Title: Introduction: The Teacher as Everyday Advocate
Headings: Introduction: The Teacher as Everyday Advocate
Everyday Engagement
Introduction: The Teacher as Everyday Advocate
Finding a New Solution to a Familiar Challenge
Meaningful Engagement
Being the Difference, Being the Advocate
Requesting Permission

Content: There was plenty of information available. Since the 1970s, researchers have been documenting the power of home-school connections to enhance student success. School and parent partnerships are associated with higher levels of achievement measured through standardized test scores and with gains in factual, conceptual, critical, and attitudinal aspects of learning (Eccles & Harold, 1993). When parents are involved in their children's education, children may acquire skills and knowledge beyond those they would achieve through school experiences alone (Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1995). Even as I continued my reading, I delved into some firsthand research by joining the Parent Leadership Network, which meant committing to three weekend training sessions over the course of three months. My fellow trainees and I met with our children's principals and discussed their concerns about parent involvement at the school and particular issues within the school—academic and otherwise. We went on to create project plans that addressed these concerns and made use of both the schools' resources and our personal skill sets. Guided by the Parent Leadership Network staff, I began to get a clearer sense of the overlap between the elements of successful parent partnership and successful teaching practice. I also realized what parent involvement in schooling could mean for children. Henderson and Berla (1994) tell us that parent partnership benefits students in the following ways: