Table of Contents
1 Parents, Families, Teachers, and School Appreciating and Supporting Each Other 7
1 Recognize the various assumptions and myths that surround parental involvement in schools. 7
2 Resist the temptation to indulge in the "blame game" or the blaming of parents and students for low achievement. 12
3 Develop an understanding of what parents want from an open house as a promotional school event. 14
4 Learn what your teacher education program didn't tell you about parent conferences. Get help from knowledgeable colleagues, master teachers, or a college or university supervisor. 16
5 Develop strategies to involve those hard-to-reach parents, and take the time to meet parents where they are to form meaningful parent-school partnerships. 19
6 Learn how some parents succeed in managing their children's education, and develop strategies to help parents help their children to succeed academically. 21
7 Be aware that there is a correlation between a teacher's effort and class size and how these factors play a part in how and when parents support their children at home with schoolwork. 24
2 Teachers, Students, Families, and Homework 29
8 Engage in fresh dialogue with all stakeholders about homework trends as they relate to teachers, parents, students, and others to make homework a more important, vital, and valid part of your academic standards. 29
9 Parents need to know that homework provides students with time and experience to develop positive beliefs about achievement and with strategies for coping with setbacks and difficulties. 34
10 Take a fresh look at how the concept of homework can present unexpected problems for students and families. 37
11 Reflect on struggling students' homework difficulties when working with elementary school learners and their parents. 40
3 Teachers, Students, Families, and Literacy 45
12 Literacy programs work best by involving the whole family. 45
13 Find the out-of-classroom forces that shape reading habits and reading choices of young people to better develop their personal reading interests. 47
14 Rather than imposing a school literacy curriculum on parents, consider listening to the parents' voices about a "shared" curriculum. 50
15 Become an advocate for improved home literacy environments (HLEs) for all students, especially for preschool and K-3 students. 52
16 Reflect on the complex issues surrounding school literature selection for bilingual and bicultural students. 54
17 Develop proactive strategies to help nonreading parents support their children in becoming successful readers and writers. 55
4 Teachers, Students, Families, and Mathematics 59
18 Take steps to communicate with parents about mathematical concepts, skills, and problem solving, and share assessment tools and home activities geared toward helping parents target weaknesses and assist their children. 59
19 Help parents realize that their expectations and perceptions of confidence in their student's mathematic ability and their child's ability to take risks and enroll in higher-level math courses are predictors for math performance. 61
20 Encourage English language learners and their parents not to emphasize low-level language and vocabulary skills over opportunities to actively and repeatedly communicate and engage in discourse about mathematical ideas, even if it is in their native language. 63
21 Realize that parents suffer from math anxiety too. 66
5 Teachers, Schools, Families, and the Special Education Student 71
22 Consider how parents might be reacting to their child with a learning disability and how that might affect the student in class. 71
23 Consider the parents' level or stage regarding their child with a disability before recommending specific services and accommodations. 74
24 Help parents understand the nature of ADHD so they can better help you and their child manage the rigor of the classroom and academic workload. 76
25 Teachers need to help parents help students with Individual Educational Plans (IEPs) and define the parental role in the process. 80
6 Looking at the Roles of Nonparental Caregivers in the Student's Life 83
26 Develop more specialized strategies for involvement when grandparents or other caregivers are primarily responsible for raising school-age children. 83
27 Be aware that in many cases, siblings replace parents as information sources when parents are not able to assist students with the college or and application pathways. 86
28 Develop a comprehensive picture of the many benefits of a broad definition of parent, family, and/or community involvement in all stages of the educational process.
7 Communicating With Families and Bridging the Gap Between School and Home 91
29 You can influence secondary school family outreach and involvement in a positive way by knowing what types of outreach parents would be most likely to respond to and appreciate. 91
30 Give your parents and the community opportunities to participate in developing learning partnerships. 94
31 Few schools have a clear or explicit rationale for parental involvement or participation, so when updating your classroom's or school's home, community and school policy, it is helpful to discuss with all stakeholders the hoped-for benefits of parental involvement. 97
32 Middle school teachers need to recognize and work with communication preferences of parents to foster more effective communication and avoid miscommunication. 101
33 Examine one model, an online environment used as a vehicle for parent-teacher communication using technology. 103
34 Help parents understand media coverage of educational issues. Informed parents should not let national media reports change their views of their own children's abilities or local schools. 105
35 Explore the concept of "ambiguous loss" as a useful concept to understand the idea of parental deployment and students in military families. 107
36 Help parents make informed decisions regarding afterschool programs and out-of-school time. 110
8 Working With Families and Especially Challenging Students 117
37 Know how researchers define at-risk, high-risk, and disadvantaged parents, students, and neighborhoods, and begin to look at those factors through the students' and parents' eyes. 117
38 Be aware that parents and teachers often differ in their views of adolescent stress, conflict, moodiness, and risk-taking behavior. 120
39 Be aware that "at-risk" may mean that a student is living with a mentally ill parent. 123
40 By targeting the father's involvement with their children, schools can add another protective factor in counteracting the conditions that might lead to low school achievement levels. 126
41 Understand the beliefs that low-income parents have about their role in their children's academic learning. 131
9 Working With Families From Nondominant Cultures 137
42 Examine the role of parents in high-achieving schools serving low-income, at-risk populations. 137
43 Include parents from marginalized groups by making them feel welcome with a plan to communicate with them about their student(s). 139
44 Involve nondominant and culturally diverse parents as resources in the classroom. 141
45 Help educate parents from nondominant cultures in the differences in high school course placement as they relate to college and university entrance requirements. 144
46 Become knowledgeable about how the parental demographic (socioeconomic status and ethnicity) background influences parental academic involvement. 146
47 Consider how students from nondominant backgrounds are impacted by a teacher's homework practices. 149
10 Families, Schools, and the Social Aspects of the Classroom 153
48 Enlist the help of parents toward the acquisition and teaching of instructional-related social skills as they may be different from the social skills parents value at home. 153
49 Understand the role parents play in bullying behavior at school. 156
50 Become aware of how parents react to their children being excluded from mainstream school due to behavior problems. 159
11 The Role of the School Administrator: Increasing Student Achievement Through Parent Involvement 163
51 Be aware of the potential disconnect between parent and teacher perceptions of family involvement, and set up systems to ameliorate the difference in views. 163
52 Make "compliance" your friend. Use NCLB as an avenue to promote parent and community relations through attention to discourse surrounding home-school communications and policies, and use school councils effectively to advance the culture of collaboration with parents and community at your site. 169
53 When working with parents and the community, be an authentic leader. 174
54 Be aware that traditional parental involvement practices could actually serve to exclude the very parents you'd like to involve. 177
55 Put it all together: Plan and collaboratively lead the parent involvement initiative at your school. 181
Index 185
