The Impact of Parental Involvement on Student Success

To create a support system for their students, schools must form partnerships with parents and share responsibility for their children's success in education. Schools need to build connections with parents and foster mutual responsibility for children's achievements. This approach increases parental involvement, encourages parents to support schools, and allows them to make a positive impact on a successful educational system.

Models of parental involvement

Parenting: Includes all the activities that parents do to raise happy and healthy children who become capable students. Unlike teachers, who have a limited influence on a child’s life, parents have a lifelong commitment to their children. Activities that support this involvement give parents information about their child’s development, health, safety, or home conditions that can help with learning. These activities include parent education and other courses or training for parents, family support programs that assist families with health, nutrition, and other services, and home visits during important transitions to elementary, middle, and secondary school.

Communicating: Families and schools communicate in various ways. Schools send home notes and flyers about important events and activities. Parents provide teachers with information about their child's health and educational background. The school website is another way to connect with parents and families. This includes having conferences with every parent at least once a year, offering language translators to help families as needed, and maintaining a regular schedule of useful notices, memos, phone calls, newsletters, and other communications.

Volunteering: involves recruiting and organizing help from parents for school programs and student activities. Individuals can volunteer in three main ways in education. First, they may assist teachers and administrators in the school or classroom, serving as tutors or helpers. Second, they might volunteer for the school by fundraising for events or promoting it in the community. Finally, they can participate as audience members by attending school programs or performances. 

This includes a school or classroom volunteer program to support teachers, administrators, students, and other parents; a parent room or family center for volunteer work, meetings, and resources for families; and an annual postcard survey to identify available talents, times, and locations of volunteers.

Learning at home:  involves giving parents ideas and information on how they can best support their children with homework and school-related activities. Parents helping their children with homework or taking them to a museum are examples of this kind of involvement. 

These activities create a school-focused family and encourage parents to engage with the school curriculum. Activities that promote learning at home provide parents with details about what their children are doing in the classroom and how to assist them with homework. This includes information for families on the skills students need in all subjects at each grade level, guidance on homework policies, ways to monitor and discuss schoolwork at home, and opportunities for families to participate in setting student goals each year and in planning for college or work.

Decision making: refers to involving parents in school choices and developing parent leaders and representatives. Parents participate when they join school governance committees or organizations like the parent-teacher association. Other activities include taking on leadership roles that involve sharing information with other parents. This includes active PTA/PTO or other parent organizations, advisory councils, or committees for parent leadership and participation. It also covers independent advocacy groups that lobby for school reform and improvements, as well as networks connecting all families with parent representatives.

Determinants of Parental Involvement

Parental Aspirations: Parental aspirations refer to the hopes or goals that parents have for their children's future. Parents who have high hopes for their children are more likely to put in the effort to help those hopes come true. Research shows that educational and job expectations influence how parents guide their children's activities, time, and learning environment.

Parenting Self-Efficacy: Researchers have studied parenting self-efficacy extensively. It has proven to be a strong factor in effective parenting behavior in Western societies. Parents with high self-efficacy tend to be more optimistic, authoritative, and consistent in their interactions with their children.

Perceptions of the School: Parents’ level of involvement is likely to be influenced by the school itself. If teachers show they care about the child's well-being, respect parents, and create good ways to communicate with families, parents are more willing and able to engage in their children's education.

Examples of good practice (parent involvement)

Protective Model: The goal of this model is to avoid conflict between teachers and parents by keeping teaching and parenting separate. It is called the protective model because it aims to shield the school from parental interference. The teacher's job is to educate children, while the parent's job is to ensure children arrive at school on time with the right supplies. In this model, parental involvement is viewed as unnecessary and potentially disruptive to children's education.

The Transmission Model: is based on the idea that teachers see themselves as the main experts on children while also recognizing that parents can be valuable resources. In this model, the teacher stays in control and decides on the intervention, but acknowledges that parents can play a key role in helping their children progress. Teachers who use this approach need extra skills, including ways to effectively guide parents and strong interpersonal skills to build productive working relationships. One downside of this approach is the belief that all parents can—and should—act as resources. This model may overload parents by putting too many demands on them to carry out activities at home.

Curriculum-enrichment Model: The goal of this model is to expand the school curriculum by including contributions from parents. This model assumes that parents have valuable expertise to share, and that interaction between parents and teachers will improve the curriculum and the school’s educational objectives. Parent involvement in this model mainly focuses on curriculum and instruction within schools.

Partnership Model: is the best model where teachers are seen as experts in education and parents are viewed as experts on their children. The aim is to create a partnership where teachers and parents share their knowledge and authority to provide the best education for kids. Each party brings unique strengths to the relationship. Mutual respect, a lasting commitment to various activities, and shared responsibilities in planning and decision-making are essential for forming true partnerships between parents and teachers.

Conclusion

Parental involvement offers a valuable chance for schools to improve their current programs by including parents in the educational process. Research shows that more parental participation leads to greater student success, higher satisfaction for both parents and teachers, and a better school environment. To support effective parental involvement, schools may have partnership programs that continually develop, carry out, assess, and enhance plans and practices that encourage family and community engagement. Schools can promote involvement in several areas, including parenting, learning at home, communication, volunteering, decision-making, and community teamwork. Effective parental involvement programs consider the specific needs of the community. To build trust, successful approaches to parent involvement focus on positive interactions. While details may differ, all parent involvement programs aim to boost collaboration between parents and schools to encourage healthy child development and safe school environments.