4+Parent+&+Comm.+Involvement-Guierline

Parent and Community Involvement By Guirlene M.**
 * Chapter 4

**Introduction**

Parents have a vital influence on their children’s education. A person's family symbolizes the main authority of his or her life. When parents are involved in their children’s education, students do better in school. Students have better relationships with their teachers and are successful in life. Also the community is successful because of the positive atmosphere the parents and students bring. When parents encourage learning at home, a teacher's job will be a lot easier and the school reputation will improve. When parents are involved, students tend to have fewer absences. According to Arias and Campbell (2008), factors that make parental involvement in school challenging include language proficiency, knowledge of schooling practices and different values. The lack of English skill continues to be one of the most significant obstacles to parental information and participation in their children's learning process. English Language Learner (ELL) parents often may not be able to help their children with homework or communicate their concerns to school personnel. ELL parental educational level and lack of previous contact to U.S. schools can also be barriers. School personnel, administrators and teachers need to work together to find ways to improve all children's education.


 * Main Points**

1. Parents need to advocate for better education in their community and state.

2. The sooner parents get involved in their child’s education, the more influential the outcomes will be.

3. Parents and the communities must participate in decision making regarding their children. Also they need to provide information and solicit feedback on school progress, resources, policies and issues.

4. School and district personnel need to provide information in the native languages to school community members.

5. The school and parents need to seek and support the involvement from local organizations, particularly associations that represent the various backgrounds and interests of the community.

6. The family is one of the most important factors in the lives of children, which can have tremendous impact on their personal, social, and intellectual growth.


 * Annotations and Links**

1. Chang, J. M. (2001, April). Scaffold for School-Home Collaboration: Enhancing Reading and Language Development. San Jose State University. Washington DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. Retrieved September 24, 2008 from: http://www.cal.org/crede/pubs/ResBrief9.htm This article discusses a project where families worked together with the school system to help Asian ELL students. Some families feel that the school system is too slow to tackle the needs of children and young adolescents who are facing academic problems. The shortages of bilingual bicultural teachers are the cause for the problem. Researchers have come up with ways to address the situation via school-home collaboration. By engaging parents, grandparents and family friends, they share new ideas to maintain a positive learning environment. In their project called “Family Literacy Nights,” families worked jointly with educators to transfer students’ classroom knowledge to the community and home surroundings. Over a period of five months, teachers and researchers co-taught and worked in 6th grade classes. Parents and their children were also involved and engaged in shared productive activities. Such programs are important because they help families in talking and listening to their children about specific class topics and assignments. Parents learn to probe, rephrase, and praise their child's ideas, opinions or judgments in a calm and encouraging manner.

2. Fitzsimmons, S. (2003, July). Building Partnerships with Latino Immigrant Parents. Center for Applied Linguistics. Retrieved September 25, 2008 from: http://www.cal.org/crede/pubs/PracBrief6.htm This article stated that “roughly 80% of ELL parents are Latinos and more than 25% are immigrants” (Kindler, 2002). Some misinformed educators believed that Latino immigrant parents hold low educational goals for their children. On the contrary, Latino parents held high aspirations for their children to pursue a higher degree beyond high school and want to be a part of it. Parents do possess invaluable insight into their children's prior knowledge, their community and cultural environments, all which contribute to the educational experience. Not all ELL students are immigrants; some are born in the US to immigrant parents who do not speak English.

3. King, K., & Fogle, L. (2006). Raising Bilingual Children: Common Parental Concerns and Current Research. Digest: Georgetown University. Retrieved September 24, 2008, from: http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/RaiseBilingChild.html This article stated that parents fear that speaking two languages at home will confuse or delay their children's language development. Speaking two languages in the same conversation, also called codeswitching, has been found to be a sign of mastery and intelligence in both languages. Many children from infancy spoke two languages at home. Research has not proven that using two languages leads to any signs of language delays or disorders. Most parents who speak languages other than English, rely heavily on television, video and audio to assist their children to learn English. But human interaction is the best solution for children to learn any language including English and their native language. When parents communicate with their children in both languages, this prepares them to explore and to identify with a new environment.

4. Mejia, S. N. (1994). Bridges between Home and School: Literacy Building Activities For Non Native English Speaking Homes. Minority Students, v14 p. 149-164. Retrieved September 23, 2008, from: http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/jeilms/vol14/nathenso.htm This project brought parents and teachers together into a literacy club (Literacy Building Activities) to help children learn their language and English. Children can learn more than one language when their native language is valued and is used as a background to start. It is also important that parents be involved in their children’s education. The main problem that immigrants are facing is a communication gap between parents and teachers. Also helping students with school work is another hurdle that most parents with limited English face. By involving parents in their own literacy development and providing resources for finding help with academic questions for themselves and their children, parents will make things much easier for their children with school related subjects. Providing night and week-end classes for recent immigrants will help their ELL children in school, allowing them to better understand content and to do their homework.

5. Simich-D., C. (1986, December). Parent Involvement and the Education of Limited-English-Proficient Students. (Eric Digest #ED279205) Washington DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics. Retrieved September 20, 2008, from: http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-925/parent.htm Research evidence suggests that involved parents, who provide support and direct instruction at home and have good communications with the school personnel, benefit their elementary-age schoolchildren. Parents are a strong force behind the educations of their children. But, many parents don’t know how to help their children with academic tasks at home. Support and help from parents build up their children’s self-esteem, their attendance, classroom behavior and their relationship with teachers. Unfortunately, parents of ELL students sometimes are not home because they work two jobs or are single parents. Some fear they are doing more harm than good for their children. School personnel must understand parents’ circumstances and collaborate with them in order to maintain a good relationship. Parents and the communities need to be active participants in their children’s education. The school and district should partner with community-based organizations in order to meet the needs of immigrant students.

6. Arias, M. B., Campbell, M. M. (2008, January). Promoting ELL Parental Involvement: Challenges in Contested Times. Arizona State University: Education Policy Research Unit. Retrieved September 20, 2008, from: http://epsl.asu.edu/epru/documents/EPSL-0801-250-EPRU.pdf

7. Hinton, L. (1999, December). Involuntary Language Loss among Immigrants: Asian-American Linguistic Autobiographies. University of California, Berkeley: Online Resources: Digests. Retrieved October 1, 2008, from: http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/involuntary.html8

8. Navarrette, Y., G. (1996). Family Involvement in a Bilingual School. The Journal of Educational Issue of Language Minority Students, V. 16, summer 1996. Boise State University. Retrieved September 28, 2008, from: http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/jeilms/vol16/jeilms1606.htm