Strengthen Family Involvement and Community Engagement

Partnerships with schools can close the achievement gap

2007 photo by Patrick G. Ryan

See below: Association Efforts to Engage Families and Communities

Parents are children’s first and most important teachers. Greater collaboration with parents and families is clearly one of the most essential and effective strategies for closing achievement gaps. In a similar way, community groups – from individuals and businesses to parent organizations, area churches, etc. – can provide additional support for students who are struggling.

NEA members and affiliates are deeply engaged in efforts to reach out to parents – helping new parents understand what they can do to help their child succeed. NEA members communicate with parents on an on-going basis about individual student’s performance and involve parents in the life of the school community. We have been working with numerous partners to strengthen links between schools and families and between schools and communities.

A 2004 Gallup Poll for Phi Delta Kappan magazine found that 88 percent of Americans believed that closing achievement gaps among whites, Hispanics, and African Americans was important, but only 19 percent said the gaps were primarily the result of school quality, with 74 percent pointing to
other factors.

All of the strategies supported by NEA to help disadvantaged and low-achieving students were supported by overwhelming majorities, but more parental involvement topped the list with 97 percent support.

Percentage of respondents favoring these strategies to close achievement gaps:

Encourage more parent involvement 97%
Provide more instructional time for low-performing students 94%
Strengthen remedial programs for low-performing students 92%
Provide free breakfast and free lunch programs as needed 84%
Provide state-funded preschool programs 80%
Provide in-school health clinics 76%

Engage Parents and Families

Parent involvement has many dimensions. Many parents volunteer, assist in the classroom, chaperone student trips, and raise money to supplement school funds. More importantly, family and parental involvement means being engaged in the lives of their children, fully supporting their education and development. Today, it is vital that family-school-community partnerships include parents, stepparents, grandparents, foster parents, other relatives and caregivers.

The research unequivocally supports this broader approach. Parent, family, and community involvement in education correlates with higher academic performance and school improvement. When schools, parents, families, and communities work together to support learning, students tend to earn higher grades, attend school more regularly, stay in school longer, and enroll in higher level programs.

Researchers cite parent-family-community involvement as a key to addressing the school dropout crisis (Belfield, C. R. and H.M. Levin, H.M. 2007. The Price We Pay: Economic and Social Consequences of Inadequate Education Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press) and note that strong school-family-community partnerships foster higher educational aspirations and more motivated students. (Barton, Paul E. 2003. Parsing the Achievement Gap: Baselines for Tracking Progress Princeton, NJ: Policy Information Report, Educational Testing Service.)

The evidence holds true for students at both the elementary and secondary level, regardless of the parents’ education, family income, or background. Research shows parent involvement improves minority students’ academic achievement across all races. (Jeynes, W.H. 2003. A meta-analysis: The effects of parental involvement on minority children’s academic achievement. Education &Urban Society 35(2): 202-218.)

Unfortunately, this data is often overlooked in local, state, and national discussions about raising student achievement and closing achievement gaps. Education reform efforts that focus solely on classrooms and schools are leaving out critical factors essential for success.

Educators take their professional responsibilities seriously, and they recognize they need the support of parents and community members. Teachers, administrators, the public, and parents of school-age children see parental involvement as the single biggest challenge facing America’s public schools. (Educational Testing Service. 2007. Standards, Accountability and Flexibility: Americans Speak on No Child Left Behind Reauthorization Princeton, NJ.)

    
    NEA calls on Congress and the Administration to:
    
            Support programs to increase parental involvement through comprehensive, proactive outreach efforts. Schools need to do a better job reaching out to low-income, minority, and recent immigrant parents. Title I’s parent outreach provisions should be strengthened and funding increased. 
Provide resources and materials to help educate parents in low-income, minority, and recent immigrant communities about how best to make sure their children are prepared for school. They need information and services related to children’s health and nutrition so their children can come 
to school ready and able to learn. 
Substantially increase funding for the Parent Information Resource Centers authorized in ESEA.
Provide professional development for teachers, paraprofessionals, and administrators on effective practices to engage hard-to-reach parents. 
Help enlist the broader community – business, labor, and other education institutions – in getting involved in the local public schools. 
Expand the Family and Medical Leave Act to require employers to provide parents up to three days of leave per year to participate in their children’s educational activities.

Reach Out to All Communities

Educators understand that there may be obstacles to parental involvement among some families, including many in the minority community. There may be cultural or language barriers that inhibit interaction between home and school. Some parents say they lack the know-how and resources to help their children, or they express frustration with school bureaucracies or policies they find impossible to understand or change. NEA and its affiliates are working with a number of groups to help parents become more effective advocates for their children and the school community.

Parent-teacher associations (PTAs) can be a powerful means of supporting and improving schools. In addition, community organizations such as the NAACP, National Urban League, and League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) get directly involved in advocating for students, parents, and schools, especially in low-income communities.

The 2002 study, “A New Wave of Evidence; the Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement,” found that community organizing plays a vital role in achieving:

Modern school facilities.
Stronger school leadership
and better staffing.
High quality learning programs
for students.
New resources and programs to improving teaching and curriculum.
New funding for afterschool programs and family supports.

To promote student growth and school success at every grade and age, well thought out family-school-community partnerships – linked to school improvement goals – are needed in every community. NEA and its affiliates are engaged in numerous collaborations with community organizations to bring new energy and resources to public school change and improvement.

    
    NEA calls on Congress and the Adminstration to:
    
            Provide support for school-based parental involvement programs that give more parents the skills to help their children succeed and bring additional family and community resources into school reform and improvement efforts. 
Support family literacy programs. 
Support legislation that links schools and communities and creates community schools that offer or provide referrals to comprehensive services to children and their families.

Association Efforts to Engage Families and Communities

Recognizing the need for public education advocates to work more closely with parents and others in the minority community, NEA established the Minority Community Outreach Project which maintains ongoing relationships with national community organizations and promotes partnerships and projects among NEA affiliates and these organizations at the local level. The goal is to amplify the voices for common sense solutions to the most pressing needs in disadvantaged communities – quality teachers, better facilities, smaller class sizes, and high expectations for every child.

In Hillsboro, Oregon, NEA’s Minority Community Outreach Project holds meetings and conducts workshops for Hispanic parents helping them with issues that are among the most relevant in their lives, including how to:

Register their children for school.
Make sure their children have the proper immunizations.
Help their children with studying.
Involve their children in productive activities during school holidays.
Get access to services for their children.

While parents and teachers generally agree on the solutions for improving student achievement, at times, they have different vocabularies for talking about issues. NEA affiliates are engaged in a number of Public Engagement Project/Family-School-Community Partnerships (PEP/FSCP) to create an open dialogue between educators and community members in an effort to find common ground. This program presents current research, theory, and state-of-the-art practice that help participants create and build partnerships in local communities. PEP/FSCP offers strategies and skills for developing and sustaining collaboration with members who represent America’s racial, class, and cultural diversity.

The training, “Closing Achievement Gaps through Community Conversations,” has been offered in 20 states so far, and has proven extremely successful in a variety of communities.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg (North Carolina) Association of Educators spearheaded a community-wide dialogue. Following a series of candid discussions about difficult issues, the community implemented a number of initiatives to help close achievement gaps, including organizing tutoring programs, increasing parental involvement, and collecting books and supplies for students in need.

Members of two local affiliates in Virginia – Richmond and Norfolk – have helped form steering committees of parents, teachers, administrators, and community leaders to monitor and guide progress in student achievement. In both areas, they have established Saturday Power Sessions for students who are struggling that offers subject review and test practice, as well as academic enrichment for accelerated students. Many other local associations are engaged in projects ranging from homework hotlines to home visitation – all dedicated to helping students and their families.

NEA’s Read Across America is a highly successful campaign to convey the thrill of reading and the importance of making reading a family-centered activity. Since 1997, NEA and its affiliates have engaged millions of students and hundreds of thousands of teachers, administrators, parents, community leaders, elected officials, and others in read-a-thons, read-ins, reading competitions, and a host of other activities. Today, Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat stovepipe hat is a readily recognizable symbol of the importance of reading – and promoting the notion that reading is essential to success in school and life.

NEA is one of more than 100 organizations that has endorsed the Community Agenda for America’s Public Schools. This agenda is built on four core beliefs:

Communities and schools are fundamentally and positively interconnected.
Schools can make a difference in the lives of all children.
Children do better when their families do better.
The development of the whole child is a critical factor for student success.

A November 2008 survey by Sylvan Learning and NEA showed that two-thirds of teachers wished parents were more involved in homework. One-third of parents said they wish they had to be less involved in doing homework. Two-thirds of parents reported there were resources to help students with their homework at school.