Family Involvement In School

SUMMARY OF ARTICLE:

This article discussed family involvement with schools and addresses the argument that schools must get parents or guardians to participate in on school events or open houses to “contribute to student learning.” The authors analyzed forty-one parent involvement programs and found that general involvement within the school by a parent does not improve student achievement. Therefore, their research led them to the question, “So what does?” In response to their analysis, the authors reviewed eighty studies on parental involvement in schools, preschool through high school, and determined that three family involvement approaches increased student achievement when the approaches “connected with academic learning.” Consequently,

In this way, the authors are guiding teachers into meaningful activities that will develop a mutual respect among the teachers, students, and their families. The authors’ second approach identifies “engaging families in supporting learning at home.” The authors suggest reading journals between the teacher and the family that encourage the family to help their student to learn to read and write. In these journals, the family would describe the activities done at home and the teacher would provide feedback and guidance. The article makes it clear that these journals should focus on academic and not any behavioral or discipline issues. The authors’ final recommendation involves “addressing cultural differences.” The article mentions multiple ways that the teacher could connect with students and their families, including; sharing maps of their neighborhoods and discussing their daily routines, reading cultural text that relate to their setting, and sharing photographs and artifacts. With this plan, the authors are encouraging the teacher to embrace different cultures within the classroom and build learning experiences that will bridge the gap between student

The school held open houses, with and without offering food, which failed to bring families into the school. In three years of open houses, I had eleven parents visit my classroom. Considering I had approximately four hundred and fifty students on my roster over that time span, eleven visits meant the open houses were a complete failure. With this experience in mind, I appreciate the examples the authors presented to involve families in the learning process without having to set foot in the school. To bring parents to school for a tour seemed meaningless and based on the authors’ analysis of research they confirm my