Cultivating parent engagement

Posted by on December 16, 2013

Cultivating parent engagement

Getting parent engagement right takes dedicated and continued effort, writes L.A. teacher Angie Trae-Greenbarg in The Hechinger Report. Parents, teachers, and students alike are frequently frustrated by roadblocks to engagement such as scheduling conflicts, language barriers, lack of technology, and a by-the-numbers approach that doesn’t account for individual circumstances. Trae-Greenbarg recommends five strategies that any school can use to improve parent participation. One is harnessing parent expertise about the community, proactively asking parents for their community connections and hosting events to which students and parents invite community members. Another is creating a range of volunteering opportunities at varying time slots and commitment levels, offering flexible ways to engage. Schools should also train parents on technology tools that already exist: have an orientation on a school’s website that shows parents what information they can access where, and make sure the website is dynamic and up-to-date, offering information parents actually want. Another step is to empower parents by encouraging them to assume leadership positions and training them to lead parent-breakout sessions during monthly meetings. Finally, parental involvement should be fun. By motivating parents and students to attend activities together, meaningful and holistic relationships between teachers and families are built. Events should encourage participation and engage everyone simultaneously.

Read more at: http://hechingerreport.org/content/true-grit-in-la-five-ways-teachers-parents-schools-come-together_13941/