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Have your voice heard

Few parents have opportunities to share their thoughts and feelings regarding school policies and practices. Suggest that the school conduct surveys and focus groups so that educators can better understand parents’ needs and feelings regarding school policies and practices.

Be your child’s advocate

Parents must assume an active role by immediately seeking out the support of teachers and administrators to help their child. This is especially true if you see a decline in your child’s grades or behavior that might indicate a serious problem.

Value learning

Research shows that when parents have high expectations, children succeed in school. Let your child know that you value learning and that what happens in school is important. Show that you respect teachers as valued professionals who are helping students achieve important goals.

Have high expectations for your child’s school

Take a close look at your child’s school. As a parent, share with your child’s school the following recommendations on what every school should do.

Recommendations for Schools

Clarify how and why parents can be involved

Many parents don’t know how to initiate involvement in their children’s schools. Schools need to clarify the available opportunities for parents to become involved and how parent involvement can positively impact on their children. This can help parents become better-informed consumers and will allow them to more effectively allocate their time and resources.

Provide parents with positive feedback about their children

To most parents, calls from their children’s school indicate a problem. Schools should encourage teachers to let parents know when their children are doing well.

Build on existing parent involvement

Many parents attend back-to-school night and school programs in which their children perform. Schools need to build on these opportunities by making meaningful connections with parents at these times, extending invitations for other types of involvement and opening dialogues between parents and school staff.

Examine school policies that may be acting as barriers to parent involvement

Each school should form a team comprised of parents and teachers to discuss existing barriers to parent involvement. Teams need to ask themselves such questions as: Are parents made to feel welcome in the school? Do teachers feel comfortable having parents in their classrooms? Are there clear and meaningful opportunities for parent involvement? Are there language and cultural barriers that need to be addressed? Do some parents need transportation and childcare in order to become involved?

Inform parents of behavioral and academic problems in a timely fashion

Parents often feel that schools wait too long before notifying them of problems. They perceive this as a lack of caring on the school’s or teacher’s part. Teachers and administrators need to be sensitive to parents and enlist their support as soon as a problem has emerged.

Offer ongoing professional support and training for teachers in their work with parents

Few teachers receive training in their professional educations on how to create effective school-home partnerships. Therefore, they may need in-service training on working with families in order for parent involvement to be effective.

I believe parental involvements are very important for the schools but I also think it is very difficult for the parents to get involved because some of the parents are immigrants and they do not speak English or have enough education to teach their children. The children solely have to learn from school. I have personal experience about that because I emigrated here from China when I was nine years old with my parents. In China my parents were very involved with the elementary school I was attending, they talked to my teachers everyday to see how I was doing in my classes. But once they got to the United States, they totally withdraw themselves from my school. One of the major reasons was that they didn t speak English that well and are afraid to associate themselves with my teachers. They would receive notes from schools saying that there is an Open house, I could tell that they wanted to go and see how I was doing in school but each time they ended up not going. But they would still ask me everyday of the things I did in school, but I believe that was not enough. Although at the time I was pretty happy because whenever I would get in trouble they would not find out because I know they wouldn t go and ask my teachers what I did wrong. But I believe that I would of done better if my parents were involved with my teachers, it would give me more pressure to do well in school. But another reason that they didn t participate in school is that when they first came here, they had to work extra hard to earn money, because of the language barrier they weren t able to find relaxing jobs. My parents worked very hard, I hardly saw them, and they would come in late at night and then wake up early in the morning to go to work. It is very hard for them, so they find themselves out of energy when it comes to parental involvement at school. I remember them always telling me to have a habit of self-learning because they said that they didn t really have time to concentrate on me because in order to provide me with future education they needed to make money so I m able to attend.

So maybe one way to solve this is to get schools to get some translators, which might be costly but necessary. And when the newsletters go home to parents, instead of putting only English, maybe

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