Title: Getting Parents Involved in Schools | Reading Rockets
Headings: Getting Parents Involved in Schools
Getting Parents Involved in Schools
What is successful parent involvement?
What are the barriers to successful parent involvement?
How do schools foster successful parent involvement?
Improve Communication
Resources
Teach both parents and teachers
Resources
Personalize
Resources
Conclusion
Reprints

Content: 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. Back to Top
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. "