Parental Involvement in Education: Engaged and Committed Partnership?

The premise in the title suggests that active, regular parental involvement in the education of their children is truely a two-way street and interaction regarding improving and assuring a quality education.

But parental involvement in education brings a couple of viewpoints and concerns to the table. Questions arise whether parental involvement in education is/could be:

a valuable, if largely untapped, resource for schools struggling to provide state-of-the-art, world-class instruction with diminishing funds
a way to instill pride and interest in schooling, increase student achievement, and enhance a sense of community and commitment
one more responsibility to add to overburdened teachers and administrators
a threat to the autonomy and professionalism of the schools
Does parent involvement have positive effects on student achievement? If so, what type of involvement works best?
What are the effects of parent involvement on other student outcomes, such as attitude, self-concept, classroom behavior, and attendance?
Is parent involvement useful beyond the preschool and early elementary grades--in middle school and high school? If so, what form should it take?
What is known about the uses of parent involvement in predominantly minority and/or lower income communities?
What, if any, effects on children's schooling can be attributed to parent involvement in the governance of schools?

The concept of parent involvement in education is not a new one and in this context it refers to different forms of participation in education and working with the educational institutions/schools by attending school functions and responding to parent-teacher nights, taking a hands-on approach helping with homework assignments and encourage , arranging for appropriate, set and scheduled time and space for schoolwork, modeling desired behaviour (sitting down to read a book for pleasure, leisure and enjoyment), monitoring progress and actively tutoring at home to supplement classroom and school activity. Advocacy for the school, volunteer work OR an active role in governance and decision-making are also options on the continuum of involvement.

So what is the verdict?

research overwhelmingly demonstrates that parent involvement in children's learning is positively related to achievement.
the more intensively parents are involved in their children's learning, the more beneficial are the achievement effects
strong indications that the most effective forms of parent involvement are those which engage parents in working directly with their children on learning activities in the home. Programs which involve parents in reading with their children, supporting their work on homework assignments, or tutoring them using materials and instructions provided by teachers, show particularly impressive results.
the more active forms of parent involvement produce greater achievement benefits than the more passive ones. That is, if parents receive phone calls, read and sign written communications from the school, and perhaps attends and listens during parent teacher conferences, greater achievement benefits accrue than would be the case with no parent involvement at all. However, considerably greater achievement benefits are noted when parent involvement is active--when parents work with their children at home, certainly, but also when they attend and actively support school activities and when they help out in classrooms or on field trips, and so on.
the earlier in a child's educational process parent involvement begins, the more powerful the effects will be.

Resources For Parenting Troubled Teens

Resource Catalog

- Resource Catalog with Information on Schools and Programs for Troubled Teens.