Tips to Enhance Parental Involvement in Education

Education depends on work from the students, teachers, administrators, and also the help of the student’s parents. Schools provide the instruction and support to help students succeed, but parents can enhance and continue the work started in the classroom to ensure students flourish academically.

When parents are involved in their child’s academic journey, it improves student attendance and assignment completion rates, and lays the foundation for higher educational achievement. With parental support, students show improved literacy comprehension, social skills, behavior, and cognitive abilities. It’s clear that parents play one of the most significant roles in a student’s academic success.

A Parent Participation Plan is a key first step to fostering parental engagement in your school. Start by looking at your current level of participation. How much correspondence exists between the school and parents?  Opening the line of communication allows parents to learn how to help and have their questions answered by teachers and administrators. Schools can also offer open houses or workshops designed to learn about what their children are learning in the classroom, or contact parents to help them discover ways to become involved with the school via the PTA/PTO.  The best way to open lines of communication and engage parents is to contact them and listen to their needs. Find out what they need from the school that will help them be more involved. Even if they work long hours, or aren’t familiar enough with the material their children are learning, the school can find ways to get them involved and foster the main goal of seeing the students achieve their highest level of academic success.

Read our ebook The Role of Parental Involvement in Educational Success to learn more about how to improve parental involvement in your classroom and school.