REL Central Ask A REL Response

“This article investigates the influence of Parent Services Project’s Vision and Voice Family Leadership Institute (VVFLI; formerly known as Parent Leadership Institute) on parent leadership capacity and action. Pre- and post-test data were collected from new VVFLI attendees during their first (N = 83) and last (N = 85) session, respectively. T-tests were used to test for significant differences between the pre- and post-test survey responses. Survey data were also collected from a subset of alumni (N = 100) who had completed at least one VVFLI between 2005 and 2008. Results indicate that VVFLI may positively influence parents– identities as leaders, general leadership and communication skills, and skills specific to school- and community-based settings, as well as promote increased parental involvement in a variety of school-based, advocacy, and wider constituency leadership activities. Schools and community-based organizations interested in strengthening the leadership capacity of parents should consider implementing parent leadership programs, such as VVFLI, with their constituents.”

“Since the release of Equality of Educational Opportunity, researchers have emphasized the importance of applying the results of research to policies for school improvement. Policies tell educators to do something, but not how to enact specific laws. This study analyzes data from 347 schools in 21 districts to identify variables that support the enactment of policies for parental engagement. We address research questions on how school and district practices affect the quality of school-based partnership programs. Our results indicate that a policy on parental involvement may be a good first step, but other factors–principals’ support for family and community engagement and active facilitation of research-based structures and processes by district leaders–are important for establishing a basic partnership program. These factors promote programs that engage all students’ families. Schools that take these steps have higher percentages of engaged families and report higher rates of average daily attendance among their students.”

“Parental involvement is correlated with student performance, though the causal relationship is less well established. This experiment examined an intervention that delivered weekly one-sentence individualized messages from teachers to the parents of high school students in a credit recovery program. Messages decreased the percentage of students who failed to earn course credit from 15.8% to 9.3%–a 41% reduction. This reduction resulted primarily from preventing drop-outs, rather than from reducing failure or dismissal rates. The intervention shaped the content of parent–child conversations with messages emphasizing what students could improve, versus what students were doing well, producing the largest effects. We estimate the cost of this intervention per additional student credit earned to be less than one-tenth the typical cost per credit earned for the district. These findings underscore the value of educational policies that encourage and facilitate teacher-to-parent communication to empower parental involvement in their children’s education.”

“The report shows how the PTHV model and process of relational home visits builds understanding and trust, reduces anxiety and stress, and fosters positive cross-group interactions between educators and families. Moreover, these relational capacities are critical for identifying and reducing educators’ and families’ implicit biases that too often lead to disconnects, missed opportunities, and discriminatory behaviors in and beyond the classroom. The findings indicate that when educators and families build mutually respectful and trusting relationships they become more aware of stereotypes and biases and work toward leaving them behind. As a result, they are both better equipped to support the students’ education. With the help of relational home visits, their common interest–the child’s success–wins out over unconscious assumptions. The report also offers valuable recommendations for strengthening and deepening the impact of relational home visits. How can we create more opportunities for educators and parents to identify and reflect on their implicit biases? How can we offer greater support to parents? How can we intentionally link home visits with a systems approach to decreasing implicit bias? We look forward to answering these questions together.”

“This report presents findings from an Evaluation of Flamboyan Foundations’s Family Engagement Partnership. The study included 12 public elementary schools in Washington, D.C., and more than 4,000 students in the 2013–2014 school year. It found that students whose families received a home visit, one of the core strategies in the Family Engage Partnership program, had 24 percent fewer absences and were more likely to read at or above grade level compared to similar students who did not receive a home visit. Also, students attending schools implementing the program more widely were associated with a greater likelihood of reading at or above grade level.”

“This report summarizes research conducted primarily over the past 10 years on how families’ involvement in children’s learning and development through activities at home and at school affects the literacy, mathematics, and social-emotional skills of children ages 3 to 8. A total of 95 studies of family involvement are reviewed. These include both descriptive, nonintervention studies of the actions families take at home and at school and intervention studies of practices that guide families to conduct activities that strengthen young children’s literacy and math learning. The family involvement research studies are divided into four categories:

• Learning activities at home, including those that parents engage in to promote their child’s literacy and/or math skills outside school
• Family involvement at school, including the actions and interactions that families have while in the school building
• School outreach to engage families, including the strategies that schools and teachers use to engage families and make them feel welcome
• Supportive parenting activities, including the nature and quality of the parent-child relationship and home environment, rule-setting, and caring behaviors.

Key Findings

• Family involvement is important for young children’s literacy and math skills. The majority of studies, including some randomized control trials (RCTs), demonstrate this positive link. A few studies show positive relations with social-emotional skills. The weakest association was between family involvement at school and children’s outcomes.
• Parents from diverse backgrounds, when given direction, can become more engaged with their children. And when parents are more engaged, children tend to do better.
• This review also provides recommendations for additional lines of inquiry and implications to guide next steps in both research and practice. While there is still more to learn about how to connect with and support caretakers’ efforts to promote children’s learning, what we already know from extant research can help guide this process.”

“The impact of parental involvement on student academic achievement has been recognized by teachers, administrators, and policy-makers who consider parental involvement to be one of the integral parts of new educational reforms and initiatives. This study synthesized the results of nine meta-analyses that examined this impact and it identified generalizable findings across these studies. The results indicated that the relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement was positive, regardless of a definition of parental involvement or measure of achievement. Furthermore, the findings revealed that this relationship was strongest if parental involvement was defined as parental expectations for academic achievement of their children. However, the impact of parental involvement on student academic achievement was weakest if parental involvement was defined as homework assistance. Finally, the relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement was found to be consistent across different grade levels and ethnic groups. However, the strength of that relationship varied based on the type of assessment used to measure student achievement.”