The+Lack+of+Parent+Involvement+Contributes+to+Lower+Success+Rates

media type="youtube" key="nOhZ6U5yaXA" width="560" height="315" align="center"


 * Overview **

“If there is one thing educators can agree on, it’s this: children do better in school when their parents get involved in their learning.” – William J. Bennett

Parental involvement is vital to a student’s success in education. Parents play an important role that no one can fill, but them. Students come to school to learn, but true learning happens at home with their parents. Because of the parents, students are taught the fundamentals that they need as a basis of instruction such as cleaning their rooms and discipline. If a child is asked to clean their room, and it has been modeled a certain way by their parents, then they know exactly what their parents expect of them when they need to clean their room. In the classroom, when students are asked to work in groups or complete an assignment, after it has been modeled by the teacher, the students know what the teacher expects of them, and they should engage in what has been asked of them because of the proper instruction and discipline of their parents at home. The way students treat their parents may transfer into the way the students treat their teachers. This is important especially when teachers are establishing rules and guidelines for their classrooms and instruction. Therefore, the parents play an important role in their student’s success in education.

Parental involvement traditionally is when the parents take their children to and from school, events, and help with homework. The National Center for Education Statistics’ Parent and Family Involvement in Education Survey for the 2007 National Household Education Surveys Program (Herrold and O’Donnell, 2008) included these conclusions from parent responses:
 * • “78 percent attended a parent-teacher conference;
 * • 74 percent attended a class or school event;
 * • 65 percent participated in school fundraising;
 * • 86 percent said they had received information about the parents’ expected role at the student’s school;
 * • 89 percent of those interviewed from January-May 2007 said they had attended at least one school or PTO/PTA meeting since the start of the school year.”

The participants of the national survey were parents of students at the K-8 level. Although the statistics favor parent involvement, parents are most likely to attend school meetings and events at least once when their children are in primary school, meaning elementary and middle school age. This is because parents have to make sure that their children are getting a great start in their educational careers. Parents also attend more meetings in primary schooling because of the age group of their children. Very similar to the Gradual Release of Responsibility, at the start of students’ educational careers, the parents have to help the students more and as they grow, then they eventually begin to release the responsibility of their education and success to the child. This shows that the parental involvement overall must be fully supported in the beginning of a student’s education for him to maintain the modeling of accountability and success rate.

= = == = = = =

=** Trend or Issue **=

Imagine being the student that has a great relationship with your teacher, but not your parents. Your grades are the best they have ever been and you feel like you are having your best year yet. Then, when it is time for parents to bring supplies in, you, as the student, cannot because your parents do not have internet to read the emails sent home from the school weekly. When it is time to get your report card signed for extra credit points, you do not receive them because your parents lost your report card and does not show the gratitude for your grades as you do. Finally, it is Awards Night. The big night where only the students invited get to attend because of their dedication and scholarship throughout the entire school, but you do not attend because your grades had begun to drop after finding out that grades does not matter to your parents, so why should they matter to you? However, you would love to have been at Awards Night with your friends, but you do not have that motivation from home to do better or to overcome, so that you can succeed. This is one example of many scenarios of how students’ success rates decline over time.

It is important that students have their parents’ support to fully succeed in the classroom. Today, parental involvement runs much deeper than the surface. According to Ponikvar (2006), “Epstein outlines six types of involvement which she believes help create the best school-family-community partnerships: (1) parenting, (2) communicating, (3) volunteering, (4) learning at home, (5) decision making, and (6) collaborating with the community.” Each of the types of involvement results in positive outcomes for students, parents, and teachers. Therefore, anyone that is capable of having a child can be a parent. However, it takes more than just being a parent to help students become and remain successful. Parents and teachers can maintain an open line of communication to promote their students’ success. “For example, while communication with teachers help parents better identify their student’s progress and problems, it also benefits teachers by creating further understanding of student’s home life and family values that may help in the teaching process” (Ponikvar). This type of relationship helps with lesson planning, discipline plans, teacher delivery, and the teaching style. When teachers have a relationship with the parents and students, they are able to incorporate what is best for that specific student, group, or class.

The role and responsibility of teachers has evolved into classroom parenting due to the lack of parenting at home. Today, students look to teachers for more than learning for their academic success in education. They look to teachers for someone to talk to and trust. Many students need extra help, other than just tutoring. They want their feelings and successes to be validated, so that they know someone cares about them. This builds the teacher-student relationship that bonds the two together. “ When teachers form positive bonds with students, classrooms become supportive spaces in which students can engage in academically and socially productive ways” (Hamre & Pianta, 2001). These positive bonds helps students feel more comfortable in accepting academic challenges within the classroom.

Issues that cause parents to not be involved are: lack of time, feelings of inadequacy, and overstepping their bounds. According to the article, “Minimal Parental Involvement,” a possible reason parents are not involved in their students’ lives because of the “lack of time. Working parents are often unable to attend school events during the day.” Today, both parents are typically working so that they can provide for their families and their households. Therefore, when it comes to helping with homework or any extracurricular activity, parents may be too tired or do not have the time to participate. Another possible reason parents are not involved is because the feel inadequate. “For many parents, school was not a positive experience. They may feel they do not possess the skills to help.” Parents may feel that they do not know the curriculum and that it is the teacher’s job to teach, and they are to just see results. However, students can use the time at home to practice what they have learned in school at home to conceptually understand the standards. Parents may also feel that they are “overstepping their bounds. Confident parents may feel they should not interfere with the school’s business” (Dwyer, 1992). When parents do not interfere with the school’s business is when students can get away with things such as not reading at night and doing their homework. Parents have to be involved in their students’ academics to confirm their child’s academic success.

“At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child’s success is the positive involvement of parents.” – Jane D. Hull. This quote is meaningful because positive parental involvement helps push students in the right direction. However, if there is no parental involvement at all, then students are not as intrinsically motivated to learn and challenge themselves to reach their academic goals unless they have a mentor or teacher-student relationship that encourages to find what motivates them so that they can conquer any obstacle before. With parental involvement, students can reach higher heights and soar the peaks of their academic success. Without parental involvement, the students have to work harder to stay motivated and reach for the goals to contribute to their success rate.

To read a proposal focused on this wiki's topic, please download this document:

=** Bibliography **=

Dervarics, C., & O'Brien, E. (2011, August 30). Back to school: How parent involvement affects student achievement. Retrieved May 25, 2017, from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Public-education/Parent-Involvement/Parent-Involvement.html Dervarics highlights the six types of parental involvement outlined by Joyce Epstein: parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and community collaboration. Parents can become involved in their child's education in these six ways. Statistically proven, involved parents have children with better academic success.

Desforges, C., & Abouchaar, A. (2003). The Impact of Parental Involvement, Parental Support, and Family Education on Pupil Achievements and Adjustments: A Literature Review. 1- 100. Retrieved May 17, 2017, from http://good-id-in-schools.eu/sites/default/files/sof_migrated_files/sof_files/impactparentalinvolvment.pdf Desforges and Abouchaar explains that parenting starts at home. With the discipline instilled within the students, students treat the teachers the same way they treat their parents. Parent involvement influences the positive concepts of a child's perspective of education. This positive concept can improve academic success.

Dwyer, D., & Hecht, J. (1992). Minimal Parental Involvement. Retrieved May 28, 2017, from [] Dwyer and Hecht explains why students' parents are not involved. The authors also include possible solutions for students with parents that are not involved in their academic success.

Hamre, B. K., & Pianta, R. C. (2001). Early teacher–child relationships and the trajectory of children’s school outcomes through eighth grade. Child Development, 72(2), 625-638. Hamre and Pianta expound upon how building bonds with the students help bridge the gap of the lack of parental involvement.

Parental Involvement in Schools. (n.d.). Retrieved May 24, 2017, from https://www.childtrends.org/indicators/parental-involvement-in-schools/ This article states that students with involved parents perform better and have less behavioral problems. The article include statistics of parental involvement with race, grade, poverty levels, and compare the state and local estimates.

Ponikvar, G. (2006). Parental Involvement and Student Achievement. 1-5. Retrieved May 17, 2017, from http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/bureau/research/Publications/Task%20Forces/Legislative%20Task%20Force%20on%20Higher%20Education%20Remediation,%20Retention,%20and%20Graduation%20Rates/Task%20Force%20Meetings/January%2017,%202008/Dr.%20D%20Marzoni%20-%20Parental%20Involvement(Handout).pdf Ponikvar details the types of parental involvement and which types of involvement helps students the most. He concludes that parents and teachers should be allies. There should be an open line of communication between parents and teachers. Teachers have to make parents feel comfortable with communicating with their student's teacher which promotes students' success.