How communication between parents and teachers benefits student achievement.

1. How can teachers better communicate with
parents and families?
How does communication help
achievement?
What can the Parents do to Help?
Lauren Schluensen
SOE 115 Psychology of Teaching and Learning
Kendall College

2. Why is Family-Teacher Communication so
Important?
I personally think that
communication is the basis of all
children’s growth. It is so important
for teacher to be communicating to
the parents and families and vice
versa. I work in a preschool so I have
had a lot of hands on experience
where communication has helped a
situation improve and get so much
better, and I have also seen the lack
of communication hinder the growth
and improvement of a child.

3. Source #1: How can Teachers Better Communicate
with Families?
•Tell parents at the beginning of the year how and when the teacher
will be communicating with them. This allows the parents to know
that the teacher values their questions and concerns.
•Teachers also need to not be afraid to tell parents during meetings
that they need time to think, asses or evaluate something and get
back to them on an answer. This shows parents that the teacher
cares about the growth of the child and isn’t telling the parent an
answer for temporary satisfaction.
•Tell parents immediately when the teacher is concerned about
something or there is an issue. Parents don’t want to wait till
progress reports come out. The sooner something is addressed the
sooner the child will grow and improve.
•When presenting a conflict to the parents about their child make
sure the teacher has an action plan to help solve the issue. It’s
always a great idea to give solutions so the teacher’s aren’t always
giving negative feedback to the parents.

4. Source #2: How does communication help achievement?
Here is an example on a specific school and it’s specific experiment.
This teacher divided his class into 2 groups. The teacher sent a
weekly generic email to his students parents describing what was
going on in the classroom, dates of quizzes, tests and general
information. He sent this email to parents in both groups of
students but changing only one thing for one group. Group 1 had a
sentence added at the end saying thank you to the parent for being
actively involved in their child’s education and that parent’s do
make a difference in the child’s education. The teacher saw an
immense change where group 1 passed group 2 in student
achievement. The teacher says, “No parent wants to feel that he or
she is not living up to expectations as a parent, especially when it
comes to education.”

5. What the family does is more important to student
achievement than the family income or education. Here are 3
variables that can help the quality of parent involvement. 1.
The parent’s understanding of his or her role in the child’s
life. 2. The parent’s level of belief that s/he can help the child
succeed in school. 3. The general opportunities for
involvement presented by both the child and the school.
Joyce Epstein identified 6 categories of involvement that has shown
a positive effect on student achievement. 1. Providing for children’s
basic needs. 2. Improving communication between home and
school. 3. Helping children at home with school work. 4.
Volunteering and participating at the school. 5. Participating in
governance and advocacy activities. 6. Collaborating with the
community.
Source 3: What can the Parents do to Help?

6. Analysis
My sources are all different, but they also all connect and
go together. My first source talked about how teachers can
communicate to parents and families. Giving some advice
as to what teachers should do at the beginning of the year.
My second source showed a test of how making parents
feel important and making them feel like they are helping
improved student achievement. By the teacher encouraging
the parents it made the parents do even more at home to
help their child and so their achievement increased. The
third source shared ways for parents to be involved and the
quality of their involvement. What the parents can do at
home and in the community to help their child grow.

7. Conclusion
School is a very important part of children’s lives and when
parents show their children they are interested in their school
it encourages the children. When the teacher communicates
to the parents it helps the parents know and have a better
understanding on how to be supportive to their child. I think
these 3 sources are really good at showing the process of
how each role plays together in part of helping
communication and helping improving student achievement.

8. References
Mariconda, B. (2003). Five Keys to Successful Parent-Teacher
Communication (S., Ed.). Retrieved May 17, 2017.
AMLE - Association for Middle Level Education, & A. (2010, March).
Parent-Teacher Communication, Student Engagement, and Math. Retrieved May
17, 2017.
Orsinger, K., & Otal, J. (2002). Improving Student
Achievement by Increasing School-Family Communication and Family
Involvement Kate Orsinger and Juan Otal Carlin Springs Elementary
Submitted June 2002. Retrieved May 17, 2017.