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Creating and Sustaining Family Friendly Schools

III. Involving Families in Schools

This section focuses on ways parents and families may support their charter schools, and schools' support to families. In particular, the authors wish to make two recommendations for strategies that have proven effective in building parent understanding and support:

If a school starts the year with a conference, and have regular, well-attended parent meetings, family involvement of all sorts will be more apt to flourish.

There are four sub-sections to this chapter. The first discusses types of parent involvement, following the framework developed by parent involvement expert Joyce Epstein. Director of the Center on School, Family and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University, Epstein is one of the nation's most respected researchers on the topic of connections among school, family, and community. Next, there's a discussion of potential challenges to effective parental involvement, and strategies schools may use to overcome them. Third, there is a section discussing parent/family resource centers, which many charter schools have implemented as a service to parents. Finally, there is a discussion of training school staff in effective parent involvement.


  1. Ways in Which Families May Be Involved

    The needs and interests of different groups of parents are usually a better starting point than the school's agenda when beginning parent involvement projects. When the school offers many different sorts of activities, parents can enter the school world in a way that is most comfortable or more interesting to them.6

    This was one of the conclusions of a report on New York City's Parent Involvement Program in the late 1980s. The report lists some successful projects developed by the Parent Involvement Program:

    • Sports Night for Parents, Kids, and Staff;
    • Field Trips: boar rides, bowling, sports events, museum trips, performances;
    • Mother's Day Luncheons;
    • Workshops for Parents as Educators;
    • School Volunteer Programs;
    • Workshops for Personal Development;
    • Get-Acquainted Dinners;
    • Parents Support Groups;
    • Book and Toy Fair or Lending Library;
    • Parents Visit the School Week;
    • Lunch with Mom: Nutrition Program;
    • Homework Helpers Panel;
    • Independent Reading Workshop;
    • Class Mothers Breakfast with Principal;
    • Graduation Party for 8th Graders;
    • Awards Night for Parents Completing Workshops;
    • ESL Classes;
    • GED Classes;
    • Computer Workshops;
    • High School Career Planning Nights;
    • Weekend Leadership Retreats;
    • Tenants' Rights and Neighborhood Services Workshops;
    • Community Fair; and
    • International Food Festival.

    Joyce Epstein has synthesized the research on family and community involvement in education to produce a framework of six types of involvement.7 The six types are:
    1. Parenting - the school helps families establish home environments that support children as students;
    2. Communicating - effective two-way communication between schools and homes;
    3. Volunteering - parents help and support the school in a variety of capacities;
    4. Learning at home - schools help parents to help students learn in the home;
    5. Decision making - parents are included in school decision making; and
    6. Collaborating with community - resources from the community are integrated to strengthen school programs, family practices, and student learning.

    Schools must make a concerted and ongoing effort to implement the six practices. To carry this out, Epstein recommends forming an Action Team, including 6-12 parents and educators. Most charter schools have some sort of team or committee that can manage the parent involvement process. A number of the charter people interviewed indicated that they had parent volunteer committees or other committees in place which usually included parents as well as school staff. Additional advice on how to proceed in each of the six areas is available from many sources, one of the best of which is the recent Tool Kit for School-Family-Community Partnerships, from the Washington State School Directors' Association (ordering information under Resources at the end of this section).

    [Parent involvement is] ongoing; when we started the school parents were instrumental in starting it. It came out of them. But you lose some of these original parents, so it's evolving. Schools need to be flexible, to be able to change strategies to fit changing situations.
    —Marianne Lay, Cape Cod Lighthouse School, Orleans, MA


    What follows are details on parent involvement in each of Epstein's six areas, along with a seventh, families as resources for the school curriculum. The authors believe there are a number of good reasons for involving families in school curriculum, and that this deserves inclusion as a seventh type of involvement.


    1. Parenting

      There are a number of steps schools can take to help encourage parents establish home environments that support children as students. It is generally agreed that children learn more when they "get sufficient rest, are fed an ample and nutritious diet, get to school regularly and on time, are dressed appropriately for the weather, have clean clothes to wear, and have a quiet and well-lit place to work at home".8 Sometimes parents just need reminders of the importance of these items. In some communities higher numbers of families which are a major constituency for many charter schools may have difficulty meeting these needs.

      To help families meet basic needs, schools can build connections with public and private human services providers. The National PTA suggests developing a directory of local social and community service agencies that describes the services each provides, and contact information. In many communities, directories already exist available from county social services, social workers or community education departments.9 Such directories can be provided directly to parents, or school staff may help make needed contacts. Education researcher Susan McAllister Swap suggests that elementary schools may arrange for workshops to parents, on topics such as nutrition, changing needs of children as they grow, and coping with children's eating or sleeping problems. In addition to sharing information, such workshops may help parents create a useful support network among each other.10

      Some schools have organized clothing exchanges, particularly for winter clothes. Community education may provide parenting classes with practical suggestions and opportunities for sharing ideas. Some even provide care for the children while the parent attends the session.


    2. Communicating

      Effective two-way communication between schools and homes is crucial for real partnerships. A recent National PTA publication emphasizes the need for all school staff to be involved in creating a friendly, welcoming environment for parents at the school. In addition to teachers' role, administrators need to provide leadership and support staff such as secretaries, custodians, and security personnel, "need to welcome parents with their tone of voice, body language, and friendliness". 11

      School-family communication, including parent-student-teacher conferences, is discussed in depth in Section IV.


    3. Volunteering

      There are a wide variety of ways parents can support the school as volunteers. Volunteer activities should bring in additional resources to the school while building a sense of community between the school and families. Schools may recruit volunteers through interest surveys or other types of contact.

      To make effective use of parent volunteers, you will likely need an individual to coordinate the volunteer effort - to distribute and collect surveys asking parents to volunteer, to determine which activities volunteers can reasonably do, to match the right volunteer with the right task, and to network with other school staff to ensure the process is running smoothly. Funding a parent coordinator is apt to be a challenge: few charter schools have ready funds to add another non-instructional staff position to the payroll. A number of options may be worth considering as you look for ways to provide for a volunteer coordinator. For example, one school found a parent who was willing to coordinate the volunteer effort, for paraprofessional salary. The volunteer coordinator could be a part time position, e.g. a paraprofessional who works part of the day with students. Some schools may have Title I funds available to pay a volunteer coordinator. Another option would be to find a volunteer willing to coordinate the volunteer effort.

      The Minnesota New Country School has developed a Parent Volunteer Information form which all parents are asked to fill out, to indicate potential areas of interest. In addition to a list of one-time projects for which volunteer help is needed, the Information Form includes:


      Information Form: One-time projects

      Project Date(s) Type of Help Needed Name 1 Name 2
               
      Cleaning the school building Daily &/or weekly      
      Library Organizer Anytime Organize books in library    
      Running off copies, folding Anytime Newsletters, programs, etc.    
      Supervise students Anytime During the day or Monday nights    
      Prepare students for ACT Anytime      
      Drivers Anytime Drive students to/from field trips, etc.    
      Knowledge Bowl Winter-spring Drivers/chaperones    


      Please check any of the following talents/interests you have or are willing to help with

      Talent Name 1 Name 2 Talent Name 1 Name 2 Talent Name 1 Name 2
                       
      Aeronautics     Crocheting     Photography    
      Animals     Dance     Quilting    
      Archery     Decorating     Sailing    
      Architecture     Electrical     Science    
      Art     Environment     Sewing    
      Boating     Etiquette     Sheet rocking    
      Camping     Farming     Speech    
      Canoeing     Gardening     Telephoning    
      Car repair     Hunting     Theater arts    
      Carpentry     Knitting     Tiling    
      Cement work     Landscaping     Traveling    
      Cleaning     Music     Wallpapering    
      Computer     Office work     Other:    
      Cooking/baking     Organizing          
      Crafts     Painting          


      Some charter schools have developed contracts that parents are asked to sign to affirm that they will be involved with their children's education. Contracts may ask parents to agree to provide a certain number of hours of their time in volunteer activities for the school. If used, the contract should be well thought-out; school people should take care that it does not have the potential to alienate parents which could result if there was an unreasonable requirement for volunteering. Some parents need time and patience to process "tapes" from their own past negative experiences in school.

      Education researcher and charter advocate Joe Nathan discussed the issue in his book on charter schools, concluding that while "it makes a great deal of sense for the family to be asked to help out the school in some way", is probably "not a good idea to demand that the family help out the school as a condition of the student's attending the school. It may intimidate certain families who have already had bad experiences with the schools to be told they must give a certain number of hours of volunteer time if their youngsters are to be allowed in the charter school" (Nathan, 1996, p. 153). Such a contract would also likely not stand up if challenged in court.

      A number of charters use written parent agreements

      The Urban League of Pittsburgh Charter School requires parents to sign a contract committing themselves to 30 hours of volunteer work/year. At Massachusetts' Cape Cod Lighthouse School, parents sign a contract when they enroll their children which commits them to 3 hours of volunteer time per month. However, our contact added, "Enforcing the contracts is the difficult part. Some parents can be here all the time, others find it hard to give 5 minutes." The Exploris Middle School of Raleigh, NC, asks parents to volunteer for four hours per month.

      Contact information: Urban League Charter School is at 327 N. Negley Ave.; Pittsburgh, PA 15206.
      The Cape Code Lighthouse school is at P.O. Box 1959; Orleans , MA 02653, and on the Internet at http://www.lighthouse.chtr.k12.ma.us .
      The Exploris Middle School is at 207 E. Hargett St.; Raleigh, NC 27601, and on the Internet at http://www.exploris.org/learn/ems/index.html


      An alternative to the parent contract is the "learning compact," a document which describes how all members of the school community agree to share in responsibility for student learning (such a document could also be known as a "parent agreement" or another, less legal-sounding term). Federal legislation requires parent compacts to be developed by schools receiving Title I funds. A description of the process of developing a compact, including worksheets and examples of several schools' completed compacts, can be found on the U.S. Department of Education's website, at http://www.ed.gov/pubs/Compact/. See also Appendix 1, with Home-School Compact materials from the Washington State School Directors' Association's Tool Kit for School-Family-Community Partnerships. This includes recommendations for developing a compact, and example compacts from two schools.

      The authors' contact at the Seashore Living Center in Texas commented that "[pull quote: We can't require them to do anything, but we strongly encourage them. It becomes a chain reaction. Once we get the motivated parents involved - others get interested."]

      What are some of the ways parents may be asked to volunteer? The Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota has provided the following list of 50 parent/community involvement opportunities:

      Assist at the School
      1. Share information with a student or class about a hobby;
      2. Share information with a student or class about a career;
      3. Share information with students about a country in which you have lived or visited;
      4. Tutor one or a small group of students in reading, math or other areas;
      5. Help coach an athletic team;
      6. Help check a student's written work;
      7. Help publish a school or classroom newsletter (this can also be done at home);
      8. Help sew or paint a display;
      9. Help build something (such as a loft in a classroom);
      10. Help students work on a final exhibition or project (this can also be done at home or at a work place);
      11. Help answer the school phone;
      12. Help plan and/or build a new playground for the school;
      13. Help plan a theme-based presentation for students;
      14. Help present a them-based program for students;
      15. Demonstrate cooking from a particular country or culture to students;
      16. Share a skill with the faculty;
      17. Help students plan and build an outdoor garden or other project which beautifies the school;
      18. Help coach students for academic competitions such as Odyssey of the Mind or Math Masters; and
      19. Bring senior citizens to school to watch a student production.


      Extend Learning by Helping to Arrange Experiences in the Community
      1. Help set up a student internship at your business, organization or agency;
      2. Host a one day shadow study about your business or organization for one or a small group of students;
      3. Go on a local field trip with a teacher and a group of students;
      4. Go on an extended (3-5 day) cross country field trip with a teacher and students;
      5. Contact a local business or organization regarding possible cooperation; and
      6. Help create a natural area/learning space outside the building.


      Serve on an Advisory or Decision-Making Committee
      1. Volunteer for the schoolwide site council;
      2. Serve on a school committee which reports to the site council;
      3. Represent the school on a district committee;
      4. Serve as an officer on the school's PTA;
      5. Help organize a parent organization for the school;
      6. Help design a parent and/or student survey for the school; or
      7. Help conduct and/or tabulate the results of a parent survey regarding the school.


      Increase Financial Resources Available to the School
      1. Help write a proposal which will bring new resources to the school;
      2. Donate materials to the school;
      3. Arrange for a business or other organization to donate materials to the school; and
      4. Help with a fund-raising campaign for the school.


      Share Information
      1. Serve as a member of a telephone tree to help distribute information quickly;
      2. Write a letter to legislators about the school;
      3. Write a letter to school board members about the school;
      4. Go to a school board meeting to advocate for the school;
      5. Go to another school to provide information about your school;
      6. Help create a brochure or booklet about the school;
      7. Help translate information about the school into a language other than English;
      8. Help translate at a parent/teacher conference for people who don't speak English well;
      9. Provide transportation to a parent/teacher conference for a parent who needs a ride;
      10. Write an article about school activities for publication; or
      11. Arrange for a political leader (mayor, council member, state representative, etc.) to visit the school.


      Help Other Parents Develop Parenting Skills
      1. Teach or help with a class on ways to be stronger parents;
      2. Help produce a video tape on ways to be effective parents; and
      3. Help write, publish and distribute a list of parenting tips.


      Ways to Show Appreciation to Volunteers


      • Greet the volunteer by name; encourage students to use the volunteer's name;
      • Thank the volunteer personally each day, noting special contributions;
      • Set a time to talk with the volunteer when children are not present; speak briefly with the volunteer each day before departure;
      • Use the volunteer's special talents, knowledge, and interests in assigning tasks;
      • Give the volunteer increasing responsibilities and more challenging tasks;
      • Share articles and books of mutual interest--on child development, learning styles, or content areas in which the volunteer works;
      • Include the volunteer when planning class activities;
      • Send a letter of appreciation;
      • Take the volunteer to lunch;
      • Call or write when the volunteer is absent or ill;
      • Invite experienced volunteers to train newer volunteers;
      • Write an article on the volunteer's contributions for your volunteer newsletter, school newspaper, or community paper;
      • Ask volunteers to help evaluate programs and suggest improvements;
      • Ask the children to evaluate the performance of volunteers; share their comments with the volunteers;
      • Accommodate the volunteer's personal needs and problems; and
      • Encourage the volunteer to grow on the job.
      Reprinted by permission of the National Association of Partners in Education, http://napehq.org/.



      We conclude with a cautionary note. It may be possible to have too much parent involvement, or involvement of the wrong kind. Education researcher and former classroom teacher Cheryl J. Craig has described a school in which all the teachers were expected to use parents as volunteers in their classrooms in order to "keep the parents happy," regardless of whether particular parents were appropriate for classroom activities.12 In this situation the parent volunteers actually began to distract teachers from their primary mission of fostering learning in students.

      Here are some strategies for dealing with, or avoiding, this kind of situation:
      • Approach parents privately, to give them feedback on negative impacts of their actions (someone who knows the parent well and has good rapport with him or her should do this).
      • Consider appointing parents to a committee, that does useful work but takes them out of the mainstream of school activities.
      • At meetings, use a "participation scorecard" to track who is speaking and point out the excessive involvement of some.
      • Establish ground rules for how much or what types of parent involvement are desired. This could be specified in a parent or school handbook, or in committee guidelines.
      • Conduct confidential parent surveys to ask what is working and what is not in parent involvement.
      • Make sure your school has areas set aside for staff-only discussion. Staff should have space away from parents and others for discussion of instructional, assessment, or behavior management issues, and simply for "down time."


    4. Learning at home

      In addition to meeting children's basic needs, parents can promote learning through a wide variety of home activities. Swap points out that "There is widespread agreement that parents can support their children's learning by reading aloud, providing an environment that is rich in print materials, talking to their child about events and experiences, encouraging their child's interests, taking the child to interesting places, and exploiting the wide range of ordinarily occurring home and community activities for their learning potential".13

      A number of resources are easily available to help with home learning activities:

      • Parents as Partners series from the American Association of School Administrators (703 528-0700; http://www.aasa.org). Titles include Getting Your Child Ready for School, Helping Your Child Succeed in Elementary School, Helping Your Child Succeed in Middle and High School, Helping Your Child With Homework, Parents: Partners in Education, and Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening Skills: Keys to Your Child's School Success. These booklets are available from the AASA at minimal cost, with quantity discounts.

      • Mega Skills: Building Children's Achievement for the Information Age, by Dorothy Rich, especially Section B, on "Teaching Mega Skills at Home." This provides dozens of activities parents can do with children aged 4-12, to help them grow in the eleven Mega Skills areas (confidence; motivation; effort; responsibility; initiative; perseverance; caring; teamwork; common sense; problem solving; and focus).

      • The Developmental Studies Center in Oakland, California, has published excellent bilingual English/Spanish learning materials which can be given to parents of elementary school students (510 533-0213; http://www.devstu.org).

      • Family Education Today is a magazine (online and in print) that provides practical advice for parents, relating to helping their children learn (800 927-6006 x1999; or http://familyeducation.com/today).

      • Learning Fundamentals is another organization that offers resources for schools seeking to build parent support for learning (800 925-7853). Their products include a set of "Parent Connection" materials for educators to use in leading meetings with parents on topics such as motivating your child to learn, learning math at home, stretching young minds in the summertime, and encouraging good homework habits.

      • Tool Kit for School-Family-Community Partnerships, from the Washington State School Directors Association (360 493-9231). This large binder has many resources to help schools help parents with learning at home. The Tool Kit is organized around Epstein's framework of six types of involvement - see especially the section on Learning at Home.

      • The U.S. Department of Education's guide to Reaching All Families includes a section on "Homework and Home Learning," with suggestions of strategies teachers can use to make school expectations clear and encourage parents to help promote learning outside of school. This is available electronically at http://www.ed.gov/pubs/ReachFam/oncom.html. Another U.S. Department of Education resource, this one intended for primarily for parents, is the Helping Your Child series. This includes booklets for parents to use in helping their children with various areas of the school curriculum. Helping Your Child booklets are available free over the Internet.

      Schools may sponsor workshops for parents on how to support learning in the home, and may sponsor home read-aloud programs or programs promoting student reading outside of school hours.

      The Massachusetts Charter School Handbook provides a list of suggestions of ways to develop support for education at home
      (Charter School Resource Center, 1999, p. 22):
      • Provide a list of materials needed for school work and request that a quiet place for work or study be established at home;
      • Establish classroom libraries, send books home, and ask families to read to children at home;
      • Provide a book list that families might use when purchasing gifts for children;
      • Create a book lending library at the school from which parents may borrow books; and
      • Write a brief guide listing fun and educational activities in the community that families might enjoy.


      Minnesota educator and charter school founder Wayne B. Jennings provides the following list of items parents can do to raise the academic achievement and personal competence of their children:

      1. Let children see you learning and how it excites you! Your child should see that learning is going on all around them.

      2. Learn something together with your child e.g. a hobby, a recreational activity, or a domestic project -- and talk about the learning process as you both concentrate on the goals of the activity.

      3. Ask the child to teach you something they learned today. This is the most powerful learning approach we have in education.

      4. Ask your child what they did today that was particularly pleasing and exciting to them. Did they help someone? Did something unusual happen to them? Did they create something or solve a problem? Did they have a rewarding experience? Did it "spark" a further response for follow-up study?

      5. Ask your child what they are looking forward to the next day. This builds anticipation.

      6. Teach your child the process and importance of setting goals and how to achieve those goals.

      7. Instead of buying your children things like toys, buy experiences like a trip to the zoo, a bus ride downtown, or a museum, etc., to give them new perspectives.

      Educator and trainer Ed Porthan describes the "magic twenty minutes" parents can share with their children each day:

      10 minutes in the morning on waking up and 10 minutes before going to bed when the mind is highly receptive to ideas and suggestions. Share time with your child during those magic minutes. Emphasize things that went well for them and activities they have coming up and their worth as an individual.




    5. Decision-making

      Charter schools can include parents on their governance boards and committees or task forces. Alaska charter schools are required to have an academic policy committee which includes parents. In Georgia, a majority of the governing body of the school are parents. In Minnesota, board members are elected by parents and school staff. A number of other state charter laws require or encourage parent involvement in governance.

      Virtually everyone will agree that parents should be involved in school decision-making. The form their involvement takes will depend upon the legal context in your state, on your specific situation (consider what makes sense given your school's mission and vision, also what your charter contract or by-laws say about governance structure), and perhaps upon the expectations of the charter sponsor. Parent roles in school decision-making that come to mind are:
      • Parent involvement on committees;
      • Creation of a parent advisory board that provides input to the legal board;
      • Parent representation on the board (but in a minority); and
      • Majority parent representation on the board.

      If parents do serve on the school's governing board, it is important that they understand their responsibility to take an appropriate role in decisions that may benefit their children or themselves. School board members can only act collectively, based on decisions made by the board, and not as individuals. Conflict-of-interest rules may require board members to excuse themselves from certain board decisions, for instance if the board were considering hiring a parent's firm for services to the school.

      Giving parents a voice in making decisions about the program builds parents' loyalty to the school, and allows for input from their perspectives in addition to those of professional educators. If parents do not sit on a school's actual governing board, consider forming an advisory board. The advisory board could have a general oversight role, or could focus on a specific issue facing the school, such as assessment, or the Title I program. Consider including members of the community with parents.

      Of the charter schools contacted for this project, most confirmed that parents are involved in governance. However, Rex Brown of Denver's P.S. 1 cautioned, when bringing new board members on, charter developers should "Use appointed boards, not elected boards to keep volatility at a minimum."

      We know of charter schools where the founders' vision or the approved charter for the school has been abandoned or compromised beyond recognition by later governing boards. You can minimize the risk of this happening by emphasizing the board's responsibility to run a program that is true to the charter. It is also important to help the board understand which decisions it makes, which the school director makes, and which the faculty make. Designs for Learning, an education consulting and charter school management firm in St. Paul, conducts an orientation for new board members and provides a three ring binder for each member. The binder includes the original charter proposal, the contract with the sponsor, by-laws, the state charter statute, and a brief summary of Robert's Rules of Order.

      Besides a formal or advisory board, committees or task forces can be established according to need and interest, such as:
      • Publicity;
      • Enrollment;
      • Curriculum;
      • Volunteers;
      • Educational Philosophy;
      • Athletics; and
      • Fundraising.

      Establish a clear understanding of the committee's charge and authority to avoid problems later. Be sure to include parents representing the diversity of the student body. For instance, parents of students who do well academically may neglect or fail to understand issues that impact students who have difficulty in school, "thereby failing to address curriculum issues that enable all students to succeed".14 Wayne Jennings also recommends that, at the secondary levels, students be included on an advisory committee, as a valuable source of stakeholder input.


    6. Collaborating with community

      Schools, especially smaller schools, can enrich their offerings by tapping into community resources. Community partnerships are becoming increasingly common:
      Mindful of increasing need and decreasing resources, many schools have reached out to the businesses and agencies in their communities to supplement and enrich their offerings. Public and mental health institutions are sometimes willing to locate staff in schools, offer educational programs, donate space, or work in collaboration with school personnel to develop multidisciplinary student support teams. School-university collaborations can provide important resources for school improvement: student interns, collaboration in teacher preparation, and mutual stimulation of faculty and school staff.15
      Joyce Epstein has suggested several forms community collaboration may take:16

      1. Schools provide information for students and families on community health, cultural, recreational, social support, and other programs or services;
      2. Schools provide information on community activities that link to learning skills and talents, including summer programs for students;
      3. Service integration through partnerships involving school; civic, counseling, cultural, health, recreation, and other agencies and organizations; and businesses; and
      4. Service to the community by students, families, and schools (e.g.. recycling, art, music, drama, and other activities for seniors or others).

      Community resources vital to charter school operations

      Exploris Middle School of Raleigh, North Carolina, shares learning resources with a museum that calls itself "the world's first global experience center." Other examples abound: the country's first charter school, City Academy in St. Paul, Minnesota, is located in a building owned by the local park board. ACORN Dual Language Academy was founded in cooperation with the national ACORN advocacy organization. Dow Chemical and the Midland Cogeneration Venture in Lansing, Michigan provide judges for the Midland Academy of Advanced and Creative Studies' science fair and governing board members. Philadelphia's Center for Economics and Law Charter School students create and operate small businesses with help from local consultants who work in various firms and industries located in the city.



    7. Parents and families as resources for school curriculum

      Families, in any community, will have a rich set of experiences, skills, talents, etc. upon which a school may draw in order to enrich children's learning. Swap describes a "curriculum enrichment model:"
      The goal of the Curriculum Enrichment model is to expand and extend the school's curriculum by incorporating...contributions of families. The assumption is that families have important expertise to contribute and that the interaction between parents and school personnel and the implementation of the revised curriculum will enhance the educational objectives of the school. This orientation has emerged for two different reasons. One of these has been to make the school curriculum more accurately reflect the views, values, history, and learning styles of the families represented in the school, particularly those of immigrant minorities and castelike minorities....

      A second reason for parents to be involved in curriculum enrichment occurs when schools can improve their curriculum by drawing on the special expertise that parents may have to share by virtue of their education and background. Interaction between parents and school personnel can result in, for example, the installation of a computer lab, instruction for teachers in the use of computers in the classroom, the addition of mathematics or science curriculum that is more experience-based, the integration of the newest technology in a vocational training program, or instruction in music composition.17
      This lends credence and respect to parents and cultural groups. They need to be valued as prized resources. They then see themselves this way - a great self-affirming process.

      To implement the "curriculum enrichment model," school staff may wish to make a list of knowledge, talents or abilities sought in parents. This could be done at conferences or through other contacts the school may make. Data gathered could include jobs worked/career knowledge, hobbies, travel to other countries, or other personal interests. Data on these subjects can be stored in a database for teachers to draw on in designing curriculum. For instance, in preparing an elementary school unit on air travel, a teacher could ask a parent who works in an airport to come in and speak with the class. A geography unit on Africa could be enriched by students interviewing a parent who emigrated from Somalia. A chemistry class could be made relevant by a parent who works in the field talking about careers in chemistry and practical applications of chemical principles. Georgia's Stone Mountain Charter School uses a database of parents to keep records and to enable the school to identify parents with particular skills. A St. Paul Open School parent arranged for students studying Tom Sawyer to spend a day on a Mississippi river barge.

      An education researcher and writer suggests, "involve the community in goal-setting through focus groups and town meetings.... Asking the community to think about what competencies students will need for work, citizenship, life-long learning, and personal growth sharpens the focus on improving instruction and assessment of students' skills".18

      In our interviews with charter school operators, we asked them to respond to a checklist of six ways the school uses parents/families as resources, indicating whether each one was present in their school. Below are the types, in order of usage, from the schools surveyed:

      1. classroom volunteers assisting teachers;
      2. helping to plan and run field trips;
        volunteers in non-academic areas of the program (helping in lunchroom, cleanup or grounds improvement);
      3. part of school governance team/committee;
      4. developing curriculum or curriculum resources; and
      5. "other ways" (assistance with legal aspects, a parent who is a computer technician and helps train employees/parents, fundraising, planning school activities, employing parents at the school, and utilizing parents who work for community organization for connection to their resources).


    The St. Paul Family Learning Center charter school (FLC) asked the following questions, via a half-page form distributed to all parents at the opening-of-the-year conference:

    The FLC seeks to draw on the resources of the community, including parents, to promote student learning. Do you or members of your family have experiences (e.g. a career, hobby, travels) you would be willing to share with FLC students? If so, please describe below or on the back of this sheet. The FLC Parent Coordinator is preparing a database of community resources teachers and students can draw on for projects.

    Experiences you or family members would be willing to share:

    Name:

    Name of child(ren) attending FLC:

    How should we contact you?

    The FLC is located at 1745 University Avenue W., St. Paul, MN 55104, and online at www.flconline.org.





  2. Parent Resource Centers

    One way schools can reach out to parents, and show their sincerity about encouraging parent involvement, is to provide a family resource center in the school. This would be a room or other space set aside for parent use, providing a wide variety of information pertinent to parent needs and interests. It may be known as a Parent Resource Room, Family Room, Parent Center, etc. As a definition for a family center, a recent publication offered the following. A family center:
    • Provides parents with a room or space for their own use at the school and facilitates communications between families and the school;
    • Provides opportunities for parents to get to know each other and network;
    • Offers educational and socializing opportunities; and
    • serves various needs of families so that parents and other adults can turn their attention to helping and supporting their children.19


    Pinewood Elementary School, located in the small town of Monticello, Minnesota, included the following resources in its Family Room ("Pinewood Family Room," article source unknown):
    • "Keeping Kids Healthy and Safe" ­ an impressive display of health and safety related literature.
    • "Helping Your Child Learn" ­ curriculum materials for grades K-5 area available for parents to review along with information on helping your child with homework.
    • "Understanding Your Childıs School" ­ this area is intended to inform parents of the numerous school related programs and organizations that are available.
    • "Out-of-School Hours" ­ brochures and information on museums, theatres, wrestling club, dance classes, scouts and such, as well as Community Ed journals from our district and neighboring communities are on hand.
    • "Pinewood Family Press" ­ this display has a multitude of purposes. With its newspaper-like design, it will serve as a communication tool between parents and teachers. There is a "classified" section where teachers can list their classroom "needs" and parents can list items they feel may be useful in a classroom.
    • An area for keeping parents informed of upcoming events is located next to an area where recent school board and PTO minutes and results of other points of interest are. Parents are invited to share information by posting education/family oriented articles and literature. Parents are also able to post their questions concerning their child's education.
    • Finally, there are spaces in which feature articles and teacher interviews will be displayed.



    If possible such a family resource area should be staffed at least part of each school day, by a school staff member, perhaps a parent employee, who can respond to questions or concerns family members may have. Kentucky requires schools to have resource centers and provides funding. The goal is "to help students and their families who face social, economic, or health barriers that interfere with learning." Public funding is provided for this purpose for schools in which at least 20% of the students qualify for free school meals. There are "family resource centers" for elementary schools and "youth services centers" for middle and high schools. The centers are guided by local advisory councils which include parents, service providers and educators; one third of the members must be parents.20

    In its recent Guide for Developing Parent and Family Involvement Programs, the National PTA sketches out a somewhat more ambitious scenario for a parent center. The National PTA recommends that
    The center should have cozy places to sit and relax as well as shelves containing books, pamphlets, brochures, audio- and videotapes, games, puzzles, magazines, and tip sheets that provide information on a variety of parenting topics. The area can also feature a computer and software, with Internet access to parenting information. Provide beverages, a play area in the center for small children, a telephone, and if possible, a room with laundry facilities and a kitchen. Approach local businesses for donations of equipment, supplies, and software, and convene a committee to oversee development, operation, and review of the center. Advertise the center in your school newsletter, so parents know it is there and what it offers.21

  3. Training School Personnel to More Effectively Involve Families

    According to Lewis and Henderson, only 14 states require training on involving parents for elementary educator certification, while only six require this for secondary teaching certification.22 Thus, most educators will not have had formal training in this area. Charter school administrators may wish to consider encouraging or mandating training activities, to help their personnel gain the skills to do a better job involving families. One activity the authors recommend is to require all staff to read and discuss the research summary (pages 14-19) from Henderson and Berla's A New Generation of Evidence, at a staff meeting early in the year. This will ensure that staff are aware of the importance of parent involvement for student achievement.

    The National PTA's recent guide to Building Successful Partnerships advocates joint parent/teacher in-service sessions on communication, with topics to include:
    • How parents can speak to teachers;
    • How teachers, support staff, and administrators can speak to parents;
    • How to ask difficult questions without finger-pointing and blaming; and
    • How to effectively and inclusively communicate with all parents.23

    A report from the Center for School Change identified four skill areas that are necessary for educators to promote parent involvement:
    1. The ability to communicate clearly and positively with parents;
    2. The ability to develop lesson plans that involve parents, regardless of subject matter;
    3. Educators must know a good deal about the families and communities which their school is serving; and
    4. Educators need to know how to reorganize their school so that parents feel more comfortable (Nathan and Radcliffe, 1994).

    How can educators develop these skills? Again, the Center for School Change report:

    One question on the survey asked educators was, "What are the 3-4 most valuable ways to learn the skills [to work closely with parents]?" Educators had five options, plus "other" from which to choose.
    • 86% marked "conversations with parents;"
    • 63% marked "watching videotapes about how other educators work with parents;"
    • 52% marked "reading materials describing how schools and teachers work with parents;"
    • 39% marked "practicing and having conversation/conference videotaped so that it can be studied;" and
    • 38% marked "practicing (role/playing) in front of other educators."

    Other suggestions included "visiting schools to see how they do this," "observing other educators hold parent conferences," and "talking with other educators."

    There are many ways to interpret these responses. National authorities and educators agree that talking with parents is valuable. In order to learn how to communicate with parents, "There's no substitute for talking directly with parents," according to {executive director of the Washington Parent Group Fund] Joy Majied. She believes this is an absolutely vital part of preparation. [Director of the Comer Project for Change in Education] Ed Joiner agrees, calling it "critical that educators talk directly with parents, including parents from low income families, about their experiences in schools. Joiner thinks that these discussions should help prospective teachers and administrators develop what he thinks is a critical skill: the ability to empathize with parents, and to recognize that they want the best possible education for their children. It's also clear that many educators would like to see (via videotape) real, living examples, rather than just reading about them.

    Most national authorities recommend that educators role play conferences, phone conversations and other forms of communication with parents. Some educators see this as an effective way to learn, the majority don't. It is not easy to get up in front of others and "perform." Many people are reluctant to do this.

    Role-playing (and videotaping for later study and feedback) would be most effective in a setting where other things already had been done, and a high level of trust had been developed. Some educators suggested that role-playing be done, at least initially, in small groups within a class or workshop. This helps build skills and confidence, making it easier and more comfortable to do with others.

    Epstein provides material for use in designing and carrying out workshops for parent-family partnership Action Team members. These workshops are intended to help action teams understand Epstein's Six Types of Involvement and to build action plans for implementing involvement. Contact information for Epstein's organization is included in the Resources Section VI. Much of the training will need to be designed and carried out at individual schools, based on each school's particular situation and population served. In addition to, or instead of formal training, development of skills at involving parents may emphasize self-study efforts such as teachers discussing strategies among themselves, talking with parents, and perhaps watching videotapes and reading materials on the topic.

    In the interviews the authors conducted with charter school staff, staff was asked if they had received training to help them involve parents. Most did not mention any specific training. At most of these schools, interviewees said there was ample parent involvement, and the leadership did not seem to see a need for training. Comments included:
    • [Staff have] received no training on how to involve parents. We have no trouble getting parents involved, sometimes they are "too" involved.
    • Just doing it they gain experience.
    • We have not had training. We are a new school, so right now we are just trying to get the teachers up to speed with the curriculum. We are small, so we have parent/teacher meetings, weekly courier packets, and always make phone calls home.
    • [Staff have not had] formal training, but issues are discussed at meetings and on the education advisory committee (this committee provides oversight).
    • African-American Family Services did an in-service for teachers. They did an evaluation of sensitivity, poverty issues, and why some things are different for kids.

    The following "Checklist for Improving Parent Involvement" comes from the Winter 1995 What's Noteworthy journal published by Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning, a federal education lab.24 School staff and administrators may benefit from asking themselves these questions, and looking into ways to improve areas with "no" answers.

    Checklist for Improving Parent Involvement Yes No
    1.   There is a place in the building for parents to gather Informally.    
    2.   The office has a friendly, informal atmosphere.    
    3.   Parents are not viewed by school staff as being deficient.    
    4.   Efforts are made to involve culturally diverse parents.    
    5.   Communication between teachers and parents is effective.    
    6.   The atmosphere in the school is not bureaucratic.    
    7.   There are clearly defined policies regarding parental involvement in this school.    
    8.   There is a school-wide homework policy in place.    
    9.   There is an in-service program for staff that addresses parental involvement.    
    10. There is an in-service program for the Board of Education that addresses parental involvement.    
    11. Training programs for parents are available.    
    12. Parents are truly empowered to make decisions in this school.    
    13. Families are a priority in this school.    
    14. The businesses in the community are involved in the school.    
    15. Community involvement is evident in this school.    
    16. Parents are asked about their children's thinking and behavior.    
    17. Parents routinely work in classrooms with children on learning activities.    
    18. Parents in this community advocate for children's rights.    
    19. Parents are promptly notified about problems with their students.    
    20. School staff are aware of cultural and language barriers.    
    Reprinted by Permission of McREL

    There is preliminary evidence suggesting that charter schools are more likely than other public schools to extensively involve parents in their operations. The 1998-99 Colorado Charter Schools Evaluation Study shows from 4,000 to 36,000 hours per year volunteered by parents in Colorado charter schools.


  4. Challenges to Family Involvement and How to Overcome Them

    Schools face barriers in seeking greater family involvement. Some, such as institutional inertia or a belief in separate home and school spheres, may be less likely to affect charter schools. However, effectively involving families is an ongoing opportunity, and charter operators will benefit from considering challenges, and ways they may be faced.

    Lack of staff time to take on new responsibilities associated with parent and community involvement. This issue has been addressed by Lucretia Coates who helped implement the Epstein involvement process in the Baltimore schools.25 Coates recommends building the partnership Action Team activities into staff's regular work. This may require rearranging class schedules, rearranging the school day to provide for non-instructional time, or finding funds to pay staff for extra time.

    Lack of parent time to work with their school. Often cited as the greatest barrier is that busy parents are hard pressed to attend meetings or volunteer at the school. Ways around this include scheduling meeting at times and places convenient for families. An informational meeting might be offered at multiple times, including during early hours, evenings, or weekend hours. Meetings may be held at community locations, e.g. a public library or community center. Another way schools can make parent participation in school events easier is by providing childcare and transportation or arranging for car-pooling. Schools can make available a wide variety of volunteer activities (see discussion in the preceding section), many of which may be carried out in non-school or non-working hours.

    Reaching Hard-to-Reach Parents

    Here are some ideas on how to reach out to parents your school is having difficulty involving:
    • Ask parents what might be the best way to reach them, and draw up a communication plan using their advice;
    • Reach out to parents, e.g. by offering transportation and child care for school events, offering to hold parent-teacher conferences in community settings, holding "coffee klatches" in parents' homes, or offering workshops on topics of interest to parents;
    • Open a parent meeting with students singing or performing; then provide supervised activities for the students while their parents stay for the meeting; and
    • Partner with community agencies to offer human services through the school.
    -- from the Washington State School Directors' Association, 1999, pp. 197-198.

    Lack of parent interest in participation. Parents with past negative experiences with schools may be reluctant to participate in activities at the school. To cope with this, schools can offer a variety of ways for parents to participate, hold meetings and other events at times and locations convenient for parents, and persist in reaching out to a wide range of families. To build interest in a specific student-parent-school project, an elementary school in Chicago used a "kid created" performance to demonstrate students' knowledge and build parents' interest and enthusiasm. The Mighty Acorns Parent Project, sponsored by the Nature Conservancy and a local Forest Preserve, involved parents in exploring and writing about ecological issues. To spark parent interest at the outset, students put together a musical production dramatizing their recent visit to the Cap Sauer Forest Preserve.26

    Lack of staff training in parent involvement is another challenge. Teacher training programs seldom emphasize the responsibility of educators to involve families. Charter schools can provide training to staff, to help them build skills to facilitate parent involvement. Include building awareness of cultural diversity, techniques for improving school-parent communication, and information on ways the school can help meet parents' needs. Also, during the hiring process, charters may seek staff whose background and inclinations prepare them for working with families and the community. Training for staff is discussed in depth in the final subsection of this chapter.

    Educators' perception that parents are not interested in their children's education, or lack the ability to help. This attitude, prevalent in many public schools serving lower income and communities of color, overlooks research which indicates that regardless of family income, cultural background, or parents' level of education, families make critical contributions to children's learning.

    Proven tips to increase parent attendance at school meetings include:
    1. Have student performances or demonstrations;
    2. Provide food, e.g. pot luck; and;
    3. Have fun events for both children and parents.

    Class and cultural differences between schools and families. Educators need to treat all parents with respect, regardless of differences in background. Ways to do this include listening to parents' views with patience, requesting parents' input regarding their children's learning, striving to understand students' home situations, and carrying out home visits where this works for parents. (The North Central Regional Educational Laboratory has published an article on home visiting , which includes links to other resources). When families speak another language, the school needs to provide translators, and translate school communications. Where parents perceive that they are treated with respect by all school staff, partnerships flourish. The Comer School Development Program, a well-known reform framework, is designed largely to deal with barriers of class and cultural differences (information available online at http://info.med.yale.edu/comer/). Local organizations that represent communities of color may be able to help charter schools bridge these gaps.

    Some parents' involvement may cause problems for the school. There may be parents whose presence in the school is disruptive, who are not appropriate for working with particular students, or who pursue their own ideas in destructive ways. A parent or parent/student handbook may be an appropriate place to state guidelines for parent involvement, stating what the school does to promote parent participation, and reciprocally, the school's expectations of parents who volunteer. Kathryn Shick, founder and chancellor of the Midland Academy of Advanced and Creative Studies in Michigan, advocates detailed mission statements, including "unit mission statements" for all aspects of the organization, as a way of keeping the focus of activities on what is important for the school. The Midland Academy was founded with enthusiastic parent involvement and support - many parents eagerly volunteered to work on a wide variety of plans and projects, some of which were and some of which were not appropriate for the overall focus of the school. Detailed mission statements provided a means of making decisions about what projects would and would not be pursued.27

    Parents have more pressing needs. Families without adequate resources of food, clothing, and shelter are likely to feel overwhelmed with immediate needs which take precedence over attending school meetings. Through partnerships with local human service providers, schools may also be able to offer some services (e.g. health screenings, some medical services, continuing education opportunities) on-site at the school. The Tejano Charter School in Houston, Texas, for example, is a partnership with a social service agency. The concept of full-service schools, which provide a wide array of services beyond educating children, is described by Joy Dryfoos in her book by that title.28

    Parents feel powerless to influence the program. Lewis and Henderson report that "an increase in 'passive' parent involvement cannot sustain school reform." National Education Goal number 8 states that "Parents and families will help to ensure that schools are adequately supported and will hold schools and teachers to high standards of accountability." Parents need to be involved in decision making, so that involvement does not simply mean parents assist the school in only low-level activities. Most charter schools involve parents in governance in some way and thus may be less likely to experience this as a challenge. See discussion above in the "Decision Making" section under Ways in Which Families May be Involved.

    Key factors in promoting parent involvement.

    The National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education provides the following tips, excerpted from a longer list of "keys to successfully involving parents in education".

    • Hire and train a parent/family liaison to directly contact parents and coordinate family activities. The Liaison should be bilingual as needed and sensitive to the needs of family and the community, including the non-English speaking community.
    • Develop multiple outreach mechanisms to inform families, businesses, and the community about family involvement policies and programs through newsletter, slide shows, videotapes, and local newspapers.
    • Recognize the importance of a community's historic, ethnic, linguistic, or cultural resources in generating interest in family involvement.
    • Mobilize parents/families as volunteers in the school assisting with instructional tasks, meal service, and administrative office functions. Family members might also act as invited classroom speakers and volunteer tutors.
    • Provide staff development for teachers and administrators to enable them to work effectively with families and with each other as partners in the educational process.
    • Ensure access to information about nutrition, healthcare, services for individuals with disabilities, and support provided by schools or community agencies.
    • Evaluate the effectiveness of family involvement programs and activities on a regular basis.
    From the NCPIE website, reprinted by permission



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