Improving Parental Involvement in Children's Education

Hi Courtney: I agree that the current model of parental involvement does not engage parents into meaningful involvement.  As a result, parents are not encouaged or motivated to become involved. The culture and mechanisms to facilitate parental involvement are ineffective. In my study of parental involvement in education. I came across a profound statement: the decision to become involved in the education of their children is not ad hoc. It is a deliberate choice based on a number of factors: sense of responsibility, the role of the school and teachers and the life context of the parents.  I believe if we are to experience a difference in parental involvement practises, we have to understand the factors that motivate/encourage parents to become involve. I also believe that a paradigm shift in how we view/perceive and define the role of parents is required if  is to be a transformation of the home-school relationship. Until then, it will be business as usual.Can we afford that?

Parent's certainly want to be involved in their children's education. The truth is many do not know how to be.And for those who have a sense, like Courney, of what how they want to be involved, there are few mechanisms to support their vision of how it should be. When all this is wrapped up in a polcy environment which appears almost hostile to parents at times, we have a serious case of parent disengagement from school - but not from their children. It is important that this distinction be made, as we often think of parental involvment in school as equivalent to their involvment in their child's education.  Parents are involved  with their children in the ways they know and understand. If we look at the data from the Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions, family expenditure on children's education is a significant part of household consumption and a large majority of children have all their books and are sent to school frequently. Look in the hallways of primary schools at the beginning every school year; parents trying register their children for the 'good school'. Many parents may not have the skills and confidencce to supervise hoework or the resources to provide the internet and extra books, but they want their children to do well and demonstrate that by seeking out the best schcools available to them and making the considerable financial investment to send them to school as well suited and as often as they can. It may not seem like much to those of us who have come to expect far more of parents, but they are doing what they know how to do.  I belive that the challnege is to create an environment both at the school level and at the policy level where parents are supported, educated and encouraged. 

Does a lack of involvement with the school equate to a lack of involvement in a child's education? Do we really fully understand what kind of involvement in a childs' education really contributes to success? Can many of our parents offers the 'kind of involvement' required for success? I know there are studies that have shown a positive relationship between parental involvement and educational success but I don't know how parental involvement has been measured. More importantly, I wonder whether those measurements such as involvement in PTAs are really proxy measurements for something more fundamental such as parental resources both physical, emotional and intellectual. Also, have there been any studies to look at whether parental involvement iin the school leads to better school/teacher attitudes toward the child of the involved parent?