Children, Education, And Parents

As teachers are being held accountable for student achievement, parents are not. However, many educators are making extra attempts to involve parents in the hope that parents will have an effect on the standardized test scores. According to studies on parental involvement completed by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Project, when a significant amount of parents is involved, the whole school improves. This involvement should extend from home to the school and throughout all the years from preschool to high school. Parents are mostly involved at the elementary levels, at the middle and secondary levels, parents are not as involved and there are not many studies involving parental involvement in the older grades.

Why then, since educators are required to improve student achievement, is one of the most valuable resources being ignored? It appears that it would be a very simple equation which is parents plus involvement equal student achievement. Perhaps schools are focusing too much on content and how to teach it. Maybe parental programs should become part of the school curriculum; certainly they are becoming part of many school improvement plans.

Many of the studies conducted on parental involvement take place in the very schools that are failing. Schools that are in low-income areas have historically low parental involvement. Some of the reasons cited for the lack of involvement are: lack of time and energy (many parents work very long hours to make ends meet), embarrassment about their lack of education or verbal ability, lack of understanding about the functioning of the school, perceived lack of welcome by teachers and administrators, and the assumption by teachers and administrators that parents are not interested in their children’s education.