PARENTS AS PARTNERS IN EDUCATION

Presented by

Susan Belgrad, CSUN Associate Professor of Education

https://www.csun.edu/~sb4310/

This will be an interactive session for you to learn about and share your stories of success (and sometimes not) in promoting satisfying and effective communication with parents.

The principal source material for this presentation is from the work of Eugenia H. Berger, Parents as Partners in Education.

The National PTA has set the following National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs:

· Establish regular, meaningful communication between home and school.

· Promote and support parenting skills.

· Encourage active parent participation in student learning.

· Welcome parents as volunteer partners in schools.

· Invite parents to act as full partners in making school decisions that affect children and families.

· Reach out to the community for resources to strengthen schools.

I. WHAT WORKS . . . .

A. Starting the year off on the RIGHT FOOT. 1. Welcome parent communication from the outset of the school year. 2. Create a classroom or school program that welcomes parents. 3. Communicate a sincere attitude that parents are important to you and that their participation makes a difference. 4. Provide access to information regarding neighborhood/community services that help families with the task of child rearing and education. 5. Survey parents on how/when they can become involved in the work of their children in your classroom.	Your Stories . . . .
B. Maintaining positive one-way and two-way communication processes.
1. Send Newsletters home regularly—the students can help with the content of these! 2. Telephone parents to tell them how much you enjoy teaching their child. 3. Set up and regularly use an email account for parents - Even better, create a website! 4. Initiate home-school activities where children bring classroom mascots or artifacts home for a visit with the family—promoting family writing or storytelling. 5. Instead of a simple parent conference, try to implement a “student-led portfolio conference.” (it is well worth the effort on behalf of all!) 6. Send home “Happy grams, “Upslips” or “Ask me about . . . ” Even more effective—email these. 7. Try any of these activities: Home visits; participation visits; homework hotline; help wanted ads in your newsletter.	Your Ideas . . .
WHAT TO DO WITH THE PARENT WHO . . . . 1. The parent who readily responds when invited to participate in the school. 2. The parent who is comfortable and enjoys involvement in the school or classroom. 3. The parent who enjoys power and tends to become overly active in the school or classroom. 4. The parent who needs encouragement to come to the school or classroom. 5. The parent who avoids the school like the plague.
ROADBLOCKS TO SATISFYING HOME-SCHOOL RELATIONSHIPS 1. When parents feel they need to “protect” their child (Protector Role). 2. When parents feel they are inadequate in relating to school personnel (Inadequate-Me role). 3. When parents avoid the school because they don’t respect the personnel or feel they are not respected or don’t belong (Avoidance Role) 4. When parents become indifferent to their children’s success in school because there are so many other pressures and concerns (Indifferent Parent Role). 5. When parents fear communicating anything negative.
WAYS TO EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATE WITH PARENTS Open Responses vs. Closed Responses Reflective Listening I—You—We Messages Rephrasing Reframing
“At the heart of any successful parent-involvement program are teachers who are not only committed to building family and school relationships, but who also have the skills and knowledge to do it well. To succeed, a teacher must be able to make good use of families' expertise and resources, at the same time reaching out to families to support them. All the while, the teacher must also meet the day-to-day challenges of the classroom. Leon Lynn
WHERE TO FIND MORE INFORMATION ABOUT DEVELOPING YOUR SKILLS IN PARENT COMMUNICATION AND FAMILY INVOLVEMENT EDUCATION WORLD http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr200.shtml FAMILY CONNECTIONS http://www.ael.org/rel/fc/fcpromis.htm CREATING PARTNERSHIPS—BRIDGING WORLDS http://www.acrnetwork.org/ResourceDetail.aspx?ID=200284 NEW SKILLS FOR NEW SCHOOLS: PREPARING TEACHERS IN FAMILY INVOLVEMENT http://www.ed.gov/pubs/NewSkills/chptr3.html http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/pubs/onlinepubs/skills/chptr1.html