The document discusses the importance of parent involvement in promoting student achievement. It provides information from four credible sources that find parental involvement positively impacts students' academic performance, behavior, attendance, and social-emotional development. The sources outline how involvement can include parenting skills, communication, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and community collaboration. While parent involvement benefits students generally, the document notes some research questioning whether approaches are equally effective across all cultural and socioeconomic groups.

1. Parent involvement to promote
student achievement
Viviana Alvarez
SOE 115

2. What is parent involvement ?
Parent involvement is the amount of time
a parent takes to participate and commit
in the childs life when it comes to their
education and their school life .
I currently am struggling to get
parents currently involved in their child's
education and my question was does
parent involvement really matter and will
it promote student achievement ?

3. Credible source 1
According to the center of public education ,parent involvement can make a difference in a students life .In their
research they found that “creating a partnership between parents and schools focused on academics truly does
have significant impact on student achievement.”
Joyce Epstein of the Johns Hopkins University, one of the nation’s leading experts on parent involvement, divided
school parent involvement programs into six categories:
• Parenting, in which schools provide information on children’s developmental stages and offering advice .
• Communicating, or working to educate families about their child’s progress and provide parents opportunities
to communicate with the school;
• Volunteering, offering parents choices to volunteer at the school
• Learning at home, in which parents are given advice on how to help students at home including their
homework
• Decision-making, schools include parents in school organizations, advisory panels, and similar committees.
• Community collaboration, a two-way outreach strategy in which community or groups are involved in
education and schools encourage family participation in the community.
• A major report by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) : “Programs and interventions
that engage families in supporting their children’s learning at home are linked to higher student achievement.”

4. Credible Source 2
• Extensive research has shown that students achieve more in school when their parents are involved in their education.
This article I read discusses the role parents can play in a child's education. It also says what the No Child Left Behind
Act (NCLB) says about parental involvement. Research done has showed the following conclusions .
• The more involved the parents are, the greater the positive impact on academic achievement.
• Parental involvement leads to better classroom behavior.it enhances academic performance and influences student
attitude and behavior . It can affect the childs attitude ,self esteem absenteeism and motivation.
• Parents should stay involved in their children's education from preschool through high school. It can make a positive
difference at all ages. Parental involvement tends to be the greater with small children and not as much as they get older. Studies
have shown that involvement of parents of middle and high school students is equally important.
• Training helps parents of disadvantaged children get involved.
• Reading together at home greatly improves reading skills.
• Parental involvement lifts teacher morale. It helps teacher know student better .
• It benefits both parent and students .they feel closer to the child and feel they made a difference . Some studies show that
a parent's participation in a child's education may inspire the parent to further his or her own education.
• Lack of time is the greatest barrier to parental involvement.
• Goal of NCLB is requiring the education system to reach out to parents by communicating effectively with them and by providing
opportunities for parents to learn how to assist their children. Schools are required to inform parents of their rights to be involved.
Parents who may not speak English must be accommodated, Schools may be required to provide transportation, child care,
or home visits if necessary to reach out to parents and get them involved.

5. Credible source 3
• According to an article done by surf net parents
research shows
*Lack of parent involvement is one of the biggest problems facing the public school system
today.
*Parent involvement has helped students increase test scores and graduation rates.
*Parent involvement has increased the number of children attending schools and decreased
the number of absences.
*Parent involvement increases motivation and improves self esteem.
*Parent involvement has decreased the use of drugs, alcohol, and violent behavior.
This list shows that parent involvement goes further than just in school. Parent involvement
affects a child’s personality and their social behaviors………. other benefits include :
*parents can help teachers get tasks done
*Parents that volunteer and come can help children to focus on a specific area of need.
*Parents can see teachers teaching styles and also gives them opportunities to see other
ways of dealing with problems that they have at home .
*It shows kids that they are important enough to their parents to take time out of their day to
come in and help.
*Parent involvement also gives other parents a chance to get to know one another. Getting to
know the parents of students is just as important as getting to the students themselves.

6. Credible source
4
• ‘’ Research on the effects of parental involvement has shown a consistent, positive relationship between
parents' engagement in their children's education and student outcomes.” (education.state university)
• Wendy S. Grolnick said in article she published that involvement includes parent–child interactions that provide
positive attitudes about school and how important education is . Cognitive/intellectual involvement is behaviors
that promote student skill development, like reading books and going to museums. Parental involvement,
according to this theory, affects student achievement because it affect students' motivation and helps them
believe that they have control over their success in school.
Kathleen V. Hoover-Dempsey and Howard M. Sandler in articles they published defined parent involvement as
homed based activities as well as schoolbased activities . In this theory, when parents are involved children’s
education is affected through their knowledge, skills, and more confidence that they can succeed in school.
• Susan L. Dauber and Joyce L. Epstein found that schools and teachers were the strongest predictors of
parental involvement. They can involve families by: assigning homework designed to increase student-parent
interactions, having workshops for families, and communicating to parents about their children.
• Michelle Fine, in a 1993 article, and Annette Lareau, in her 1989 book Home Advantage, raised concern about
the widespread implementation of parent-involvement policy and practices. Their concern was that teachers
use a "one-size-fits-all" approach. The result is that schools focus on white, upper- and middle-class but not
other backgrounds.
• Research has shown differences in parental involvement, beliefs, and the home-school relationship across
different groups. The different beliefs between parents and teachers can lead to confusions and the
development of negative home-school relationships. Whether and how parent-involvement programs can be
equal to families from all backgrounds is still an issue.
•

8. • All 4 sources I feel all agreed to the importance of
having parent involvement to promote student
achievement . I found so much useful information
and statistics. It was hard just to focus on a few . All
gave great reasons on why it is important . Some
had a few more than others but all agreed that
parental involvement is very important. The only one
that demonstrated that it may not always be good is
my last source. It claims that sometimes people of
different class or race are not included in parent
involvement activities or treated differently. These
articles also gave tips on how teachers can promote
parent involvement, some in which I will be trying .
Analysis

9. Connections
• ‘’NCLB requires that all schools
receiving Title I dollars have a
written parental involvement
policy which is developed jointly
with, and agreed upon
by parents and educators”
• Schools must have strategies that
are successful to get parents
involved.
• The following link helps determine
how well your school is addressing
parental involvement according to
NCLB.
• file:///C:/Users/owner/Downloads/
WhatNCLBSaysAboutParentInvolv
ement.pdf

10. Connections
• According to Lev Vygotsky an important theory called the “zone of proximal
development” which looks at the range of actions a child can perform alone
and how someone with a better understanding of the world such as a parent
or teacher, can guide what the child already knows; helping the child to learn
more about the world around them(Brooks, 2011)
• With parent involvement the child is getting the best of both worlds he/she is
getting guidance from both parent and teacher . Having both to guide them
will help promote student achievement .

11. Conclusion
• Parent involvement is very important when it comes to student achievement. I
feel a child needs both parents and teachers to guide them in life. Even if the
parent can find just a little bit of time a day I think it will make a difference . I
now see how it affects children when parents are involved. I feel if parents are
more involved it will help students achieve and succeed in life. I thinks us as
teachers play a major role in getting parents involved . I plan on working
harder and letting families know how important it is to have them participate in
their children's educations starting at a young age. I plan to share all the
information I got from researching and make them feel welcomed . I feel
together we teachers and parents can both help promote student
achievement .

12. • http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/104/
Supplement_1/164
• https://www.surfnetparents.com/662/pros-and-
cons-of-parent-involvement/
• https://www.childtrends.org/indicators/parental-
involvement-in-schools/
• http://education.stateuniversity.com/page/learnin
gtheoriesandfamily.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/3
3/s/2309/Parental-Involvement-in-Education.html
http://www.centerforpublic
education.org/research/ba
ck-school-how-parent-
involvement-affects-
student-achievement-
glance
https://www.publicschoolre
view.com/blog/parental-
involvement-is-key-to-
student-success
Resources