Dealing with Parental Participation

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the importance of close communication and interaction between a school and its parents. It looks at issues of diversity and how these affect parental participation and discusses how the school administration can combat any problems that arise. The paper suggests that apart from the obvious academic improvement amongst students that will be achieved from healthy associations between teachers and parents, students will also experience personal enhancements, cooperation, respect for adult intervention and enthusiasm for community work.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Significance of Parental Participation
Problems of Parental Participation
Problems faced by School Administrators
Strategies for Parental Participation
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Being a school administrator in an urban school setting, the study that had been conducted by Nistler and Angela (2000) was extremely helpful to me. Its main goal was to design an effective parent-student program while keeping in mind the urban low-income earners. The researchers took into consideration the first graders from two different schools and separate years and designed a four-staged program. In each phase, both the student and parent had a designated task: in the first phase, both read aloud poems; in the second, both read and sang the alphabet song; in the third, both got involved individually and collectively in numerous literacy and math courses; and in the last phase, there was a parent-teacher meeting. Almost 1/3 of the parents did not have a high school degree. In the first year 96.5% of the students had the support of their parents present while this dropped by 2% in year two. The researchers concluded that the removal of peripheral responsibilities like babysitting and transportation led to higher cooperation from the parents. The end result was increased and enthusiastic participation of the parents even if they did not have precise knowledge of the matter being presented in class. The interest of the parents encouraged the students to develop interest as well."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Adunyarittigun, D. (1997). Effects of the parent volunteer program upon students' self-perception as a reader. (Report No. CS012713). University of Maryland College Park. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED404617).
• Ammon, M. S., & Chrispeels, J. (1998). Preparing educators for partnerships with families. Sacramento, CA: California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
• Anders, P. L., & Richardson, V. (1994). Launching a new form of staff development. In V. Richardson (Ed.), Teacher change and the staff development process: A case in reading instruction (pp. 1-22). New York: Teacher College Press.
• Apple, M. W., & Beane, J. A. (Eds.). (1995). Democratic schools. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
• Atkin, J., & Bastiani, J. (1988). Listening to parents: An approach to the improvement of home-school relations. London: Croom Helm.

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