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: 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. Resources
Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork (TIPS) Web site offers information on interactive homework. The Parent-Teacher Home Visit Project in Sacramento tells how its vision led to statewide changes. Back to Top
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.