Summary
Parent engagement in schools is designed to encourage parents and educators to work together in order to support and improve students’ learning, health, and general development. Although there may be considerable barriers to families’ involvement in school activities and the educational process, educators undertake all efforts to improve parent engagement. When parents and the community from where the students come from are engaged in supporting their education, children’s performance, education goal achievement, and general development are positively affected. In this paper, parent engagement and actions that should be taken for its improvement are discussed on the basis of Vick Elementary School meetings and parental involvement agenda.
General Background
Parent engagement may be regarded as the involvement of students’ parents in the learning process and school activities on the basis of cooperation with school staff. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2018), “Parent engagement in schools is a shared responsibility in which schools and other community agencies and organizations are committed to reaching out to engage parents in meaningful ways, and parents are committed to actively supporting their children’s and adolescents’ learning and development” (para. 1). At the same time, parent engagement may be viewed from a broader perspective as family engagement, which presupposes the involvement of other family members, including grandparents and adult siblings, along with guardians and foster parents if biological ones are absent.
As a two-way process that starts from early childhood education and persists through high school, successful parent engagement is based on cultural competence and responsiveness, mutual respect, and rational trust between all participants. According to The Global Family Research Project, systemic family engagement and educator professional development are core elements of educational goal achievements (Woolf, n.d.). In turn, focusing on parent engagement, educators and school leaders should create sustainable and ongoing relationships, consider family well-being, and support parents’ involvement in school activities and educational processes for children’s school readiness, academic progress, and general well-being.
Types of Family or Parent Engagement
As parent engagement has multiple advantages, including students’ regular attendance, higher grades, improved social skills, and motivation, schools should consider the involvement of parents and family members in the education process within the framework of their teaching strategies. At the same time, the encouragement of parents’ participation in education may be challenging – that is why six major categories of family engagement were developed by Joyce Epstein, an education expert and a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Education, to facilitate and guide schools’ efforts (Walden University, n.d.). They include the following:
- Parenting (provision of a healthy environment at home, involvement and engagement, interest in children’s education and special needs) – it may be established and improved through support programs and parenting workshops;
- Communicating – it may be established on the basis of various communication tools, including newsletters, communication folders, social media, apps, and tools, including updates, pictures, notes, reminders, Class Tag, Remind, Talking Points, Seesaw, and School Messenger, between educators and parents;
- Volunteering – parents may be attracted to the management of school activities on a voluntary basis;
- Learning at Home – schools may provide information for parents related to students’ homework assignments and sources for assistance and support in the learning process.
- Decision-Making – parents may be encouraged to join schools’ parent-teacher associations and school or district organizations for support and local advocacy related to education.
- Collaborating with the Community – the involvement of families in education-related community work may be organized through the provision of information about activities in public places, parent events, and seminars with the invitation of community leaders.
Common Barriers to Family Engagement
Regardless of the multiple benefits of parent engagement, there are multiple barriers to its implementation. First of all, due to poor communication between teachers and parents, there may be a lack of awareness concerning existing opportunities for involvement. In addition, schools may have an insufficient organization of activities within the framework of their teaching strategies that could strengthen cooperation between families and school staff. Finally, parents’ personal issues, including time limitations, hard work and work conflicts, and the existence of children with special needs, may impact the efficiency of parent engagement as well.
Strategies for the Improvement of Family Engagement
First of all, schools should consider the creation of a friendly, positive, welcoming, and non-judgmental environment for all families on the basis of mutual trust and respect. For this, school leaders should utilize all forms of communication to assess parents’ concerns, wishes, and needs, articulate the purpose and goals of parent engagement, and be supportive by offering help, solutions, ideas, and empathy. They should remember to view parents as partners, interact positively, share experiences, ask for advice, and generate feelings of confidence in students and their families.
Family Engagement Essentials for Success
As previously mentioned, family engagement is essential for students’ performance, academic progress, and general development. That is why schools should ensure that family engagement is strategically planned for by school leaders and supported by employees involved in the educational process. All families should feel welcomed. However, their opportunities for engagement determined by inner resources and limitations should be considered as well. In addition, the unique characteristics of every family, including educational level, culture, language, socio-economic level, and personal circumstances, should be recognized and respected. All in all, parents should be provided with all necessary information and all available variants of engagement in school activities, while their willingness should be comprehensively supported and encouraged.
Parent Engagement at Vick Elementary School
On the basis of the meeting minutes’ analysis, it is possible to say that Vick Elementary School pays particular attention to parent engagement, and school leaders and all employees involved in the education process participate in the improvement of strategies for it. Concerning the types of parent engagement, the school focuses on parenting, communicating, volunteering, and collaborating with the community. In particular, school leaders organize parent-related events, including the annual parent appreciation day and parent appreciation night, school events related to holidays, such as Spring Carnival and Field Day, and regular parent meetings. In addition, out-of-school activities, including trips to Pine Knolls Shores, Battleship, Greensboro Science Center, Morehead Planetarium, and Durham Life Science and Museum, are discussed. Moreover, during their meetings, school leaders emphasize the significance of proper organization with the distribution of roles and responsibilities, communication with parents, and the dissemination of information through flyers, posters, and emails.
In addition, school authorities value cooperation and decision-making on the basis of sharing ideas and opinions – that is why the development of strategies for parent engagement is organized in the format of teachers’ meetings. All suggestions are recorded, concerns are discussed, questions are asked, and answers are provided. In general, it is obvious that the school focuses on parent engagement in the classroom and out-of-class activities, keeping a balance between events for entertainment and the educational processes. In other words, parents are involved in their children’s study through meetings and work with teachers, while their participation in the organization of out-of-classroom events is encouraged as well. All in all, Vick Elementary School aims to create a welcoming and positive environment for all families, and these strategies are aligned with the facility’s mission to provide every child, regardless of his capacities and needs, with an opportunity to grow and develop. In this case, parents are viewed as partners, and at the same time, their efforts to collaborate are highly appreciated.
Professional Development Activities for Parent Engagement
In order to contribute to the school’s efforts dedicated to the improvement of parent engagement, I attended online training, online and school workshops, and webinars dedicated to family engagement for professional development. As a special education teacher, I clearly understand the importance of parent engagement in the educational process. When an educator and parents cooperate on the basis of mutual trust and respect, students with special needs achieve IEP goals faster and more efficiently. Thus, these professional development activities allow me to develop my leadership skills, which are essential for the organization of family engagement and understand how barriers may be overcome. Due to them, I became more confident as a teacher who knows how to encourage parents, communicate with them efficiently, and help them participate in their children’s education for successful academic outcomes. Thus, I believe that I will be more involved in cooperative work with the parents of my students in the future and contribute to the general improvement of parent engagement at my school as well.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). Parent engagement in schools. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web.
Walden University. (n.d.). Every school should consider six types of family involvement. Walden University. Web.
Woolf, N. (n.d.). Family engagement in schools: A comprehensive guide. Panorama Education. Web.