Blog 10: Parent Involvement

Beyond the Bake Sale

I thought this was a great article for many reasons. I think it was important to look into what truly might be affecting parent involvement in schools and how much can it truly affect student achievement. I like what was chosen to be focused on- I think they are key aspects of what goes on with parents: “(1) an emphasis on relationship building among parents and between parents and educators, (2) a focus on the leadership development of parents, and (3) an effort to bridge the gap in culture and power between parents and educators. We contrast this community-based approach with more traditional, school-centric, and individualistic approaches to parent involvement.” I think that many people believe the issues exist between students and their parents, but I think the true issues are between parents and educators. Learning to work together and do what's best for the students (because that is, after all, the reason these people are even communicating to begin with). I would hope that all educators are interested in helping parents become more involved and take advantage of what can be learned from this study: “First, educators can benefit from taking a patient approach, building relationships over time. Second, schools may not be able to do parent engagement work alone; they can profit from the social capital expertise of community-based organizations. Finally, educators would benefit from understanding that communities bring different needs, aspirations, and desires to their children’s education. If educators collaborate with community partners and help to develop parent leadership, they can form initiatives that meet the interests, values, and capacities of any particular school community.” I think that having the specific cases can help us as educators to truly realize the simple things we can do to increase parent involvement. I like that “Camino Nuevo offers parents the opportunities to take paid positions that use their growing body of skills and knowledge. Parents are hired as paraprofessionals to work in the cafeteria, in the office, and as classroom aides.” I know that my mother worked in the office at my elementary school and also did some substitute teaching. It was something that I enjoyed her doing.

Urban Education

An aspect of parent involvement that we have been starting to pay much attention to is the fact that students want to be involved but encounter several issues that prevent them from being fully engaged. I can imagine how frustrating that might be. I always knew that parents would react to their children's education in similar ways to how they dealt with education when they themselves were in school, but I don't think I realized how big a role this actually played: “Parents’ educational histories powerfully shaped their aspirations and beliefs about their role. Most spoke bitterly of their lack of educational opportunity, in part due to parents who were obstacles or absent parties in their education.” I think it would be really hard as a parent to want to be involved in something that, from their personal experiences, could be impossible to achieve at. Educators need to help these parents especially realize they can do more and gain more by being active in their child's education.

On a side note, I was very interested in the cues that parents were taking from their children, and how this would affect most of their educational careers: “Across the sample, parents took their cue from their children’s invitations for involvement, that is, students’ academic performance, motivation, responsibility, and requests. The Supporters’ view of their children’s high academic ability and motivation reinforced their predisposition to be more hands off and to depend on students to navigate their own college pathways. The Advocates saw their academically borderline children as “needing that extra push” and thus took more hands-on, proactive steps. The Companions waited for their daughters to assert aspirations or ask for help rather than impose parental goals or initiate help.” For me personally, I never had too much trouble in school. I remember being proactive about asking for help when I needed it. It wasn't always accessible at home though. My brother was very smart and never needed help with anything academic, but there would be times when I would try to ask for help and my parents wouldn't be able to, because they were not used to having to help. I know if my child needed help with homework and I was unable to provide the needed help, I would be upset and somewhat embarrassed. This could be something that happens to students regularly. Their parents may want nothing to do with the homework that they don't understand, and now that student is on his or her own for that assignment. But instead of trying to find out why a student is not doing his or her homework, we give bad grades for incomplete assignments. Helping parents to not feel so separated from their child's education could make a world of a difference.