The Impact of Parent Involvement on At-Risk Children – Does It Make A Difference?

There are many student advantages that are correlated with parent involvement.   Among the most noteworthy are increased academic achievement, positive behavior, and emotional development (Pena, 2001).  Understanding the direct link between academics and parent involvement, our campus was committed to taking a deeper look at the number of contacts and true interactions between our teachers, our school, and our parents.  Our school is defined as Title I, with a population makeup of 22.7% African American, 62.9% Hispanic, 3% White, 9.6% Asian, and several other races totaling less than 1% each.  The majority of our children, 66%, are labeled “At-Risk”.  Understanding the adversity facing our children, it was imperative for us to examine every possible way to help increase their academics and chance for success as they make their way in life.  Reviewing data reports such as Parent-Teacher conference sign in sheets, Meet the Teacher attendance rates, assessment results on Campus Common Assessments, District Common Assessments, and Benchmark Assessments, as well as previous state assessments, it was determined that a concerted effort to increase our parental interactions and involvement in grades 3 – 5 was a must!

 

As referenced in the previous paragraph, parent involvement has a number of positive impacts on the students.  Our school believes we can go even further with our children if we are able to increase the level of support and participation of our parents.  After reviewing our previous year’s results and number of positive parent contacts through our teachers’ logs, we wanted to develop a plan to track parent involvement and the impact it had on our students’ achievement.  More specifically, we wanted to focus on our children who met the criteria of “At-Risk”.  Based on meeting at least one of thirteen criteria, these children were deemed At-Risk of not completing their high school education.  With this in mind, we established goals of 100% contact with all parents in the first nine weeks to welcome them to our classroom and 100% contact with all parents to invite them to our parent teacher conferences.  Additionally, based on federal requirements, 100% participation in our school compact was a must.  With the additional push designed to increase our parents’ participation in school with our children, we wanted to answer the following question:

What would happen to our At-Risk students’ assessment scores with more active parent involvement?

Recognizing the need for increasing our parent involvement, I approached our administrators with the desire to research and put into practice more effective ways to reach our parents.  My administrators agreed there was a significant drop in parent involvement as the children progressed through elementary school.  It was also noted the level of frustration voiced by the teachers of the perceived lack of interest in their children’s performance.  Evidence shows a strong connection between parent and family involvement in schools and children's academic achievement, attendance, attitude, and continued education (Henderson & Berla, 1994; Hickman, 1996). But families may not become involved if they do not feel that the school climate--the social and educational atmosphere of a school--is one that makes families feel welcomed, respected, trusted, heard, and needed (Comuntzis-Page, 1996).  Taking this information to heart, we began our discussions focusing on our school climate, actions towards our parents, and ways we can facilitate change.  Previous programs were analyzed and reviewed for activities or programs that worked and failed.  Decisions were made to make a more concerted effort to involve our parents in numerous ventures and determine the impact of their involvement on our identified groups’ performance. 

           

The vision of this project was communicated initially to our Campus Improvement Development Team (CIDC) in a meeting.  The project ideas were shared with the team and discussions were held on concerns and positive aspects of the program.  All CIDC members were immediately on board for trying to increase the level of parent involvement but were hesitant to expect too much based on past results.  CIDC members shared the information with their teams and I held numerous conversations with teachers in grades 3 – 5.  The focus of these conversations included understanding the end goal as well as their level of participation to reach this outcome.  Initially, the project was met with hesitation based on the perceived notion of additional tasks being asked of them.  However, once the steps were clearly explained, the teachers understood and supported the plan. 

To implement this plan, the first step was to identify the target group of students.  Focusing on our primary testing levels, grades 3 – 5, it became clear that the need centered on our At-Risk students.  Since 66% of our students qualified in at least one of the 13 criteria, these children became our focus of attention.  I created charts for each teacher in our school to track events held and the students’ parents that attended.  Additional items were added to these charts so all children had a chance to receive checks by their names.  All teachers were encouraged to contact every parent in their classroom to start the year with a positive touch.  Secondly, all teachers initiated contact on several levels, notes, e-mail, and phone calls, to encourage attendance at our open houses and parent/teacher conferences.   Additional tracking charts were created for teachers to provide assessment results for all children within their classrooms.  This information was not posted for all to see but kept confidential by the teacher.  All of this data was compiled and the At-Risk students were identified as a subset of this data.  Analysis was performed on both charts to determine what efforts were made to reach parents, actual number of contacts made, parents attendance at events, and assessments results throughout the year. 

Our administrators were firmly behind this project based on our belief that parent involvement is one of our missing pieces to academic success.  Our campus also has a bilingual parent liaison that was more than willing to provide her time and effort to assist where needed with translating for phone calls or during conferences.  I began with creating the tracking chart for all teachers to fill in and utilize in their classrooms.  This was posted before our events started as a reminder to our parents of their value in attendance.  All the charts were created through a poster maker owned by our school so these funds were already built into our budget.  Being a Title I school, our parent/teacher/student/school compact was also utilized to remind everyone that this is a partnership and we all must work together for the benefit of all.  All of the teachers were very active participants as it related to completing activities for students in their classrooms.  They were willing to go that extra mile to try and obtain 100% participation.  To avoid increasing the burden on our teachers, my administrators were able to obtain access for me to review all of our assessment results in grades 3 – 5.  Each teacher received a completed assessment chart for their classroom of every assessment throughout the year!  For the purpose of this study, the charts were revised to focus only on the identified At-Risk students.  I met with the teachers at each grade level to review their charts and discuss any important items to note about attitudes, increases in results, and parent advancements for their children.  While I was responsible for much of the organization and culminating of the material, this project could not have been completed without the backing of our administrators and additional efforts and support by our teachers.  

The goal of this project is to increase our level of parent involvement in our upper grades, particularly focusing on our targeted group.  By creating a stronger partnership between home and school, the children will see the level of commitment by both their parents and their teachers.  This allows all parties to work together in assisting our children to reach their highest potential.  Focusing this project on our At-Risk students, allows us to specifically track and serve the needs of students with very diverse backgrounds and abilities.  All of our students fell into one of the following categories: Limited English Proficient (LEP), Failed State Assessment Test, Not Advanced to Next Grade, and Unsatisfactory Readiness Test.  This project aims to meet the needs of our At-Risk students by creating a stronger partnership with our parents and increasing our students’ academic performance.     

References

Comuntzis-Page, G. (1996 ). Critical Issue: Creating the School Climate and Structures to Support Parent and Family Involvement . Retrieved January 29, 2013, from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/famncomm/pa300.htm

Henderson, A. T., & Berla, N. (Eds.). (1994). A new generation of evidence: The family is critical to student achievement (A report from the National Committee for Citizens in Education). Washington, DC: Center for Law and Education.

Hickman, C. (1996). The Future of High School Success: The Importance of Parent Involvement Programs. Retrieved February 2, 2013, from http://horizon.unc.edu/projects/HSJ/Hickman.html

Pena, D. (2000). Parent Involvement: Influencing Factors and Implications. The Journal of Educational Research, 94, 42-54.

ARP is rolling along and we seem to be having excellent reports so far.  All of the classrooms have their posters posted and we have included additional activities to be included so this is not viewed as a negative.  The children do watch this poster and make sure they have all of their checks based on the activities so far.  I think this has been a positive impact since we have not had any complaints from our parents about the poster and we have had feedback that their kids are urging them to attend so they can get credit!  This is what we had hoped for!  I have been attending all of the PTO meetings and recognized a few areas for improvement as it relates to their activities.  First, their meetings are not publicized well so unless you are on the PTO Board, you are not aware these are occurring.  Second, the teachers are not informed about their activities.  This is an opportunity for us to become more aware of what events are coming up and help promote this to our parents.  Also, many of our teachers have kids in our school and don't feel informed! 
I am still gathering my results on testing to see if the parent involvement is having an impact!  I have a "control" classroom on every grade level but one so we will be able to compare results of teachers who made sure to contact EVERY SINGLE parent versus those who reached some but were not able to reach all!

Currently, I am well on my way with my Action Research Plan.  I have already recognized that some of the activities will need to be modified based on changes from the administrators.  We discussed and agreed upon all teachers contacting every student in their class to try and reach them and invite them to our upcoming events.  Unfortunately, this was no longer a mandate and was changed to a “strong urge” from the administrators.  I was able to talk with at least one person in each grade level to ask them if they would make calls and keep track of them for my review.  We are going to have at least one class per level who will keep notes and follow the original plan.  I am going to compare the results from these classes to the rest of the grade level to determine if there were any major differences noted from the outreach! 
All of our Student/Parent/Teacher compacts have been created and sent home for signature.  Most of our students have returned these and received a copy for their home.  We refer to these compacts often as we want them to understand the importance of what they signed and what a compact actually is and means. 
The tracking chart has been created and is displayed in every single classroom in our school.  The kids are paying attention to these based on the feedback from the teachers.  We did have a number of teachers express their concern that this could embarrass a child should their parents not show up to anything.  We are not out to humiliate or punish the child.  We are going to add additional options such as Tuesday folder returned each week as one of the “checkmarks” so all children continue to get a chance for a mark to be made by their name.  The chart was up during Open House and many of the parents did notice we were tracking their attendance.  We made it clear that this is a partnership and we need them to be a part of school!  All in all, it was well received.

I am working on getting the initial lists together of which parents did not attend and how many of their children are classified at risk!  This is a big piece of our puzzle that we are trying to resolve.  Finally, I am working with our parent liaison to try and determine additional efforts that can be made to encourage parent participation. 

4th Week Web Conference - School Community Relations

Fantastic conference tonight.  I really felt like I got a lot out of listening to other people's ideas and their focus.  It is always interesting to see the different struggles we all face in different areas.  I love that Dr Jenkins will share with us what we missed on the mid term so we can check ourselves and learn from this.  I was also able to resolve my issue with the Course Embedded log...THANK YOU to Dr Cummings for working with me on this and to Dr Jenkins for passing this along.
Felt like tonight was a success and I will go to bed feeling like I accomplished a lot today!  :)

Attending the we conferences for our classes has normally been very useful!  I enjoy attending them and learning from other people.  However, in this class...School Community Relations....we seem to be drifting off course more often.  People are asking so many questions that are more related to obtaining our degrees but not the course in specific.  Also, people have been logging on late to the conference and then asking the same questions that have been asked several times earlier.  It would be helpful if they scroll through the chat log before asking questions.  I hope to continue on the conferences but want to focus on the class and reviewing the mid term and preparing for the final!

We have been reading so many articles about ways other schools have increased their parent involvement.  One common factor I am noticing, and it seems common sense, is that the teachers are on board.  I attended our CIDC meeting and our principal shared the poor results of her request last year for teachers to contact all parents at least once a nine weeks.  She stated it was SO DISHEARTENING to see the results.  This has me puzzled....you can't complain about parents not being involved if you, the teacher, don't reach out to them at all.  Our class sizes are NOT that large so that is not the case.  I am struggling internally as to how I would deal with this as a principal.  You can't throw down the hammer and demand it, but on the other hand it was a REASONABLE request.  I am trying to continue to soak in the info in these articles to see if I can come up with a different idea on how to get them moving! 

Lots has been happening since the start of school!  I feel like I am running and NEVER walking.  Regardless, we have accomplished a lot on the plan.  We were able to create our posters for the classrooms to track parent attendance at our events.  They looked great!  Our Meet The Teacher Night was good but our Open House was fantastic!  It was a rainy night but still had a packed house.  I had teachers from every grade level contacting their parents to come and it was very interesting to compare our results.  I am meeting with our Parent Liaison to review the final numbers.  Interesting point...I called all of my parents and had 15 out of 20 show!  I was pleased with this.  A colleague of mine, 5th bilingual class, called all of hers and had 7 out of 16 show!  Final note, another colleague who has many GT children, did NOT call and had 20 out of 23 show!  I will be back to share more official results but our entire focus is to increase their involvement.  So far, I am seeing better results than last year and hope this trend continues!