School Family

If you’re not a data wonk, feel free to skip right over this blog post, but this information certainly at least deserves a highlight here. The federal government is out with a comprehensive study of parent involvement habits of K-12 parents nationwide.

Complete parent involvement study is here.

Highlights:

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  About 54 percent of students in grades K through 12 had parents who reported receiving notes or email from the school specifically about their child; 91 percent had parents who reported receiving newsletters, memos, or notices addressed to all parents; and 49 percent had parents who reported that the school had contacted them by telephone.

• A higher percentage of students in nonreligious private schools (66 percent) had parents who reported that their children’s school communicated with them via notes or e-mails compared to students in other types of schools (assigned public: 53 percent; chosen public: 56 percent).

• Ninety-two percent of students in grades K through 12 had parents who reported receiving any information from the school on the student’s performance; 83 percent had parents who received any information about how to help with homework; 75 percent had parents who received any information about why the student was placed in particular groups or classes; and 86 percent had parents who received any information about the parents’ expected role at the student’s school.

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  Eighty-nine percent of students in grades K through 12 had parents who reported that an adult member of the household had attended a general school or a parent-teacher organization or association (PTO/PTA) meeting since the beginning of the school year (table 3). Seventy-eight percent had parents who attended a regularly scheduled parent-teacher conference; 74 percent had parents who attended a school or class event; 46 percent had parents who volunteered or served on a school committee; and 65 percent had parents who participated in school fundraising. (more…)

Just found this excellent year-long feature from New Haven, CT.  The focus:  how several parents made parent involvemnt work for themselves on their own schedules and within their own interests.  Great, great stuff.  And a lot for all of us to learn from.

The key take-away here (and this is coming from someone very involved in PTO and PTA stuff) is that the traditional entry points (Open House, PTO meetings) don’t have to be your entry points.  Those traditional structures are fine, and they work well for many.  But they don’t have to work for you.  Find your own way to connect.  Make sure your children know (and the school knows) that school is a priority for your family, but do that in a way that works for you.  It’s the involvement that matters, not the form of that involvement.