The topic of family involvement with children’s education has caught my attention since I have seen a lack of it throughout my own education. Parent involvement is generally low or not enough in certain urban districts. Many parents seem unaware of the importance of their participation and the large role they play on their children’s education. It is many concepts and factors that can potentially affect students’ academic performance. It is socio economic, family factors that can negatively affect a student’s learning engagement and participation in educational achievement. The question then is: How can Public schools promote family involvement?
The school site I conducted my observations was PS/IS 30 Mary White Ovington. Located in the neighborhood of Bay Ridge in Downtown Brooklyn. This school in particular carries grades k-8, however I only observed a 1st grade general education class. This school consists of 54% White (the majority); the minorities: Hispanic: 29%, Asian: 15%, and Black: 2%. It is also
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Weiner mentions Teachers Unions such as The National Union of Teachers (NUT) which promotes “embedding in its vision for public education and developing on-the-ground alliances with parents and students.” (Weiner, 1) reveling teachers efforts to find a solution to this topic.
In addition Henderson, the author of Beyond the Bake Sale: How School Districts Can Promote Family Involvement states, “For a district to be serious about closing the achievement gap, it will also have to be serious about closing the gap between schools that do and do not welcome partnerships with families. All of us- teachers, parents, administrators, office holders, community members, students, family members, and local organizations- must work together to make this happen.” It takes team work and speaking out/ reaching out to see changes.
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In the effort to support a growing population of diverse students, states are encouraging schools to promote family engagement and education equality. To help with this promotion schools need to have a welcoming and friendly environment for students, family, and staff members. The purpose for family engagement is to get families evolved in education to help support the academic success of their children. The most common family engagement opportunity is an open house right before school starts and parent/teacher conferences. However, family engagement events should be promoted throughout the year just not 3 times a year.
Effective partnerships between families and school emerge from a mutual trust, respect and understanding of each other’s values and goals. By maintaining such partnerships, we create a healthy environment for children to develop. All families have something unique to offer and educators need to recognize this and make the most of it by incorporating all families into the school community.
“It is in the public schools that we learn the art of living together as citizens, and it is in public schools that we are obliged to defend the idea of a public, not only a private, interest.” (Page 176.)
As a mean to supporting family engagement and child’s learning, it is crucial that programs implement strategies for developing partnerships with families. But do the children benefit from effective family engagement? Family engagement pertains to all young children across ethnic backgrounds and early childhood education programs. Parents from diverse backgrounds, when given direction, can become more engaged with their children. Family Engagement is important for young children’s skill. The skills include literacy, cognitive, math, and social development. When the families engage in their children’s education with the help of other educator’s assistance, this supports the early childhood learning, which is a very critical part to success
Once upon of time, I believed to be an expert on working with families, however the classes taught me that it is extremely different and difficult to understand how the dynamics of a family are different amongst each family, and any family is the same. Also, any family present the same issues, there are different factors that make families challenging. For instance, culture, religion, wealth, location, ages, gender, and others that will be identified as you get to know the family. For instance, I am currently working with the Unaccompanied Minor Children, they are children who cross the United States border to reunify with their families in most of the cases, and some cases the go to long foster care or friends. Most of this children are running away from violence, poverty, and extreme poverty.
Is there a style or kind of family with which you would be less comfortable working with than others? How might your biases impact your teaching and how would it come to terms with your feelings? I believe that I could work with every type of family even if I feel uncomfortable working with some. The families that I personally feel uncomfortable working with are families who are LGBTQ, parents who aren’t involved, and parents who ask a lot of questions. First of all, working with families who are LGBTQ would be really uncomfortable for me.
In the article by, Schwartz (n.d.) there are five strategies for increasing parental involvement. They are incentives that will motivate parents to come to their children’s’ school. The first strategy is to distribute newsletters, or email bulletins. This increases parents’ to become active in their children’s’ education. This allows parents to know about what their child is studying in the classroom. This notifies parents of upcoming assessments, long term projects, and special events. The second strategy is keep parents aware of their children’s’ progress. The parents need to sign their children’s tests, and assignments. The teacher will also send a progress report concerning how their child is doing in a certain subject. The third strategy, is to create a website for parents to view throughout the current month. This lets parents know what activities are going on in school, and how they stay active in their children’s education. The fourth strategy is to have parents come into the classroom. The teacher will discuss with parents that they can share a hobby, such as, photography or cooking. Parents can come in, and speak about their career that relates to the topic the students are studying in the classroom. The fourth strategy is encourage parents to attend parent teacher conferences. The teacher needs to demonstrate the “sandwich affect” that is discuss positive aspects of their
In the literature review written by Christenson et al (1999) numerous studies were identified that support the positive impact of family engagement on student and school outcomes. Christenson et al (1999) identified five factors that affect student achievement: parent expectations and attributions, structure for learning, home affective environment, discipline, and parent involvement. The review also discussed research conducted by Epstein (1991) which found that students have greater achievement gains in literacy when their teachers intentionally and purposefully emphasize family involvement, compare to those who do not. A study done by the U.S Department of Education (2001) found that teachers who were active in their outreach to parents of low achieving students saw a 50% high growth in reading test scores than students whose teachers and schools reported low levels of parent outreach. In the same study, math scores were 40% higher for students whose teachers reported high levels of parental outreach than students in whose teachers reported low levels of parental outreach activities (USDE,
When schools, parent, families and communities work together to support learning, students tend to earn higher grades, attend school more regularly, stay in school longer and enrol in other learning program establish by the school. Regardless of the parent’s education and family income, it has been found that parent involvement affects minority student’s academic achievement across all races.
Parental involvement promotes the social growth of a child. Children whose parents are involved in their education have many advantages. They have better grades, test scores, long-term academic achievement, attitudes and behavior than those with disinterested mothers and fathers (Gestwicki, 2001). Parents becoming involved in their child's schooling creates extra sources of social constraint to influence the child's behavior (McNeal, 2001). For example, parents talking to their children and becoming involved in the school conveys a message to the child of education being important. Parents should be talking with your children's teacher and letting her know about your family. The more she knows about your child, the better she will be able to connect with your child.
Parent involvement is a major topic of concern among policy makers, educators, and researchers (Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, & Maritato, 1997; Rouse & Barrow, 2006; Young, Austin, & Growe, 2013) for more than 20 years. School districts, educational leaders, and researchers all agree with the premise that strong school-family partnerships improve children’s learning and outcomes. Parents and schools, separately or together, represent noteworthy influences on the essential sources of support for children’s learning and development. Children develop within multiple contexts, and development and learning are optimal when effective networks and permanencies among these systems are created. Semke and Sheridan (2012) affirm methods
To conclude, my research shows a clear link between parental involvement and children performing better in school. Children who's parents are involved in their education are showing better performance and are achieving higher grades. They also show better behaviour, more enthusiasm, ambition and higher levels of engagement. compared with children who's parent are not involved in their education. My research also shows that parental involvement has great benefits for both children and parents in many ways, so much so that the most effective schools are those who encouraged parents to be involved.
Everyone seems to define family differently, however, the significance of family is the same. For you, family means everything. You can always count on your parents and siblings for help and love. Family is very valuable and important to you and should never be taken for granted. No one can deny that family is the foundation of our generation. A family is where we all start our life journey and helps us grow to be successful throughout our lives.
There are many benefits to teachings having a good relationship with the student’s family, guardian, or parents. Teachers should begin the school year with building positive relationships with the student’s families. In the book it mentions that there is ongoing research that indicates the benefits of family involvement in children’s education. Some of these benefits mentioned were children earning higher grades, tend to have better attendance, have higher rates of homework completion, and are more motivated and have positive attitudes towards school. Through the reading it also emphasizes on the increase in family involvement in children’s education will result in a decrease in students participating in substance abuse and violence. Students
There are so many different types of family relationships. Whatever form a family takes; it is an important part of everyone’s life. My family has played an important role in my life. Good family relationships serve as a foundation to interactions with others. Supportive families will help children to thrive. The quality of the family relationship is more important than the size of the family. Making the relationships priority, communication, and providing support for one another is key to developing relationships. Family relationships are what make up our world today; they shape the ways that we see things and the ways that we do things.