Friends of DPA is a
parent involvement group that was formed with our principal, a few teachers and
a small group of parents that were already involved with the school. The
principal Mr. Glass wanted to start small with a group of 4 or 5 parents so it
would be easier to train them on what he feels the school needs to work on. These parents have been at the school for
more than 2 years and have several children in different grade levels.
I was not able to attend the first few meetings; however
I heard from other teachers that it was a rough start. The parents had a completely different idea
about why they were there and how they were going to be involved. The parents were asked to create a survey of
issues that they were the most concerned with.
The results of those surveys showed a lack of concern with academics, the
deficiency of parental involvement and communication between parents and
teachers.
My experience with working with the Friends of DPA has
taught me just how much families can help the school and students in a number of
ways. Family members can help in classrooms, in the school office, and on field
trips. Even tutoring students, acting as mentors, and supplying materials for
other families. They help raise funds for the school, and organize activities
to promote the school in the community.
As an involved teacher at DPA, I was
already aware of our lack of parental support thru involvement and
communications, so it was my goal to engage parents and families in a beneficial
way at my school. My objective is to have a positive result for the students,
their families, and the schools. My experience has found that when families are
involved with their child’s school, the school outperforms other schools
without family engagement; teacher morale improves; family members rate
teachers more highly; and the school has a better relationship with the
community.
The first
step in getting family engagement is to understand that the school can have a major
positive or negative impact on participation.
It is very important that the very first contact between home and school
is a positive one. You must start off by
building rapport between the school, administration and family which helps to establish
a spirit of collaboration. I came up
with some question s to ask the parents which included: What is your family involved
with outside of school? What is one thing that your child wants to learn this
coming year? What is a major priority
for your family, in terms of what your child needs to work on in the school year?
What are some things that your family would like to do to become involved with
our school?
Some families face numerous
challenges when it comes to getting involved.
Schools should be prepared to meet and address these challenges such as
addressing language barriers and providing families with support and resources
to meet their children’s basic needs. Having a plethora of community resources
available to parents eases their burden and stress. This gives them fewer opportunities to give excuses
to not get involved.
Another thing we noticed was that
just having a space where parents can communicate their needs with other
parents has been a really great resource.
This helps the family members become more comfortable in their
children’s school by encouraging their engagement and increasing their
self-efficacy.
Another barrier
to participation from some families is the perception that student learning is
solely the domain of school personnel. This could be a cultural perspective that they
should defer to the teacher in all academic matters. Other families see school as simply “off
limits” to them. Some parents who
struggled themselves as students may see their child’s school as a place where
they are unlikely to fit in or feel welcome. We can remove these barriers by welcoming
families while respecting their attitudes and beliefs. Having an open door policy can help wary
parents become more comfortable establishing a lasting relationship with school
teacher and other families. When families
become more comfortable in their school community, they are more likely to
participate in school events.
Some school staff wrongly believe that
a family, which does not respond to requests from teachers, is simply
uninterested in their child’s education. In these cases, school staff may not realize
the possible economic barriers to participation. I have some families that do not have phone
lines due to financial conditions. Some
parents do not read or write, while other parents work multiple jobs or hours which
make attendance at events during business hours difficult.
Others have logistic
problems that may stop them from attending. My school could look into starting home visits
as a way to reach “high need” families. This
will help them share in their child’s success and to help them develop
strategies to assist their children with homework assignments, and to encourage
them to participate in school activities to support their children’s academic
achievement. I feel home visits will
establish a link with “high need” families,
who otherwise
may find any engagement with the school difficult. A home visit would also demonstrate that each
family is an essential part of the school community.
Communication between parents and
school is essential for building a foundation of academic achievement. It is a two way street that must be nurtured to
facilitate success. I feel that my plan
of action would generate a great deal of support from parents to the school,
but I also feel that all plans of action need to change with the evolution of
education in order to thrive.
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