Living in the fast paced world of today, many parents and guardians are working professionals and are finding it hard to maintain work life, their life and be heavily involved in their child’s educational life. Parents are too busy providing a home life for their families that they seem to unconsciously rest the responsibilities of their child’s academia life on the shoulders of the school personnel. Many parents may be unaware of what Parental Involvement (PI) really means and what it truly entails.
As a former high school educator, I have witnessed firsthand a broad spectrum of parental involvement. From a few parents being highly cognizant and overly involved in their child’s education to parents that showed the ghost effect and were always a “no show” while other parents fell somewhere in between the PI spectrum. Parental Involvement consists of more than parents showing up for teacher conferences or attending social activities. PI is comprised of a true partnership between a student’s home and school life. According to a University of Washington professor, Margery B. Ginsberg, PhD; she states, “ For true partnership, parents and teachers must develop opportunities for two-way communication…the more we understand about parental involvement…the more we improve student learning (2012).”
In my years of teaching high school where there was an array of students from different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds the one thing that became most prevalent was the missing link of Parental Involvement. It was easy to notice a profound number of students whose parents were engaged in their education because the students showed better attendance, were self-motivators and always accelerated the highest in and out of the classroom.
In order to allow students to be fully effective on any level of their academic life, parental involvement is the most important and provides the missing link to the student’s overall success.
Reference:
Ginsberg, PhD., M. B. (2012, July 19). Parent Involvement: A Two-Way Partnership with Schools|Roots of Action. Retrieved from https://www.rootsofaction.com/parent-involvement-a-two-way-partnership-with-schools/
As a former high school educator as well, I have definitely seen firsthand the missing link you are talking about. Unfortunately, many students have single parents raising them or are being raised by a grandparent, guardian, or by the foster care system. In these cases, some students still go on to be self-motivated and successful. What factors do you think contribute to their success?
Thanks Shanon for your reply!
A major factor that contributes to those self-motivated students living in single parents homes, etc. would be that they may have other influences or influencers that may contribute to their will to succeed., i.e., teachers, coaches, other family members, etc. Some students are more mentally aware than others of their home life or living environment and possess a greater wish to dare to be different in their future from what they may have experienced.
Latoya, this is a very timely piece in light of the recent school closures. I see this parental divide often as a High School educator. Hopefully, during this “stay home” movement, parents can begin to forge these much-needed relationships with their children that can, in turn, improve student achievement.
Thanks for your reply Samantha!
Yes, I do agree with you in terms of parents utilizing this “stay home” movement to bond with their children more in support of their academic achievement. Hopefully, parents will see the various amount of rigorous work teachers put in on a daily basis to educate their children.
This is great Latoya! I do worry about students home with parents in a less than ideal environment. Similar to what Crystal posted, SEL is very important during this time!
Great blog, Latoya!
Yes, we need more parent involvement. Unfortunately, there is such a drop-off in parent involvement as a student goes up in grade level. Furthermore, as you stated, there is a direct correlation in student achievement when the parent is involved. The high school I work at, we have tried numerous types of ways to get parents involved, yet ut’s the same few parents who show up. Hopefully, as a result of our virtual instructional continuity and quarantine, we will have more parents who want to stay involved and be more active at the school. One can only hope.
~Crystal