Parent and Community Involvement

Introduction to Parent and Community Involvement

Parent involvement requirements have been strengthened to recognize the important role of Title I families in education. Never before has a strong emphasis been placed on engaging Title I families in the education of their children. The potential for "improved achievement" among Title I students due to genuine parent involvement is not something a test might easily or accurately measure. A child's test score could improve due to a parent's involvement. But that would only measure a small part of the benefits. Involving the family in education feeds into building a supportive, on-going framework for the child's learning at home. Even more, parent involvement provides an opportunity for schools to incorporate families' insights and expertise into the education of their children. Schools can positively influence parents' involvement in their children's education through establishing parent centers and hosting parent resource fairs and workshops on parent effectiveness. Schools can also encourage parents to organize parent-led support groups where families can share their experiences and their knowledge with each other Establishing a parent involvement task force to plan, monitor, and evaluate parent involvement activities is an avenue through which schools can encourage parent leadership and enhance involvement. Just as "it takes a village to raise a child," the support of the whole community helps prepare children for the complex choices they must make in a changing world. Schools are increasingly involving business, community agencies, churches, and others in assisting students with the process of shaping their life careers. The school-to-work program is one example of collaboration between the school and the community. School-to-work programs focus on bridging the gap between school and work, and in doing so, engage the community in the career education and development of students. Businesses recognize the growing need for technically, academically, and socially prepared workers and are collaborating with schools to provide up-to-date education and training for the students who will be their future workers. Tech prep programs involve employers in identifying the skills necessary for employment in their industries--thus establishing benchmarks for education and skill achievement. Such collaborative efforts can help students develop relevant skills for the workplace through revised up-to-date curriculum, youth apprenticeships, and mentoring experiences. Service learning projects that link students and community organizations are another example of school-community partnerships. Service learning helps students learn the habits and conditions of the workplace as well as the personal benefit of doing service work. These are a few of the issues, policies and programs that the Region III Comprehensive Center recognizes as important in building good school-family-community partnerships. This focus area offers information and resources concerning research and best practices in family and community involvement on these and other topics.