Kersey and Masterson (2009) Advise

¶ … Kersey and Masterson (2009) advise teachers how to connect with parents and involve them in their children's performance. Their advice centers around four formulations: (a) knowing and understanding families -- a ten-minute conversation with parents can make a significant difference in creating and affirming their trust; (b) Overcoming parents' reluctance -- occasionally parents may feel intimidated, for whatever reason, in approaching teachers, and the impression may be reciprocal; (c) Using affirmations to connect with families; and (d) sharing information about the child with his or her parents.

Geared to the early-child educator but relevant to all, Souto-Manning (2010) observes that educators may want to involve parents in educational activities, but time constraints on the parents and cultural mismatch regarding parent-teacher interaction may impede objectives. The author, therefore, presents some ideas on how to deal with this challenge: (a) enlisting parents' volunteering time and expertise in whichever areas the parent feels capable of desirous of giving; (b) understanding different cultural expectations, by actively investigating their nuances and then by creating involvements that are respectful of family diversity; and, (c) by finding the times and means (such as parent-teacher conferences or via notes) to construct parent-teacher bridges for the developmental benefit of the child.

Van Dunk et al.'s (1998) policy report examines the issue of parental involvement from the perspective of parents whose children attend public and private schools in Milwaukee and Cleveland. The authors discovered that most parents do not seek personal involvement with the school when selecting a school for their child; that the majority of private schools require, per admission, that parents be actively involved in their child's school, and that research indicates that the child will profit by the parent's involvement in his or her school education: "Controlling for all other factors, a school that can require that parents volunteer time should have better student achievement than a school that cannot" (9). Whilst private schools in Wisconsin and Ohio make parent involvement in the school a condition for child acceptance, it is questionable whether traditional public schools should follow the same policy on the grounds that parental non-involvement may consequent in punishing the child rather than in serving an intended positive purpose.