Parental Involvement and Students

Parent Involvement

When it comes to children and how well they do (or do not do) in schools, a lot of the invective and scrutiny is directed towards the teachers at the school and the administrators that govern the same. Whether it be parents showing disdain for how well the students are not doing or whether it be national laws such as No Child Left Behind, the teachers seem to shoulder a lot of the blame when students do not perform as expected or desired. However, to just blame the teachers would be unwise because they are only part of equation and some would argue that teachers are not even the biggest part of the equation. While having adept teachers imparting knowledge to students is important, having parents or guardians of those children that are involved and engaged is even more important.

Research

One of the linchpins of student success has been determined to be self-determined learning. A related question that many ask, of course, is what leads students to behave and move in such a manner. At least one of the answers that rings the most true is the proper amount, type and level of parental involvement in the learning and development process. To that end, research shows that parental involvement is positively correlated, and to a significant degree, with the development and fostering of self-determined learning (Wang & Cai, 2017). Even with the fairly clear linkage between parental involvement and the learning motivation of students, there are barriers that seem to become obvious and apparent. One of the major ones happens to be the socioeconomic status of the parents/students involved. After all, parents that have to work a lot of hours will face challenges when it comes to spending the requisite and required amount of time with their children so as to ensure their success in their learning endeavors (Malone, 2017).

It is wise to bring up the societal aspects of schooling because the fractures and problems with such are deep and obvious to those that pay attention. For example, there was a time where mothers were quite prominent when it came to labor and politics. Given the rather obvious connection and patterns surrounding those women and their children, this is no small thing. However, the obvious link between parental involvement in schools and motherhood seems to be weakening or breaking. Labor should be rightly defined as any work that could also be defined as parental involvement. Indeed, even if there is no remuneration rendered for raising a child or keeping a house, to suggest that it is not labor by nature is less than accurate or fair (Shuffelton, 2017).

Even if the presence and influence of parents might tend to wane over time, namely when a child approaches the normal age of high school completion and any continuation to the college life, it is still important to look at that given the rather vast and huge implications that are present at that point in life. Even though it is not as heavily studied as other parts of the life of a student, there are some obvious cues and clues that tell the story one way or another. For example, if a parent is present as an observer for things like school sports and other extracurricular activities, that is an extremely good sign. At the same time, the need for parents to communicate about negative school outcomes and events (e.g. referrals, bad attendance) is less than optimal in terms of the usual outcomes that accompany those events (Ross, 2016).

Even when parental involvement and presence is there, there can still be challenges. As noted before, socioeconomic status can play a huge role in the outcomes and patterns of the children and parents alike. The work schedules and other demands of life that are present as compared to people that are better off and more educated is one thing, but education of the parents itself has more wide-ranging effects. Indeed, if the parental education level is moderate to low, this will impact how helpful and insightful the parent can be when their child is learning the same material. Even if the parent is present and means well, they can actually undermine their child's learning if their own literacy levels are lacking. At the very least, they would be of negligible benefit and that would tend to put the children behind the curve as compared to the student's peers (Hemmerechts, Agridag & Kavadias, 2017). An ancillary yet related example is when a parent and/or child are learning English as a second language. Indeed, there are a good amount of children and/or parents that are recent immigrants from places like Central and South America. Much of the time, the parents (and sometimes the children) barely know English, if they know it at all. So as to help the parents and the children alike, having English as a Second Language (ESL) environments so that the parents can get help as well and perhaps keep pace with their children so that they can speak and learn the language together can pay huge dividends. This should not be confused with being nationalistic or xenophobic against the culture or language of the peoples' homeland. Rather, it should be a focus on learning English as a means to exist and work within American society in the best way possible, given that many to most of the people involved only know English. This lesson applies to other non-English languages just as much as it applies to Spanish (Harji, Balakirshnan & Letchmumanan, 2016). Another group of students that is especially vulnerable, aside from ESL students, would be those with special educational needs and the associated disabilities. Those students have much more intensive and extensive needs than other students and thus mixing the special education students with those other students is often not practical or possible, even if that is the desired goal a lot of the time. Regardless, the education level of the parents seems to be predictive of their own involvement with the needs of their special education child, with more educated parents being more involved and less educated parents being less involved, on the whole (Sukys, Dumciene & Lapeniene, 2015).

Assessing the Problem

Given the research and prior experience involved, there are a few things that can be safely assumed to be the norm in at least many to most of the cases for this school, and they are as follows:

• Teacher acumen and method matters a lot but so does parental involvement, with the latter almost certainly mattering more in most cases

• Students that come from lower socioeconomic status will face more challenges, on average, than students that come from higher means.

• There will be exceptions, but students of minority status will tend to be in the lower echelons of socioeconomic status

• Students that are themselves of ESL status or that are children of the same will face wider challenges than those where everyone involved speaks English fluently

• Parental involvement is important in the younger age ranges but remains very important through high school and beyond

Given the general challenges that exist, as noted above, there needs to be a review and action plan created to react to the same. In short, there will need to be short-term actions and goals and then follow-up down the road after there have been interventions and plans executed

Short-Term Goals

• Assess the challenges that face the students under review, whatever they may be

• ESL student status (or parents of the same)

• Socioeconomic disadvantage

• Parents both working extensively

• Single parent households

• High crime/gang neighborhoods

• Special education students

• Current performance of students at the school

• Grades

• Standardized testing performance

• Attendance/truancy levels

• Referrals

• Fighting

Long-Term Goals

• ESL programs for students and parents of ESL children

• Programs to address hunger and other poverty-related issues

• Encourage parental engagement at all levels

• Multiple meetings to accommodate the most parents (to accommodate work schedules, etc.)

• Maximize parent/teacher conference attendance

• Reassess goals and performance toards the same in one to two-month intervals.

• Adjust and alter plans as needed to perform better

• Increase and enhance what is clearly working well

The Team

• School counselor -- One of the most integral people that exists within the school and that person interacts with all personnel and grade levels at the school.

• At least one teacher from each grade level -- Need to ensure that teacher reprensetation transcends all grade levels of the institution because the needs and challenges that manifest do change over time

• Assistant principal -- Need someone that is in power and leadership over the entire school, whether it be the principal or one of the assistants

• School resource officer: This person is important to loop in because that person would see a lot of the disciplinary issues and the patterns of the students as they come and go

Meeting Structure & Schedule

• Meetings will be once a week on Friday

• Friday is chosen because the week that is ending can be summarized and a plan for the new week can be put together at the same time