Parent Involvement Blues

Just read a post by Jacinda who is lamenting about the attendance at a Title I meeting at her school. She feels that not enough parents are involved. Only 5 out of 700 families showed up for the meeting.

But this is typical unless there is a coordinated effort ot involve all the parents, including the hardest to involve parents! Take a look at her post here

Parent Involvement In Schools: Resources For Educators – Audio And Video Information

Perhaps you are uncertain whether or not we actually have expertise in parent involvement.

Both Su and I have spent years in the education arena working with urban schools. We regularly present our program and conferences around the county. Here are some of the places we have presented: Read More Here

Need parent involvement articles to help you get started with increasing parent involvement in school?

Look here for a growing list of tips and suggestions and parent involvement articles to help you increase parent involvement in your school. We will be adding articles to this page in order to provide you with a wealth of information about how you can make a difference in parent involvement at your school or district. Follow this link for more information.

Parent Involvement: New Resources for Hispanic Parents

The U. S. Department of Education has recently published a new booklet to its downloadable collection. This one is entitled "A Guide to the Toolkit Hispanic Families".

Of course, it's available in both English and Spanish. The toolkit provides information about what you should know, how "No Child Left Behind" can help you and how to use the toolkit.

It also is provides specific information at the elementary, middle and high school level for parents.

An additional booklet provides homework tips for parents.

You would like download the booklet please go to the following link:

http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2005/08/08312005.html

Looking for Parent Involvement Idea's and Activities?

Finding and using parent involvement idea's can be a daunting task for administrators and teachers. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Workshops for teachers:

The NCLB regulations require that staff received training to encourage parent involvement. You can arrange teacher workshops be held after school were during the summer recess on topics such as:

• Working with Parents Successfully
• Reaching the Hard to Involve Parent
• Working with non-Native Speakers
• Multicultural Education
• Gang Prevention

Make sure you've survey your staff and asked them what they need. Use that information put together a program for them.

Click here to read the rest of the article

The Triad of Parent Involvement in Schools

What exactly is parent involvement? Most teachers and administrators will tell you that it is part of a descriptor of what constitutes an effective school. When we conduct workshops on parent involvement in schools, we often find that educators have only a vague idea of what is involved.

The U.S. Department of Education uses the following descriptors :

Means the participation of parents in regular, two-way, meaningful communications involving student academic learning.

parents play an integral part in assisting their child’s learning;

encourages parents to be actively involved in their child’s education at school; and that parents are full partners in their child’s education

This then is the unofficial definition and Department has developed. It encompasses a very definite focus on parents being viewed as full partners in their children’s education. It is developed to encourage a partnership around the academic achievement of children.

To read the rest of this article follow this link.