Motivators for Parental Involvement in Educationby kaylee smith
1. Through laws set in place and funding stipulations, parents can play a major role in their child's education.
2. Mandated parent involvement programs include: Title 1, Head Start, Education for all Handicapped Children, No Child Left Behind, and various mandates issued by National Association for the Education of Young Children.
3. Accreditation and Federal funding programs require family partnerships to encourage parental involvement.
4. Parental Involvement in the schools offers a voice for the community. Involved parents can offer various ideas and initiatives for working together with teachers and administration to provide support and care for students.
5. Parental Involvement is beneficial for overall school improvement because it allows teachers and administration to be heard throughout the community. As the saying goes: "It takes a village to raise a child," the same theory applies to education. By involving parents in education, school personnel can receive support by the community to push for important improvements within the school.
6. By joining together, parents and schools can create a supportive environment for developing children and help to eliminate concerns of the community through sharing common goals and concerns.
7. Research shows that parental involvement boosts parents' self-esteem, increases familiarity with the school experience, improves interaction and social skills, encourages strong and effective leadership roles, and enhances parents' feelings of the role as important and essential.
8. Established The Code of Ethical Conduct and Statement of Commitment, is a list of ethical responsibilities to families today.
9. Included in these responsibiities are nine ideals and fifteen principals. The ideals range from providing personnnel with education and trainings to keep them up to date on working with the modern day families to creating partnerships, cestablishing trust, and building support networks.
10. Author Carol Gestwicki states that "numerous studies also indicate that additional factors related to later school success may be indirectly influenced by parents' involvement in their chidren's programs" (Gestwicki, 2013, pg. 102).
11. Research shows that offering psychological support, knowledge of child development and needs, empowers the family to feel like a strong unit thus confirming parents' role in child development and learning necessary.
12. Research shows that early intervention programs such as Head Start, considers parental involvement a "...necessary component to effect changes within the family itself and in surrounding commmunity" (Gestwicki, 2013, pg. 105).
