Question
How does parent involvement impact student achievement? How can parents help their children better prepare for the challenges of school? What are some good websites, magazines and other resources that advocate parent involvement?
How does parent involvement impact student achievement? How can parents help their children better prepare for the challenges of school? What are some good websites, magazines and other resources that advocate parent involvement?
Answer
There is a great article in this month's PTO today about the research that shows that parent involvement in schools makes for: better grades, higher test scores, regular school attendence, better social skills, improved behavior, more positive attitude about school, completed homwork assignments, graduation and continued education. This article is also available online at www.ptotoday.com titled "Involvement matters: What to tell parents". This is a free website and you don't have to be a PTO officer to join. There is a lot of other information to help parents as well. Parents have been hearing this for a while but never knew where the "hundreds of research shows..." quotes came from. In this article they write about one particular book "A New Generation of Evidence: The Family is Critical to Student Acheivement" which apparently reviews all the recent evidence to support this. I have not read this book yet but what was very exciting to me, as a parent volunteer who is trying to get these results out to other district parents, is to finally have a book or study to answer with, just in case another parent asks "What research?" I hope that helps with your quest, as it seems we have much in common trying to get a "new generation" of parents more involved with education and city politics. Websites: www.ptotoday.com www.schoolfamily.com www.schoolmatters.com and even www.boxtops4education.com has a parent section Lastly a new inner-city school program going on in my state which has a lot of great ideas for better school systems: www.education.uconn.edu/research/commpact/
There is a great article in this month's PTO today about the research that shows that parent involvement in schools makes for: better grades, higher test scores, regular school attendence, better social skills, improved behavior, more positive attitude about school, completed homwork assignments, graduation and continued education. This article is also available online at www.ptotoday.com titled "Involvement matters: What to tell parents". This is a free website and you don't have to be a PTO officer to join. There is a lot of other information to help parents as well. Parents have been hearing this for a while but never knew where the "hundreds of research shows..." quotes came from. In this article they write about one particular book "A New Generation of Evidence: The Family is Critical to Student Acheivement" which apparently reviews all the recent evidence to support this. I have not read this book yet but what was very exciting to me, as a parent volunteer who is trying to get these results out to other district parents, is to finally have a book or study to answer with, just in case another parent asks "What research?" I hope that helps with your quest, as it seems we have much in common trying to get a "new generation" of parents more involved with education and city politics. Websites: www.ptotoday.com www.schoolfamily.com www.schoolmatters.com and even www.boxtops4education.com has a parent section Lastly a new inner-city school program going on in my state which has a lot of great ideas for better school systems: www.education.uconn.edu/research/commpact/
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