How To Attract Meaningful
Parent Involvement
Parent support and cooperation are vital to quality education
practices, particularly truancy prevention. Decades of research
show that when parents are actively involved in their children's
education, the children will achieve greater success in school.
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires schools to promote
meaningful parent involvement, but it is up to individual
districts to determine how best to do that. Numerous publications
are available to help schools and parents work together
to promote the best education possible for students. Among
them:
The National PTA created the National Standards for Parent/ Family Involvement Programs: An Implementation Guide for School Communities and recommends that parent programs meet standards in these six areas:
- Communicating: Communication between home and school is regular, two-way, and meaningful.
- Parenting: Parenting skills are promoted and supported.
- Student learning: Parents play an integral role in assisting student learning.
- Volunteering: Parents are welcome in the school and their support and assistance are sought.
- School decision-making and advocacy: Parents are full partners in the decisions that affect children and families.
- Collaborating with the community: Community resources are used to strengthen schools, families, and student learning.
A second resource is Strengthening Parent Involvement: A Toolkit which was published by the Colorado Department of Education to help schools understand the NCLB requirements on parent involvement and develop sound policies and strategies to promote that involvement.
The National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs is available from Solution Tree online at http://www.solution-tree.com. Item number: BKF175. Price: $4.
The Strengthening Parent Involvement: A Tool Kit is available online at http://www.cde.state.co.us/FedPrograms/nclb/ downloads/pi_toolkit.pdf.
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