Parental Involvement in Childhood Education


Book Description

Parental participation has long been recognized as a positive factor in children’s education. Research consistently shows that parents’ contributions to their children’s education lead to improvements in their academic and behavioral outcomes, from elementary through middle and secondary school. Recognizing the critical role of school psychologists in this equation, Parental Involvement in Childhood Education clearly sets out an evidence-based rationale and blueprint for building parental involvement and faculty awareness. The author’s starting point is the gap between the ideals found in the literature and the reality of parental involvement in schools. An ecological analysis identifies professional, institutional, and societal factors that keep schools and parents distant. Methods for evaluating parental involvement are detailed, as is a model for developing and maintaining strong parental relationships at the instructor, school, and education system level, with an emphasis on flexible communication and greater understanding of parents’ needs. This empirically sound coverage offers readers: A detailed understanding of obstacles to parental involvement. An evidence-based model for parental participation. A three-nation study of parental involvement practices in schools. Guidelines for implementing parental involvement activities and initiatives. A review of effective communication strategies with parents. Analysis of key interpersonal skills for effective work with parents. Parental Involvement in Childhood Education is essential reading for practitioners and researchers in school psychology and counseling, social work, and educational psychology, whether they work directly with schools or in providing training for teachers and other professionals who work with children and their parents.




School, Family, and Community Partnerships


Book Description

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.




Engaging Families in Schools


Book Description

Engaging Families in Schools is a practical resource that provides strategies and ideas that will contribute to the effective engagement of families and the involvement of parents in their child’s education. Parental engagement with school staff has a significant and very positive impact on children’s learning, and strategies presented have been extensively trialled in a variety of different settings. Nicola S. Morgan shows school staff how to understand the importance of family engagement and evidence the outcomes. This book has been split into ten easily accessible units: Understanding the importance of parent engagement Using whole-school strategies to engage parents The role of the family engagement officer Engaging all parents Engaging Dads Engaging multicultural parents Difficult to engage parents Working with parents to improve student attainment Working with parents to improve behaviour and attendance Working with parents of children with additional needs This is a must-read guide for teaching and non teaching staff who wishes to bridge the gap between their student’s school and family life and understand the effects of positive family engagement.




Family Involvement in Children's Education


Book Description

Schools that are most successful in engaging parents and other family members in support of their children's learning look beyond traditional definitions of parent involvement--parent teacher organizations or signing report cards--to a broader conception of supporting families in activities outside of school that can encourage their children's' learning. This idea book is intended to assist educators, parents, and policy makers as they develop school-family partnerships, identifying and describing successful strategies used by 20 local Title I programs. Following an executive summary, the book notes resources for involving families in education, includes research supporting such partnerships, and describes how Title I encourages partnerships. Next, the book describes successful local approaches to family involvement in education, organized around strategies for overcoming common barriers to family involvement, including: (1) overcoming time and resource constraints; (2) providing information and training to parents and school staff; (3) restructuring schools to support family involvement; (4) bridging school-family differences; and (5) tapping external supports for partnerships. Finally, the book presents conclusions about establishing and sustaining partnerships, noting that at the same time that successful partnerships share accountability, specific stakeholders must assume individual responsibility, and that those schools that succeed in involving large numbers of parents invest energy in finding solutions for problems, not excuses. Four appendices present profiles of 10 successful partnerships, descriptions in table format of 20 successful local approaches, contact information for profiled partnership programs, and resources for building successful partnerships. Contains 13 references. (HTH)




Rethinking Family-school Relations


Book Description

This book addresses the complications and implications of parental involvement as a policy, through an exploratory theoretical approach, including historical and sociological accounts and personal reflection. This approach represents the author's effort to understand the origins, meanings, and effects of parental involvement as a prerequisite of schooling and particularly as a policy 'solution' for low achievement and even inequity in the American educational system. Most of the policy and research discourse on school-family relations exalts the partnership ideal, taking for granted its desirability and viability, the perspective of parents on specific involvement in instruction, and the conditions of diverse families in fulfilling their appointed role in the partnership. De Carvalho takes a distinct stance. She argues that the partnership-parental ideal neglects several major factors: It proclaims parental involvement as a means to enhance (and perhaps equalize) school outcomes, but disregards how family material and cultural conditions, and feelings about schooling, differ according to social class; thus, the partnership-parental involvement ideal is more likely to be a projection of the model of upper-middle class, suburban community schooling than an open invitation for diverse families to recreate schooling. Although it appeals to the image of the traditional community school, the pressure for more family educational accountability really overlooks history as well as present social conditions. Finally, family-school relations are relations of power, but most families are powerless. De Carvalho makes the case that two linked effects of this policy are the gravest: the imposition of a particular parenting style and intrusion into family life, and the escalation of educational inequality. Rethinking Family-School Relations: A Critique of Parental Involvement in Schooling--a carefully researched and persuasively argued work--is essential reading for all school professionals, parents, and individuals concerned with public schooling and educational equality.




Promising Practices for Family Involvement in Schools


Book Description

This volume will address major frameworks for understanding family involvement and government support of family involvement projects in the initial chapters. The following six chapters present a theoretical base for understanding school, family, and commu-nity partnerships and research supporting promising practices. Included within each chapter are examples of research in action, focusing on spe-cific interactive activities or programs designed to bring families and schools together. Such promising practices are organized into chapters dealing with two-way home-school communication, family literacy projects, school-site parent centers, parent- school collaborative governance, and family-school education programs spanning infancy through young adult-hood. The monograph concludes with a chapter on teacher preparation for work with family, school, and community partnership issues. Besides their research expertise, each author brings a unique back-ground as classroom teacher, parent, and community social advocate to their writing. Individually, most of us have spent our early professional years within the classroom, acquiring the value of connecting home with school for the benefit of the children. As parents and grandparents, we have advocated for parental interests within the school. As community advocates, we strive for collaborative communication across groups who serve children and their families. We invite you to share our passion for working with families and community groups within our schools.




Beyond the Bake Sale


Book Description

Countless studies demonstrate that students with parents actively involved in their education at home and school are more likely to earn higher grades and test scores, enroll in higher-level programs, graduate from high school, and go on to post-secondary education. Beyond the Bake Sale shows how to form these essential partnerships and how to make them work. Packed with tips from principals and teachers, checklists, and an invaluable resource section, Beyond the Bake Sale reveals how to build strong collaborative relationships and offers practical advice for improving interactions between parents and teachers, from insuring that PTA groups are constructive and inclusive to navigating the complex issues surrounding diversity in the classroom. Written with candor, clarity, and humor, Beyond the Bake Sale is essential reading for teachers, parents on the front lines in public schools, and administrators and policy makers at all levels.




Over the Ivy Walls


Book Description

Unique among literature on minority and Chicano academic achievement, Over the Ivy Walls focuses on factors that create academic successes rather than examining school failure. It weaves existing research on academic achievement into an analysis of the lives of 50 low-income Chicanos for whom schooling "worked" and became an important vehicle for social mobility. Gándara examines their early home lives, school experiences, and peer relations in search of clues to what "went right."




Handbook on Family and Community Engagement


Book Description

Thirty-six of the best thinkers on family and community engagement were assembled to produce this Handbook, and they come to the task with varied backgrounds and lines of endeavor. Each could write volumes on the topics they address in the Handbook, and quite a few have. The authors tell us what they know in plain language, succinctly presented in short chapters with practical suggestions for states, districts, and schools. The vignettes in the Handbook give us vivid pictures of the real life of parents, teachers, and kids. In all, their portrayal is one of optimism and celebration of the goodness that encompasses the diversity of families, schools, and communities across our nation.




Promising Practices to Support Family Involvement in Schools


Book Description

Promising Practices to Support Family Involvement in Schools is a must-have volume for every contemporary educator. This monograph provides a broad array of exciting research-supported practices to reform schools for the benefit of students, teachers, administrators, families and their communities. These practices will lead to higher student academic and school satisfaction outcomes. Experts in the field prepared this highly readable volume for teachers, school administrators, educational researchers, policymakers, and university faculty. The authors share their decades of educational research, wise insights and practical experiences with hopes to better life for individual families, educators, and society. This book belongs on every educator’s desk!