What can parents do at home?

Parents

Research on what works

Helping our children succeed

Helping your child succeed at school may be easier than you think.

Research shows that simply being involved with your child at home makes a difference. Talking to your son or daughter about their day and letting your kids know that school is important to you. In fact, parental involvement at home has more impact on student achievement than parental involvement in school-based activities.

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Parent Involvement: What Works?
Author Michelle Goldberg, Researcher-in-Residence, People for Education

Parent involvement is the latest trend sweeping Ontario education. It is a priority in most of our schools, making demands on our time, energy and resources. But what does the research say about parent involvement? What really works? Where should we be focusing our efforts for the greatest impact on student achievement?

We examined a number of studies, from Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., and overall the research indicates that parental involvement at home has more impact on student achievement than parental involvement in school-based activities (Jenynes, 2005). Having high expectations of your child is the most significant contributor to their academic achievement (Jeynes, 2005). The next most important forms of parental involvement are reading with your children and communicating with them about school. Surprisingly, the research showed that checking homework had no impact on children’s academic achievement.

What this means is the less conspicuous aspects of parental involvement may have more of an impact than we tend to believe. And getting involved in your children’s education in a way that improves their chances for success at in school may be as simple as creating an educationally oriented atmosphere at home.

School-based parent involvement programs that tend to be the most successful are programs that are built on a philosophical foundation of partnership. These include programming for both parents and children, programs that target the home as well as the school, and those programs that have a focus on involvement that is linked to achievement (See Pelletier & Corter, 2005). Programs and interventions work best when they include strategies that respect the needs of families and address barriers to involvement such as childcare, transportation, and scheduling conflicts. Furthermore, for culturally diverse families, programs that recognize, respect, and address cultural and class differences are more effective. When programs are reflective in this way, parents are more likely to participate as well (Henderson & Mapp, 2002).

While the research proves that there is a direct benefit for students when their parents are involved in their education, there are also side benefits for parents themselves - they learn more about public education in Ontario, they become part of a school community, and they become engaged as citizens (People for Education, 2008) (Corter & Pelletier, 2004).

To contact Michelle Goldberg via email: mgoldberg@oise.utoronto.ca

Research Sources:

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List of Research Sources on Parent Involvement

By Michelle Goldberg, Researcher-in-Residence, People for Education: mgoldberg@oise.utoronto.ca

Colorado Dept of Education, (2007). Immigrant Integration: Educator Resource Guide. Colorado: Colorado Department of Education and Colorado Trust. http://www.thecoloradotrust.org/repository/publications/pdfs/SIRFI/IIERG_final.2-08.optimized.pdf

Corter, C. & Pelletier, J. (2004). The rise and stall of parent and community involvement in schools. Schools Families, and Communities: Which Relationships Matter Most? Orbit, Vol. 34(3): 7-12. http://www.scribd.com/doc/2210749/Rise-and-Stall-of-Parent-and-Community-Involve-Carl-Corter

Epstein, J.L. & Sanders, M.G., (2002). Family, school, and community partnerships. In M.H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of Parenting, 2nd edition (Vol. 5: Practical Issues in Parenting). Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Henderson, A.T., & Mapp, K. L. (2002). A new wave of evidence: The impact of school, family and community connections on student achievement. Annual Synthesis 2002. National Centre for Family & Community Connections with Schools. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. Texas. http://www.sedl.org/connections/resources/evidence.pdf

Jeynes, W.H. (2005). A meta-analysis of the relation of parental involvement to urban elementary school student academic achievement. Urban Education, (40)3: 237-269.

Lahaie, C. (2008) School Readiness of Children of Immigrants: Does Parental Involvement Play a Role? Social Science Quarterly 89 (3), 684-705.

Mathews, J. (2005, November 22). Haertel's study shows parental involvement does not play a major role in student achievement: Parents' Effect on Achievement Shaky Other Factors May Play Greater Role, Study Says. Washington Post.

Pelletier. J., & Corter, C. (2005). Toronto first duty: Integrating kindergarten, childcare, and parenting support to help diverse families connect to schools. Multicultural Education, Winter 2005; 13 (2), Research Library pg. 30. Full Phase 1 summary report available at http://www.toronto.ca/firstduty/TFD_Summary_Report_June06.pdf

People for Education (2008). The Annual Report on Ontario’s Public Schools. Toronto: People for education. 39pp. www.Peopleforeducation.com

Pushor, D., Ruitenberg, C., with co-researchers from Princess Alexandra Community School (2005, November). Parent engagement and leadership. Research report, project #134, Dr. Stirling McDowell Foundation for Research into Teaching, Saskatoon:Sk. 79 pp. http://www.mcdowellfoundation.ca/main_mcdowell/projects/research_rep/134_parent_engagement.pdf

Pushor, D. (2007). Parent engagement: Creating a shared world. Invited research paper, Ontario Education Research Symposium January 18-20: Toronto.

Redding, S., Langdon, J., Meyer, J., & Sheley, P. (2004). The effects of comprehensive parent engagement on student learning outcomes. Harvard Family Research Project. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference, April 14, 2004. http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/research/pushor.pdf

Turney, K. and Grace, K. (2006). Home and School Involvement of Minority Immigrant Parents of Young Children. Paper submitted for consideration for the 2006 Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association. Accessed October 16, 2008 http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/0/9/6/6/7/pages96678/p96678-1.php