Critical Reflection: Parental Involvement

Imagine your inbox and voicemail full of messages from concerned parents, wanting to know how their child is doing in your class. Imagine your room overflowing with parents on the night of parent/teacher conferences. Imagine parents calling you to volunteer for field trips and help in the classroom. Now, imagine that all of this drove you crazy. For many of us teaching in public schools in New York City, this would require a great stretch of the imagination, but for many teachers in suburban school districts this is a somewhat dreaded reality. While teachers appreciate the effort, they can also feel overwhelmed. Joyce L. Epstein of Johns Hopkins University writes, “In affluent areas, parents know they should be more involved, but absent good guidance and a plan, they try to do too much” (as cited in Keller, 2008). The solution to their problem is simple: they must set boundaries and establish protocol for communication. But what is the solution to the opposite problem we face as NYC teachers?

At my school in the Bronx, I’ve often heard teachers and administrators lament the lack of parental concern for and involvement with their child’s education. I’ve felt similarly: why are the parents of my best students the ones who come to parent/teacher conferences? This sad fact only reinforces in my mind that supportive, involved parents lead to successful students. But is it fair to place the blame on parents while concluding that they don’t care? Certainly not. We must acknowledge the circumstances affecting parents. Seitsinger et al identified several factors that influence “parental motivation” for involvement such as, “their belief that they should be involved and that such involvement will positively effect their child's learning, life contexts allow for involvement, and responses to outreach efforts from teachers and schools” (Seitsinger et al, p.477, 2007). As educators, we may not have power over parents’ “life contexts”, but we certainly have power over our own efforts. Through our effort we can try to shape the first factor of parents’ belief, letting parents know how important we believe their commitment to their child’s education is.

A high percentage of our population of students comes from immigrant families. Therefore, New York City educators have additional challenges to overcome in communication with parents, including different languages as well as different cultural expectations. Birman et al points out that instead of assuming immigrant parents are disinterested, educators must recognize that parents may simply be unaware how much they are expected to be involved: “many immigrant parents come from societies where decisions are made solely by schools and they may stay away from contact with schools out of respect and deference for school authorities […] or due to lack of knowledge about how and when it is appropriate to contact the school (Birman et al, 2007). In this way, our problem aligns with affluent school districts’ problem; parents need to be informed of the parameters of parental involvement. Therefore, before we hold parents to a high standard of involvement, we must first explicitly let them know what our expectations are.

One important consideration in communicating with immigrant parents is to not let the burden of translator fall to the child (Birman et al, 2007). Birman et al discuss how the role of the child as “cultural broker” can not only be stressful for the child, but also take away from the parents’ authority (Birman et al, 2007). While this awkward arrangement can be prevented through translators, this resource is not always a reality at our schools. Administrators need to recognize that in emphasizing parent/teacher communication, they must provide the resources for the process to be done effectively with all parties’ needs met.

It is not fair to complain about parental involvement without a school doing as much as it can to inform and involve parents. In particular, teachers need to make the effort of communicating with parents in order to get the results they desire. Seitsinger et al say, “the data suggests that the declines in parental engagement often seen as students move up through the grades is neither inevitable nor fully a function of developmental issues or parental declining interests” (Seitsinger et al, p.504, 2008). Perhaps, then, the problem is that parents are contacted less frequently as their children get older. Seitsinger’s study found that the more often teachers reached out to parents in the later grades the greater academic improvement resulted in students (Seitsinger et al, 2008). It is clear that middle and secondary teachers need to make more of an effort to get parents involved. Of course, it is easier for the elementary teacher, perhaps responsible for 30 students the whole year, to have extensive contact with parents. For high school teachers the number is upward of 150 students. Seitsinger’s solution of “teams of teachers and students, usually about 100–120 students or less shared by 4–5 teachers” would help to alleviate the burden placed on one teacher, but it relies on administrators and scheduling to work—in other words circumstances outside of the teacher’s control (Seitsinger et al, p. 504, 2008).

How can teachers effectively increase their communication with parents without feeling overwhelmed? Technology is one probable answer. By setting up a class blog, teachers can share news, assignment schedules, and announcements with parents and students. A blog or website allows you to “speak” with many parents at once, while also giving families a forum to communicate. The blog could share suggestions for at-home complements to in-school learning. Even for personal, student-specific messages, an email instead of the standard phone call home may be a better option. This format allows both parties more freedom to carefully phrase their communication, and reply in their own time frame. This also allows for more translation options where language differences are a problem. In addition, a teacher’s effective use of an online gradebook, to which parents and students have access, would show parents clearly and immediately when their child’s grades are slipping.

I recognize that there are challenges to involving parents, but it is unfair and unproductive to place the burden and blame on parents alone. We should hold parents to high expectations of involvement, the same way that we hold our students to high academic expectations. But just as we can’t hold students to high expectations without working hard to support their effort, we can’t hold parents to high expectations without working hard to reach them. Just as we can’t test students on material we haven’t taught, we can’t have expectations for parents that we haven’t communicated.

References

Birman, D., Weinstein, T., Chan, W. Y., & Beehler, S. (2007) Immigrant youth in U.S. schools: Opportunities for prevention. The Prevention Researcher, 14(4), 14-17.

Keller, B. (2008). Schools seek to channel parental involvement. Education Week, 27(31), 1-17.

Seitsinger, A. M., Feiner, R. D., Brand, S., & Burns, R. (2008). A large-scale examination of the nature and efficacy of teachers’ practices to engage students: Assessment, parental contact, and student-level impact. Journal of School Psychology, 46(4), 477-505.