1. Parent Involvement in Early Childhood Education
GSRP Teachers
September

2. Why Promote Parent Involvement?
Parent’s Rights
Professional Responsibility
Improved Outcomes for Students
Improved Schools
Improved Staff Morale
Improved Community Reputation & Support
Besides Improved Outcomes for Students, professionals should promote Parent involvement because:
Parent’s Rights -FERPA & ESEA
Professional Responsibility: We know that families are the primary context of children’s development
Improved Schools
Improved Staff Morale
Improved Community Reputation & Support
Improved morale goes along with higher ratings of teachers by parents, higher satisfaction by parents = more support from families and better reputations in the community as well as increased community support for schools
Special needs issues:
More clearly defined rights of parents
More vulnerable population
Means increased need for parent involvement

3. “Over 30 years’ research has proven beyond dispute the positive connection between parent involvement and student success. Effectively engaging parents and families in the education of their children has the potential to be far more transformational than any other type of educational reform.” National PTA, 1997 Report
Parents exercise their right to be involved in the decisions related to their children.
Parents are involved in decisions related to their school and community.

4. Research Shows Parent Involvement Makes A Difference
Helps Children get ready to enter school
Promotes School Success
Prepares Youth for College
Promotes Success in Adult Life
Good early experiences can set in motion a chain of events that pervades the child's life through high school and beyond, increasing the quality of his/her life experiences along the way.

5. Encourage Parents At Home Visits To:
Look for everyday learning opportunities at home
Talk, using complex words and sentences
Read to their young children every day
Have books in the home, and provide an example – read for pleasure
Teach them to identify letters and numbers
Connect printed words and letters to sounds

6. More Parents Can Do At Home
Name, count, sort household objects
Explore the world of nature with their child
Provide consistent routines and discipline
Monitor and limit “screen time”
Name feelings and talk about how you handle them
Ask parents at this point for other ideas they have to help their children be ready for school.

7. What Can We Expect of Parents at School?
Volunteer in the classroom
Volunteer any policy making committees
Attend parent-teacher conferences
Communicate regularly with staff
Reinforce lessons and rules from school
Voice their concerns and express their thanks
Brainstorming Activity

8. How Else Do We Encourage Parents?
Inform of parent education programs offered in the community or in-home
Inform of parent-child activity groups offered by your school, library, etc.
Assist to access other community resources if the family needs help

9. What About Dads? Two involved parents are better than one!
Research shows positive outcomes for school success and social adaptation when dads are involved
Other males can take on these roles

10. Different Parenting Styles
Moms and Dads tend to have different parenting styles
Father is more likely to be playful, to encourage risk taking and not as quick to intervene in the face of child’s frustration.
Mother is more likely to provide physical care, more likely to stress emotional security and personal safety, quicker to intervene in child’s frustration.

11. Positive Outcomes When Dads Are Involved
Better grades at school
More likely to enjoy school
More likely to participate in extracurricular activities
Less likely to repeat a grade
Less likely to be truant or to be expelled
These positive outcomes continue: less delinquency, delayed sexual activity, increased empathy and pro-social behavior

12. What Should Professionals Know About Parent Involvement?
Positive outcomes not related to economic, ethnic or cultural background of family.
Every family has strengths and valuable information about their children.
When families feel comfortable in the school setting they are more likely to get involved.
More than one time events are needed.
Parents must be given substantive tasks.
Barriers to parent involvement must be removed.
P.I. Related to 0ther positive outcomes such as decreased violence and substance abuse.
Substantive tasks such as school restructuring and higher learning standards.
Barriers such as release time from work, scheduling, transportation, and child care make it difficult for parents to volunteer or attend meetings at school

13. What Keeps Parents From Being Involved?
Time
Culture / Personality
Parents own history at school
Uncertainty
Some schools may not welcome parents
May be other issues for dads:
Staff may seem to prefer or expect to work with mom
More school staff are women
More boys have difficulties at school
Use this slide for further discussion of why parents might choose not to be involved. Also ask parents how school staff might work to reduce or eliminate some of these barriers. This discussion might be a chance to ease some parental concerns and might also help staff to understand how some parents might think and what to do about it.
Overcoming barriers:
Family staff interaction is key
Positive and proactive communication
Provide teachers with dedicated time or incentives such as stipends or comp time
Free teachers from mundane tasks to refocus on family involvement
Note that fathers ranked institutional practices and barriers imposed by the workplace as the most significant reasons for low levels of involvement. Paternity leave and flex time can enhance fathers’ involvement

14. Ways to Promote Parent Involvement & Partnerships
The school environment is family friendly
Communication is family friendly
Family involvement in school decision making
Parents as volunteers

15. National PTA Standards for Parent Involvement
Communication
Parenting
Student learning
Volunteering
School decision making & advocacy
Collaborating with the community

16. Summary
The research shows that family involvement in early childhood education makes a difference in school success and throughout life
Help parents identify everyday learning experiences in the home.
Provide information on home visiting programs, parent education and parent support programs, parent-child activity groups, etc.
Expect parents to be involved in their child’s preschool program
Male involvement is important in a child’s development
Create expectation of parent’s involvement in child’s education from Pre-K - 12

17. References
“Early Childhood Standards of Quality for Prekindergarten” Michigan State Board of Education. March 8, 2005
“Family Involvement in Early Childhood Education” Harvard Family Research Project. Spring, 2006
“Father Presence / Father Involvement” Minnesota Institute of Public Health.
“Father Facts” National Fatherhood Initiative
“Parent Guides” #18 & #19, Michigan Department of Education.
Prepared by:
Mike Acosta, School Social Worker
Wexford Missaukee I.S.D.