Defining Parent Involvement

For the purposes of this booklet, parent involvement is defined as the active, ongoing participation of a child's parent(s) or guardian(s) in his or her education. It is recognized that there are many different ways for parents to participate in their children's education, from reading to children at home, to assisting in the classroom, to sitting on advisory councils at school.

Epstein (1995; 1996) identifies six basic types of parent involvement that schools can promote:

• Parenting: Schools can assist families in setting home conditions to support learning at each age and grade level. Providing information on child and adolescent development and helping parents strengthen parenting skills are two ways schools can increase and support parents' involvement at home in their children's education.
• Communicating: By increasing and encouraging school-to-home and home-to-school communications, schools can improve overall communication with families about school programs and student progress.
• Volunteering: Schools can involve parents as volunteers in activities at school or in other locations to support students and school programs. Schools that put time into recruitment and training, provide a variety of opportunities for involvement, and are willing to work around parents' schedules have the most success in getting parents to volunteer.
• Learning at home: Schools can involve families in children's academic learning activities at home, including homework and other curricular-linked activities and decisions.
• Decisionmaking: Schools can involve parents in school decision-making by including them as participants in advisory committees, site councils, the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), and other parent and school organizations.
• Collaborating with community: Schools can coordinate the work and resources of local businesses, community organizations, colleges and universities, and other groups to strengthen school programs, family practices, and student learning and development. Schools can also provide services for parents and other community members, such as parenting, adult literacy, and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classes.

Although each type of parent involvement may yield different results for children and schools, all are equally valuable. This said, it is also important for educators to note that parents have different skills and differing levels of comfort when it comes to school involvement (Decker, Gregg, & Decker, 1996). While some like to be in classrooms, directly involved with many students, others like to play behind-the-scenes roles. In order to avoid alienating a segment of the parent population, schools must recognize personal preferences, value the different roles volunteers can play, and provide a variety of ways for them to become involved (Decker et al., 1996; Epstein, 1995).

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