Educators recognize the significance of parental participation in a student's life. My statistics professor in graduate school informed us that parental support is an underlying aspect that influences all research projects.

1. Improving Parent Engagement in High
School
Educators recognize the significance of parental participation in a student's life. My statistics
professor in graduate school informed us that parental support is an underlying aspect that
influences all research projects. That is, regardless of what we as graduate students
examined for our thesis, such as links between nature experiences and achievement scores
in science class, parental support is an ever-greater predictor of academic success.
It is critical to leverage family influence, and I struggled with interacting with parents in high
school. Emails, phone calls, and open houses did not generate the level of parental
involvement that students required during such a challenging school year.
Emails were the most convenient for me because I could send them to an entire class of
parents at once, but I rarely received a response or even confirmation that the email was
read. I would then make phone calls. If you're anything like me, the prospect of phoning
parents due to conduct or academics made you nervous. When I did generate the nerve and
make the time to call my parents, I frequently left a voicemail and almost never received a
back call.
I understand. Answering a phone call at work is not always possible. In this day and age of
texting, I dislike chatting on the phone. Furthermore, open houses are a time when teachers
stay late into the evening so that parents can meet them, but very few parents go. I had one
family participate in such event last year.
There has to be more effective ways to engage parents.
EFFECTIVER STRATEGIES
Google Voice was introduced to me by an English instructor at my school. Last year, she
bemoaned how parents never answered to emails, but when she began texting them via
Google Voice, the response rate skyrocketed. She had talks with parents that she would not
have had otherwise; parents became more aware of missing assignments, and children
began turning in work, which resulted in higher class pass rates.

2. There are numerous advantages for teachers. They can still keep their personal phone
number private, and they can switch off Google Voice at the conclusion of the school day to
recharge both their phones and themselves. Teachers simply need a Google account to set
up a Google Voice phone number. Teachers and parents prefer texting to calling because it
saves time and is more convenient.
Interest-based open houses: A standard open house, in my experience, is rarely well
attended. However, when we provided activities targeted at a smaller population of students
at the school, parents went in considerably greater numbers. My school, for example, held
an AP Info Night to discuss the benefits of AP and the subjects we provided. Introduction
meetings for ACT Academy, an after-school program focused on ACT exam prep, were also
well attended. Smaller, more personalized open houses centered on a specific interest boost
parent engagement.
Attending extracurricular activities: Many parents are quite enthusiastic about their child's
extracurricular activities, such as athletics, theater, arts, or robotics. I was requested a few
months back to manage the scorebook for high school basketball games. Because I have
trouble saying no, I blocked out 10 evenings in my calendar for this task. I had more nice
chats with parents in the span of a few games than I ever had in my classroom. We
discussed anything from prior professors to present academics to issues in our
neighborhood of South Knoxville, Tennessee. I felt like I was a genuine member of the
community.
Of course, athletics aren't the only extracurricular activities available to students. Teachers
can engage with parents while also supporting kids at school musicals, marching band
competitions, choral performances, and robotics competitions, to name a few examples. The
presence of a teacher at these activities conveys to both students and parents that they care
about children beyond their test scores.
Some teachers, admittedly, find it quite difficult to participate in extracurricular activities.
Teachers may be responsible for smaller children who need to be picked up from day care or
older children who are involved in their own extracurricular activities. Some teachers work
part-time in the evenings to supplement their income. Other instructors work as bus aides
before and after school, which takes a lot of time and energy. Attending extracurricular
activities means going above and beyond the call of duty.
To be clear, this school year is hard, and teachers are already working a lot. There is
pressure to make up for missed time due to closures and virtual learning, and kids are
misbehaving, failing to turn in work, and being hooked to their phones, exacerbating

3. academic problems. Teachers should not overburden themselves by attending every
extracurricular event, which would be difficult given the number of activities available after
school. It's important to understand one's own limitations.
Because parents and guardians are such key stakeholders in their children's education, let
us as educators find the best and most successful ways to interact with them. Teachers need
all the aid they can get throughout a school year that requires so much attention for mask
demands, student conduct, boosting academic success, and providing a safe space for
children.