaboration Forms

Use these resources to send home key information to parents. You can use these assets as is or modify them to your individual purpose and classroom.

Letters to Parents
Discover a letter that can be sent home to parents explaining the Gorp's curriculum and message. This great school safety resource focuses on the danger of guns.

Parent Request Form
Use this survey to gather information about your students' parents, such as their hobbies and skills, and whether they can volunteer to share their interests with their child's class.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Parent-Teacher Conferences are some of the most important days of the school year. Here, parents and teachers come together to make sure students are progressing and colllaborate to determine ways they can both help them continue to succeed. Use the resources in this section to be fully prepared for the big day!

Conference Documentation Form
Complete this form during or immediately after a parent-teacher conference. Have all parties involved sign the form. This printable is customizable. Tailor the PDF to your teaching needs by typing in the highlighted fields before printing.

Parent-Teacher Conferences: Five Important Questions
Prepare yourself for parent-teacher conferences by having the answers for some very important questions, sure to be discussed at your parent-teacher conference. New teachers, unfamiliar with the dynamics of conferences, should find this resource particularly valuable.

Parent-Teacher Conferences: Before, During, and After
Teacher-parent conferences give you an opportunity to increase communication between school and home, keep parents informed about their child's progress, and develop a plan for the student's future. You'll find excellent advice to help you prepare for these meetings. New teachers will find this resource particularly valuable.

More Parent-Teacher Conference Resources

Open House Resources

Open houses are an extremely exciting part of the year for schools. Here is your time to shine and showcase all that is great in your classroom and school. Use these general tips or grade leveled resources to make this year's open house the best one ever!

Hosting a Successful Open House
Your students' parents are powerful allies and can make your job much more manageable. Learn some tips on how to foster a positive relationship with parents and host a successful open house. New teachers will find this resource particularly valuable.

Create a Meaningful Open House
Your students' parents are powerful allies and can make your job much more manageable. Learn some tips on how to foster a positive relationship with parents and host a successful open house.

More Open House Resources

Additional Resources

Need some resources for a rainy day? This section is a great place to look for things that you may need for your classroom or may need someday.

Back to School Headquarters
Return to school this fall prepared to conquer any questions you or your students might have about the school year. Our resources range from teaching students the school's layout to assessment tips.

New Teacher Resources
Discover everything a beginning teacher will need for a successful school year, from tips for your first day, to classroom-management advice, to printables and lesson plans that will support your curriculum all year long.

Browse Latest Resources

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Teaching strategies Teacher parent collaboration We found 136 items A child's education can be greatly enhanced by their parents' involvement in the classroom and at home. Use these printables and articles to prepare for successful parent-teacher interactions during parent-teacher conferences, at an open house, and throughout the school year.

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Kansas Families and Schools Together, Inc., KFAST, a non-profit agency was established in 2006 as the Kansas Parent Information Resource Center (KPIRC). Currently KPIRC is providing family engagement support to districts through a contract awarded by the Kansas State Department Education Special Education and Title Services as part of TASN.

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Technology to support parent communication

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Technology to support parent communication

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Technology Tools to Enhance School-Home Communication

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Resource of technology tools and websites to enhance school home communication.

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KS

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Kansas Technical Assistance System Network (TASN) provides technical assistance to support school districts' systematic implementation of evidence-based practices.

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Love these!

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Ideas that bring parents to your school

2019-01-22

Do you ever feel like your school public relations plan is missing something? Take a look at your school-parent community partnership. How often do your students' families come to your school? Do they have reasons to look forward to their time on your campus?

While living in Anchorage, Alaska, some years ago, our oldest child attended kindergarten at Northern Lights ABC Elementary School (NLABC). Once a month this school would invite students' families to attend an assembly. During the first half of the event, there would be a performance by one of the grades based on a patriotic theme. During the latter half of the assembly, the principal would present academic and citizenship awards to students. We enjoyed their reading program awards, and my daughter worked hard to meet checkpoints during the year in order to finally get a special t-shirt for reading over 5,000 pages.

My husband and I enjoyed going to the school to watch our daughter receive an award or perform in an assembly. At the assemblies, we met our daughter's friends as well as their families. We also marveled at how much the school managed to fit into a kindergarten day. Since that time, we have had children attend seven different schools in three different school districts. To be certain, every school has its strengths and weaknesses, but every time we move, I can't help but compare our new school to NLABC school. Their parent engagement was exemplary.

According to Joyce Epstein of Johns Hopkins University, there are six types of involvement in a school-parent community partnership: parenting, learning at home, volunteering, communicating, decision making, and collaborating with the community. A successful partnership offers a broad range of school, family, and community opportunities that engage all parties and, most importantly, meet students' needs. Epstein affirms that these partnerships are not add-on programs or independent projects-they are effectively integrated with school goals and overall district goals.

Creating frequent opportunities at the school to engage parents (and grandparents too) refreshes your school public relations, helping families feel connected to your school. In general, parents enjoy supporting their children by attending events in which they were involved in one way or another. According to Epstein, parent, family, and community involvement means different things to different people. Here are some ideas of activities you can hold at your school that will foster parent engagement.

Six Typical Ways to Engage Parents

The Usual:

Thank volunteers: Encourage volunteering by hosting an appreciation luncheon. At the end of the year, take time to thank volunteers by hosting something, such as a luncheon, for them at the school.

Eleven Exceptional Ways to Engage Parents

The Less Usual:

Alright, here I'm going to break off from the traditional hum-drum ideas with a variety of ideas for school events for all ages. This is not a comprehensive list because honestly, the sky's the limit with the possible events you could host to strengthen parent engagement at your school.

1. Host a new parent event: Have you ever heard of "Cookies and Kleenex?" This type of event invites parents of kindergarten students to gather together just after they've dropped off their students for the first time. Parents visit as well as meet the school's PTA or PTO board and administration. As parents meet and bond with other parents, you can use this time to encourage volunteer work and participation.

2. STEAM nights: Check out this announcement and upcoming event example from NLABC in Alaska:

"Alex Zerbe, The Zaniac, will kick off the NLABC February Science month with STEM shows for students grades 1-8 during the day. That night the theme will be different, and you won't want to miss it. Bring the family and join us for a special Evening Show focused on Arts & Literacy that is just plain fun! Seating is limited, so order your place in advance using the form available. You can preview Alex's Zany Show @ http://www.amazingschoolassembly.com/come-alive.html or by Googling for 'The Zaniac!'"

This is a great example of a school that understands how to create a marketing buzz for school events.

3. Community enrichment events: School public relations are built on positive school-community interactions. Here are a few ideas of ways your school can participate and facilitate community events

Free Adult English Classes-Some school districts offer free community classes. Would your community benefit from free adult English classes? As part of his undergraduate requirements at the university studying Spanish, my husband volunteered as a class instructor in such a class. We both loved it. This is a fantastic way to bring in parents of ESL students.

Group volunteering-Consider organizing a school service project that helps contribute something to the school (such as a new coat of paint) or in the community (such as a night serving dinner at a homeless shelter).

Parent Education Events-The PTSA for Ridgefield High School partners with Ridgefield Public Schools and the community to host parent workshops for "Parenting the #Selfie Generation." These events are open to all parents and are a great way to form positive relationships with parents.

4. Invite parents (and grandparents) to teach:

Professional volunteers -Schools usually host assemblies by local professionals, such as dentists who share tips on proper dental care. Here's the news page snippet about a recent event at Ridge Ranch Elementary School at the Paramus School Public Schools district:

You don't have to stick to dentists either. Why not take a survey of the professions and experiences of your students' families to discover what other knowledge could be shared at the school?

Art class volunteers- Some school districts have elementary art classes taught by trained volunteers who teach in individual classrooms for about 40 minutes each month. It is a beautiful way to involve parents while opening up the world of art to students.

Guest speakers- What better way to start or end a unit on World War II than to invite a veteran to come and speak to the class? Networking with families and community members can create lots of opportunities to bring real-world experiences into any classroom.

5. Dances: These events are great for socializing and bringing school community and family together in positive, fun ways. My daughters especially enjoy these events every year at all levels-elementary, junior high, and high school. Our local elementary school hosts a daddy-daughter dance in February around Valentine's day. The girls love getting dressed up, and it's a wonderful way to get dads and other father figures to visit your school campus and show their support. Other examples of school-hosted dances could be:

Youth dance

Family dance

Sock hop

6. Engineering night: Many parent engagement ideas center around the arts like concerts or plays. Here a couple of unique ideas for bringing parents and students together on your campuses.

Lego challenge night

Straw roller coaster activity

7. Exercise/outdoor activities: Schools that focus on the child as a whole know there is more to education than the core curriculum. Let your physical education teacher take the reigns and organize an activity for students and families that will get their hearts pumping. Here are a few ideas:

Yoga or Zumba Night

Archery event (contact your state's game and fish department for information)

Obstacle course activity (indoor or outdoor)

8. Games or movies: In addition to parent engagement, these events and activities can be ways to fundraise for your schools or participate in community service. In my experience, movies and games are a great way to bring people together. Here are a few more ideas for parent engagement that you could tie together with a larger purpose for your school

Game or Checkers-and-Chess night (admission could be a classroom-needed donation or a new book for the library)

Carnival (host game booths and a raffle to fundraise for your school)

Movie night (admission could be a non-perishable food item for local food pantry)

Because of the importance of parent engagement, the National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS) has recognized over 600 schools since 1998 for their programs and practices that encourage community and family involvement resulting in students' increased success in school. Project Appleseed challenges school communities to ask school boards, city councils, mayors, state representatives, or governors to issue proclamations recognizing National Parental Involvement Day, which is on the third Thursday of November.

Among the multiple benefits of active school parent engagement is the following hallmark statement based on research from Child Trends: Students with parents who are involved in their school tend to have better academic performance and fewer behavioral problems. They are also more likely to finish high school. According to KidsHealth.org, students whose parents and families take an interest in their education get the message that their scholastic efforts are of value.

Every school looks for new and better ways to help parents catch the vision of being involved and invested in their school. If you feel like your school's parent engagement could be better, seek input from your staff and school community. What events would they like to see at the school?

As you engage parents, you build stronger relationships. The good times they have on your campuses translates to good will toward your school. Remember, as your school offers consistent events for parents (and grandparents too), it renews your school public relations and helps families feel connected to your school.

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2019-01-22 Do you ever feel like your school public relations plan is missing something? Take a look at your school-parent community partnership. How often do your students' families come to your school? Do they have reasons to look forward to their time on your campus?

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Seesaw | Elementary Learning Experience Platform

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Seesaw | Elementary Learning Experience Platform

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Elementary Learning Experience Platform | Seesaw

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Seesaw is a Learning Experience Platform with 25M+ users, enhancing elementary education, engagement, and school culture while improving academic success.

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With nearly 30 million users in 80% of US schools, the numbers speak for themselves: students, families, and educators love using Remind.

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Remind | Communication Platform for Education

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Remind is a communication platform that reaches students and families where they are and supports learning wherever it happens. Millions of educators, students, and parents use Remind to connect with the people and resources that help them teach and learn.

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Parent involvement continues to challenge practitioners engaged in school reform despite being a required component of many school improvement initiatives-from Title I Schoolwide Programs to federally mandated school improvement plans. The benefits of parent involvement are clear: A growing body of research shows that successful parent involvement improves not only student behavior and attendance but also positively affects student achievement. Yet many schools continue to struggle with defining and measuring meaningful parental involvement, and many don't feel that their efforts are successful. A recent survey of American teachers revealed that 20 percent of new teachers and nearly one fourth of principals identify their relationships with parents as a cause of significant stress in their jobs (MetLife, 2005).

In this article, we offer research-based advice and resources designed to help schools and districts foster successful parent involvement.

What is successful parent involvement?

Successful parent involvement can be defined as the active, ongoing participation of a parent or primary caregiver in the education of his or her child. Parents can demonstrate involvement at home-by reading with their children, helping with homework, and discussing school events-or at school, by attending functions or volunteering in classrooms. Schools with involved parents engage those parents, communicate with them regularly, and incorporate them into the learning process.

What are the barriers to successful parent involvement?

Schools often don't engage parents because they don't think they can. "A lot of it is perception. Teachers perceive that families don't want to be involved when, in fact, families don't know how to be involved," says Karen Salinas, communications director for the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University.

For their part, parents are sometimes hesitant to become involved in school because they don't have extra time or because they don't speak fluent English. But "the biggest problem is the disconnect between the school and the families," says Salinas. "Parents believe that they are not welcome. It comes in part from their own education history. They often have had a less-than-satisfactory experience with their own schooling, and so they don't feel like [being involved] is guaranteed to be a good experience."

Despite these communication barriers, both schools and parents want the relationship to improve, if only for the benefit of students. A 2003 analysis of more than 25 public opinion surveys by Public Agenda, a nonpartisan public opinion research organization, found that 65 percent of teachers say their students would do better in school if their parents were more involved, and 72 percent of parents feel that children whose parents are not involved sometimes "fall through the cracks" in school (Johnson & Duffett, 2003).

How do schools foster successful parent involvement?

Schools successful in engaging parents start by going beyond narrow definitions of involvement. They don't just count the number of parents who attend the spaghetti dinner or volunteer at the book fair. They don't focus on requirements such as having parents sign reports cards. Instead, they start with a belief that student success is a shared interest of both school and family, envision parents as partners in the learning process, and then identify concrete ways that partnership can be activated.

Improve Communication

Effective communication requires a two-way flow of information. While most schools develop efficient structures for getting information out-such as newsletters, Web sites, and press releases-far fewer develop similar structures to ensure that feedback from parents is actively solicited.

For some schools, improving communication involves technology such as e-mail messages and interactive phone systems. When Stonewall Jackson High School in Manassas, Virginia, implemented an interactive voicemail, for instance, the school saw parental attendance at freshmen orientation jump from 50 to 1,000 (Viadero, 1997). Parents can use the system, called ParentLink, to hear messages from teachers about what is happening in their children's classes and access their children's grades and attendance records.

Other schools try to view parent involvement through the parents' eyes. B.F. Day Elementary in Seattle, for example, holds parent meetings and workshops not at the school but in a Family Center that operates in the neighborhood where many of their bilingual families live.

Of course, the use of any strategy must be tailored to the school's population. If families don't have reliable access to the Internet, e-mail won't work. A phone message in English won't communicate much to parents who speak only Spanish. The bottom line for schools is to communicate using strategies that convey what is important in a way that can be heard by parents and families and invites them to respond.

Teach both parents and teachers

We know that one thing that keeps parents from being involved is their discomfort with schools. And that discomfort often stems from parents not knowing how to be involved. Schools with a commitment to parent involvement take an active role in helping parents learn a variety of ways to be involved. The benefits for students are proven: A recent review of parent involvement research found that parent-child reading activities produce a significant improvement in children's language and reading skills from preschool through high school (Sheldon & Epstein, 2005); another study finds a strong positive effect on student achievement when parents work with students on homework (Van Voorhis, 2003).

Many schools use workshops and other school-based programs to help parents learn about what goes on in classrooms. For example, Clara E. Westropp School in Cleveland, Ohio, held monthly family reading nights. Parents go to the elementary school and read with their children as well as speak with teachers about reading and reading strategies (Epstein & Salinas, 2004). Even traditional involvement strategies present teaching opportunities. Sending home a "weekly work folder" is one positive step, but providing parents with specific information about what to look for in the student work goes one step further in communicating what's important.

The National Network of Partnership Schools at Johns Hopkins University has designed a useful teacher-parent partnership process called Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork (TIPS). TIPS aims to forge a three-way relationship between teachers, parents, and their children through a creative approach to homework. Among its goals are encouraging parents and children to talk regularly about schoolwork, sharing ideas, gathering reactions, interviewing, or otherwise encouraging interaction between student and family members. TIPS also aims to keep assignments linked to real-life situations and "enable parents and teachers to frequently communicate about children's work, progress, and problems" (National Network of Partnership Schools, 2005). Some studies show secondary school homework assignments that require parent-student interaction predict higher levels of reading achievement (Sheldon & Epstein, 2005).

Many teachers report feeling unprepared to effectively involve parents. As a means of breaking down these barriers, teachers in the Sacramento, California, area have been trained since 1998 to participate in structured visits to their students' homes. The first visit focuses on establishing trust, while later trips give teachers and parents a chance to discuss ways in which parents can support students with the material they are learning in school. The schools involved in the program have seen a reduction in discipline problems and increases in attendance rates, and also are starting to see achievement gains.

Personalize

Successful parent-involvement programs typically develop in response to a specific need in the school or its community and are both focused and flexible in addressing that need. A strategy that works in one school might not be the best choice for another. For instance, while Sacajawea Elementary School in Seattle has established a Parent Mentor program in which parents are designated to contact other families to tell them about school activities, another school in the same city, High Point Elementary, began a program that allows parent volunteers to earn points toward rewards such as computers and other educational materials. Both programs have been recognized for dramatically increasing parent involvement.

Successful parent-school partnerships are not stand-alone, add-on programs. Instead, they are well integrated with the school's overall mission. Typically, quality programs are developed in collaboration with parents and reflect their needs and interests. Offering child care, translators, and multiple opportunities to hear information go a long way toward expressing a school's genuine interest in parent input.

Conclusion

Parents are the most important partner in a child's education and schools can reap large dividends by capitalizing on their support. To be sure, such relationships require a lot of work by both educators and parents. Although success will not come easy, the rewards are too great for a school not to try.

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Parent involvement continues to challenge practitioners engaged in school reform despite being a required component of many school improvement initiatives-from Title I Schoolwide Programs to federally mandated school improvement plans. The benefits of parent involvement are clear: A growing body of research shows that successful parent involvement improves not only student behavior and attendance but also positively affects student achievement.

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3 Tips for Increasing Parental Engagement at School

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3 Tips for Increasing Parental Engagement at School

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It's September and schools are back in session! For educators, it is that magical time of year when anything seems possible. You're refreshed and ready to make this year the best ever. You want all your students to have a successful year! And you know that a key component to any educational program is parental engagement, especially for children with special needs. But with the demands of today's parents, getting appropriate parental engagement can be a challenge, and this is compounded for the parents of children with special needs.

Before we discuss ways to encourage parental engagement, let's first look at what we mean by parental engagement. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) defines parental engagement in schools as parents and school staff working together to support and improve the learning, development, and health of children and adolescents. Schools and parents have the responsibility for educating our children (retrieved from CDC)

There are many benefits to parental engagement across the board, but particularly for students with special needs including:

Increased parental involvement and collaboration in the development of their child's Individualized Educational Program (IEP)

Greater confidence and ability on the part of the parent to educate their own child

Better understanding on the part of the educator as to the special needs of each student

Higher student success due to the generalization of skills and consistency between home and school

Unfortunately, barriers to parental engagement do exist. Some of these barriers are due to: cultural or language differences, special education law that can be difficult to understand, lack of time, past negative experiences, and lack of training on the part of the educator to effectively facilitate engagement.
What can you do to eliminate the barriers and make it easier for parents to engage? Here are three keys to increasing parental engagement. Treat Parents as Partners.
Do you respect the role the parent has in the education of their child with special needs? Do you actively invite parents to meet ahead of the IEP to set goals together? Do you accommodate their schedules and consider their cultural contributions or differences? Do you think about how to improve parent participation in the decision-making process? These are just a few questions that can help you think about parents as partners in their child's education.

Here are a few ways to help your parents' partner with you:

Consider your message before the IEP happens. Did you invite them to listen to you and others tell them about their child or did you invite them to participatein the meeting and share their knowledge of their child?

Wait for the parents outside the meeting room prior to the IEP and walk in together as a team. That will be much less intimidating for the parents than walking into a room full of "experts" sitting and staring.

Understand that some cultures interact with educators and other school professionals differently. A parent may be agreeing with the proposed goals because they want to be polite and respectful.

Invite parents to ask questions and give them a platform to suggest goals they have for their child.

Take time toeducate the parents. Explain any special education jargon, provide them with resources, and connect them with other support programs such as translation services, if needed.

Let the parents know you are genuinely interested in what they have to say.

Create tool kits that provide parents with activities and resources to extend the learning into the home. The tool kits may also include tips and strategies for teaching their child or websites they can go to for additional activities or information.

Work with the parents to set realistic parent participation goals. They are the parent, not the teacher. Remember, the goal is quality, not quantity of involvement.

Create an Effective Communication System.
The goal of an effective communication system is to bridge the gap between home and school by providing a way to share concerns, successes, behavioral challenges, stressors, and changes.

There are many ways to implement such a system. Choose the method that is simple and works best for you and the parent. The easier the system, the more it will be used. And again, remember, quality of communication is more important than the quantity of communication.

Here are some suggestions:

Connect at the beginning of the year and ask parents what information they want. Perhaps you can come up with a checklist together, that's easy to use and sends home meaningful information. The same goes the other way too. For example, create a checklist for things you want to know from home such as changes in sleep patterns, nutrition, or family relations.

Use a notebook that goes back and forth from home to school in the child's backpack. You can report IEP progress or write anecdotes about the child's day, etc. and the parent can write back questions or concerns. This can happen on a daily basis.

Many teachers use texts or email to communicate (check with the parents first for the most preferred method). They may find this less intrusive and intimidating than a phone call and allows the parents to think and respond on their schedule. If a phone call is necessary, perhaps send a text to say, "Can we set up a time to chat on the phone?" This allows the parent to choose a time that works for them.

Schedule home visits, if appropriate. This may help parents who lack transportation or have other circumstances that keep them from coming to school.

Create a Welcoming Climate.
Welcome your parents into your classroom in many ways and for many purposes. The more you know your parents, the easier it is to work with them as partners. Inviting parents into your classroom also provides an opportunity for family networking, bringing families together with other parents to share resources, empathy, and support.

Some ways to help parents to feel welcome in the classroom include:

Volunteering for special events and holiday parties, field trips, family and friends' breakfasts, guest speakers, photo shares, parent presentations, etc.

Providing ways for parents to volunteer without having to come into the classroom, such as organizing and preparing materials that require cutting, collating, or stapling.

Volunteering to read to or with students or provide one-on-one assistance to students in the library or media center.

Inviting parents to attend presentations or view displays by the students or to school assemblies when appropriate.

So, as you set up for another successful school year, I encourage you to think about your parents as partners. You are the educator! You're good at it! But reaching out to your students' parents as partners will help you help your students and make your job a little bit easier!

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3 Tips for Increasing Parental Engagement This School Year

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It's September and schools are back in session! For educators, it is that magical time of year when anything seems possible. You're refreshed and ready to make this year the best ever. You want all your students to have a successful year!

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How to Solve the Parent Engagement Problem

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How to Solve the Parent Engagement Problem

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Commentary

Parents should be treated as full partners in their children's education, not taken for granted

Editor's Note: This Commentary is part of a special report exploring game-changing trends and innovations that have the potential to shake up the schoolhouse.
Read the full report: 10 Big Ideas in Education.

When I think about families and schools, I think about my own mother. She was a single mom who exhausted her resources to supplement the public school education I was getting in East St. Louis, Ill., which she knew was mediocre compared with the one my more affluent peers were receiving just six miles down the road.

My mom was always my champion, fighting for me and my future at every parent-teacher conference and stitching together a patchwork community of friends, neighbors, coaches, and mentors to help guide me. They were a constant presence along my path from East St. Louis Senior High to Jackson State, Columbia, and Harvard Universities.

After graduating from high school and entering college, I promised to be the same advocate my mother and mentors were to me for other children whose families were counting on schools to open doors of opportunity but who often found themselves getting lost along the way. Following Hurricane Katrina, I moved to New Orleans in 2005, where I helped my cousins cope with the tremendous strain of their work as police officers in a traumatized city. There, I saw myself in the faces of a generation of students and parents facing even steeper challenges. I became a teacher and eventually a school administrator.

Over the course of a decade, I saw how the moms and dads of my students could become transformational advocates for their children when empowered with the right resources and knowledge. As an educator, I know firsthand the challenges dedicated teachers and principals can have trying to engage busy families and how little support families typically get even when they are trying to be involved, even when their schools are fully committed to it.

Background: Getting Parents Involved in Education

Giving busy parents an ally is exactly what I do now at EdNavigator, a nonprofit organization that helps working families find and stay on the path to a great education. As the navigator-in-chief, I oversee teams of "navigators" in New Orleans and Boston who serve as personal education advisers for parents and caregivers. Navigators work one-on-one with each of them to answer questions, offer advice, and help solve a thousand different problems. On any given day, you may find a navigator helping a parent find the right school for his or her child, decipher a set of test results, create a plan for college, or set up a home routine that supports learning.

The navigator's job is to understand each family's education goals and ensure that they reach them. We strive to be an enduring presence in their lives, as familiar and trusted as their child's pediatrician.

What makes all this work is a critical and underutilized resource: local employers. EdNavigator partners with committed businesses-global and local. These employers provide support for our service as a benefit to employees. They contribute to the cost of the service and, just as importantly, open their doors for our navigators to meet with their employees in-person where these parents are: at work.

It's a structure designed to benefit everyone involved. Busy families get expert advice and hands-on educational support, without having to go one step out of their way. Employers get more focused and engaged employees who are more likely to stay in their jobs. And students with so much riding on their education get a better chance of achieving their dreams.

Today, more than 2,000 families in New Orleans and Boston have sponsored access to EdNavigator through their employer. The people we support occupy many different roles, including housekeepers, building engineers, machine-shop workers, security officers, veterinary assistants, and chefs, among others. Like my own mom, they all want the best for their children and will do extraordinary things to achieve that goal. All they need is a little help along the way.

If we want to keep more students on the path to success in school and beyond, it's time for us to stop expecting families to engage without showing them how. It's time for teachers and families to come to the table more frequently, more openly, and on more equal terms. It's time for parents to be treated as full partners in their children's education, not taken for granted or pushed aside. And it's time for more businesses to recognize that their success is intertwined with the success of their employees, communities, and local schools, and step up for working families.

I've seen how willing families are to be engaged and do their part, and I've seen how game-changing involved parents can be. But sometimes they need help getting there. They shouldn't have to manage this terrain alone, like my mom so often did.

Background

Improving parental involvement and community engagement are two goals that school districts often set and even include as part of how state or federal governments judge their performance. But there is often a breakdown on how to make that happen, as parents and the surrounding business community can be busy or unsure of how to help improve the school system.

To add to the challenge, there's conflicting research on the impact of parental involvement. Some studies have found that parental help with children's homework doesn't improve academic outcomes, while others have shown that once parents understand the help their children need, academic test scores, grades, and behavior improve.

The sweet spot, research suggests, is customizing programs to best meet parents where they are-something the nonprofit EdNavigator does, literally. Launched in 2015 in New Orleans and expanding to Boston this month, EdNavigator relies on the private sector to help parents understand how to deal with school systems and keep their children on track. As of December 2017, the nonprofit was partnered with 17 New Orleans employers, dispatching its paid counselors, or "navigators," to participating local businesses that sponsor its support as an employee benefit. At year's end, about 350 parents and adult learners were consulting with navigators on a regular basis.

With the program's expansion in 2018, more than 2,000 employees in New Orleans and Boston will be eligible to use their services at any time. The cost of the program to parents is usually covered by their employers with the hope that it will result in better work focus and retention.

The majority of parents using EdNavigator are lower-wage workers, who may struggle with working multiple jobs, be single parents, and face language barriers. All parents at participating organizations, as well as employees seeking to continue their education, are eligible to use the nonprofit's services.

Timothy Daly, the former president of the New Teacher Project, is one of the co-founders of EdNavigator. In an interview with Education Week last fall, he said, "There's a huge misconception that the reason parents aren't more involved in their child's education [is] because they don't care, it's that they have to work for a living, often more than one job, or with inflexible hours to be at school for meeting during the day. Our goal is to find ways to empower parents amid those demands."

Nicole Ellzey was one of the first parents to sign up for EdNavigator's program. A manager of housekeepers at the International House Hotel in New Orleans, Ellzey calls her navigator Gary Briggs a personal miracle worker. Together, she and Briggs have worked on goals-both short- and long-term-for her sons. Briggs has picked her older son up from school, arranged for tutoring, and intervened in a meeting with a teacher to figure out concrete steps for supporting him academically. For Ellzey, there's been no doubt that having a navigator has been a help to her family: "I now know what to ask for and how to ask for it," she said. "For 10 minutes of Gary's time, it's become a lifetime of knowledge for my kids."

Related Video
Parents who earn $75,000 a year are more likely than parents at the low end of the income scale to volunteer in school, attend school meetings, or move so that their children can attend a better school, according to data gathered by Education Week:
Published in Print: January 10, 2018, as Parent Engagement

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How to Solve the Parent-Engagement Problem

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Commentary Editor's Note: This Commentary is part of a special report exploring game-changing trends and innovations that have the potential to shake up the schoolhouse. Read the full report: 10 Big Ideas in Education. When I think about families and schools, I think about my own mother.

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Parental Involvement in Schools
The importance of parental involvement in schools is well documented. Over 30 years of research shows that one of the most effective ways to increase student achievement is for parents to be actively involved in the education of their children. A 2002 National Education Service study indicates that when parents are involved, students tend to achieve more, regardless of socio-economic status, ethnic/racial background or parents' educational level.

Given the research, it is advisable for education systems to promote and support parental and family involvement and invest in activities and strategies that foster parent and school collaboration. There is, however, some hesitation associated with allocating resources to promote parental involvement in schools. Both school personnel and parents struggle with the "how tos" of getting more parents involved.
Barriers to Parental Involvement in Schools
According to Family Support America there are common barriers associated with increasing parental involvement in schools and community programs. The four common barriers are:

1. Attitudes - Staff do not feel comfortable talking about issues in front of families. Families don't trust staff. Staff think families are too overwhelmed to participate. Staff aren't willing to accept families as equal partners. Families think they have nothing to contribute. Staff think that families will violate client confidentiality.

2. Logistics - Schools and programs can't pay for childcare. Transportation is unavailable for families to get to meetings. Meetings are held only during working hours - or at times inconvenient for parents. Families aren't reimbursed for the time they take off of work to attend meetings.

3. System barriers - No systems are in place for paying parent leaders for their time and contributions. Staff time can only be paid during regular working hours. Resources supporting parent and family involvement are lacking.

4. Lack of skills - Families have never participated in (school-type) meetings/committees. Families are unaware of applicable procedures and policies. Staff aren't ready to work with families in new ways. Information about the roles of families and staff is lacking.

There is growing recognition that support is needed to address challenges and barriers associated with increasing parental involvement in schools. The National Center for School Engagement offers local schools and districts information and materials to expand parent and family engagement. School districts are encouraged to think of parental involvement in broader terms. There are models that can help schools reshape how they look at parent and family involvement such as Epstein's Framework of Parent Involvement. It is based on six types of parent involvement identified by Joyce Epstein from the Center on School, Family and Community Partnerships.
Epstein's Framework of How Parents Can Become More Involved in Schools includes:

1. Parenting - parenting skills are promoted and supported.

2. Communication - communication between home and school is regular, two-way, and meaningful.

3. Volunteering - parents are welcome in the school, and their support and assistance are sought.

4. Learning at Home - help parents understand the educational process and their role in supporting student achievement. Parents play an integral role in assisting student learning.

5. School Decision-Making and Advocacy - parents are full partners in the decisions that affect children and families. The intent is to give parents voice in decisions that affect their children's education.

6. Collaboration with the Community - community resources are used to strengthen schools, families, and student learning.

NCSE can provide technical assistance and program evaluation to increase parent engagement in school. Please email us at info@schoolengagement.org for assistance!

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Parental Involvement in Schools The importance of parental involvement in schools is well documented. Over 30 years of research shows that one of the most effective ways to increase student achievement is for parents to be actively involved in the education of their children.