Engaged Parents, Engaged Students: Theory and Practice

Engaged Parents
Engaged Students
Theory and Practice

“Engaged Students, Engaged Parents: Theory and Practice” by Rebecca Whittenberger 2
Contents
3 Introduction
Why is Parent Engagement So Crucial in Education?
7 Part One
Teacher-Parent Communication Improves
Student Engagement: Impact and Evidence
18 Part Two
How to Create and Structure Effective Parent
Involvement: Tips, Techniques, and Tested Programs
39 Best Practice Bonus Tips

“Teaching. We’re not in it for the income. We’re in it for the outcome.”
Let’s start off with a multiple-choice quiz. Which of these statements are true?

A. Parents make the difference between a child who is a successful learner and one
who never achieves his or her learning potential.
B. Parents have more influence over how well a child learns than teachers.
C. What parents do with their children accounts for up to 80% of that child’s success
in school.
D. All of the above.
Source: leading2learning.com
Congratulate yourself if you picked “d.” It’s a bit frightening to truly realize how much power
and influence parents wield over our education system, our students, and our outcomes.
If parents are such vital players in students’ academic achievement and engagement,
does that mean teachers can’t make a difference? Not at all. However, it does mean that
teachers can’t succeed alone, which brings us to our first point.
Introduction

1 Teachers and parents must become strategic allies and
participate in meaningful, two-way communication that
supports student learning both inside and outside the
classroom.
Communication between teachers and parents is no
longer an option; it’s a requirement.
As the Goals 2000 Education American Act states,
“it [parent communication] is not an option for fed-
erally funded schools,” writes Lisa Lyons in An As-
sessment of Classroom Communication with Ethni-
cally Diverse Parents. “Schools must reach out to
parents and seek to promote partnership with them.
Since it is a requirement, schools and teachers must
figure out a way to best communicate with parents
and families.”

2 Effectively engaging parents and families in the
education of their children has the potential to be
far more transformational than any other type of
education reform.
It’s no mystery that parent involvement is the key to
student progress and academic success. Research
over the past thirty years “has proven beyond dis-
pute the positive connection between parent in-
volvement and student success,” according to the
National PTA.
The majority of teachers concur with this research,
as demonstrated in a report by the Center for Public
Education:
Two-thirds of teachers surveyed believe their students would
perform better in school if their parents were more involved
in their child’s education, and 72% of parents say children
of uninvolved parents sometimes ‘fall through the cracks’ in
schools.

Teacher-parent communication is the missing ingredient
of successful student engagement. Without it, student
achievement suffers. With it, we can transform education!
Let’s Get Started!
Part One examines the impact and evidence of quality parent-teacher communi-
cation and why it has more power to transform education than any other factor.
Part Two provides tools and techniques explaining how to create and structure
successful, effective parent involvement.
Both sections will demonstrate that communication between home and school
should be regular, two-way, and meaningful, and that parents play an integral role
in assisting student learning (two of the National PTA standards for Parent/Family
Involvement Programs).
•
•
•

PART ONE
Teacher-Parent Communication Improves Student
Engagement: Impact and Evidence

According to the National Center for Education Statistics:
►► Almost 50 million students headed off to approximately 99,000 public
elementary and secondary schools last fall.
►► Before this school year ends, almost $600 billion will be spent on the
education of these students.
The question is, how much of this education money is actually spent on teacher-parent
communication, one of the most crucial components of all?
As you already know, the NCLB act mandates parent involvement and even distributes
money (i.e. Title I) to help schools implement and pay for outreach programs.
Despite this resource, many teachers still struggle with implementing programs to strength-
en parent communication, programs which will ultimately improve student engagement.
The Facts

It’s tough for teachers to take on
any more tasks than they already
have. Wearing so many different
hats – psychologist, nurse, guid-
ance counselor, behavior special-
ist, bathroom monitor – creates
tremendous stress and often hin-
ders effective communication with
anything that’s not an emergency.
Fortunately, implementing effective communication between parents and teachers not
only solves a number of classroom issues but also helps prevent problems from happen-
ing in the first place.
In other words, educational transformation begins with effective parent-teacher
communication. Finding the time to effectively communicate with your students’ parents
is no longer an option; it’s a necessity to improve student behavior and engagement.
A Tough Job

1 Parent Involvement: The Great Equalizer
So what have we really learned from the past
thirty years of research?
Parent involvement is the great educational
equalizer! Socio-economic status, ethnic/ra-
cial background, parents’ education level—it
doesn’t matter. The bottom line is that when
parents are involved, students achieve more.
(National PTA)
The most accurate predictor of a student’s achieve-
ment in school is not income or social status, but
the extent to which that student’s family is able to
create a home environment that encourages learn-
ing . . . and become involved in their children’s ed-
ucation at school and in the community.
National PTA

Students will:
►► Have higher grades, test scores, and better attendance
►► Complete homework more consistently
►► Show more positive attitudes and behavior
►► Have higher graduation rates and greater enrollment rates in post-
secondary education.
►► Reach levels of improvement and achievement (if they are disadvan-
taged students) that are standard for middle-class children.
►► Improve performance when teachers and parents bridge the gap be
tween the school and the home (for culturally diverse students)
►► Reduce delinquent student behaviors, such as alcohol use, violence,
antisocial behaviors
Source: National PTA
Students will:
Check out the following facts about what happens when parents are
involved in their students’ education!

Double Proof
The SEDL (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory) report, A New
Wave of Evidence, synthesizes research from 51 studies over the preceding
decade to reach conclusions about the effect of parent involvement on stu-
dent learning. SEDL found that students with involved parents, no matter their
income or background, are more likely to:
►► Earn higher grades and test scores and enroll in higher-level programs
►► Be promoted, pass their classes, and earn credits
►► Attend school regularly
►► Have better social skills, show improved behavior, and adapt well to school
►► Graduate and go on to post-second ary education

2 Regular, Consistent, Steady, Repeated
The same report (Back to School) reveals that
SEDL later did a meta-analysis on the school/
family connection, reviewing 58 studies con-
ducted between 2003 and 2008.
One of their conclusions was that regular in-
teraction between parents and teachers helps
students adjust more easily to school and
classroom expectations, which can translate
into higher achievement.
Regular parent-teacher communication leads
to better student behavior, engagement, and
performance, which in turn leads to a better,
happier classroom.

It Gets Better
But a happier classroom isn’t the only benefit for teachers! Lyons mentions the follow-
ing personal benefits, such as extra resources and greater job satisfaction, for teach-
ers who proactively involve parents:
►► Parents and students tend to have a more positive attitude toward school when
communication between home and school is occurring.
►► When parents are communicating with teachers, and when they are involved,
they [parents] tend to rate the school higher than they would if they were not in
volved.
►► The more parents the teacher communicate[s] with, the more resources the
teacher can tap into.
►► Teachers who report excellent parent-teacher relations are more satisfied with
their jobs.

3 A Plan Worth the Effort
It’s a fact that parent involvement is crucial and
has more potential to transform academics than
any other type of education reform.
However, it takes planning and collaboration to
forge effective teacher-parent partnerships, as
demonstrated by the following facts from the Na-
tional PTA about parent and family involvement
program design:

►► The more the relationship between parents and educators approaches a
comprehensive, well-planned partnership, the higher the student
achievement.
►► When parents receive frequent and effective communication from the
school or program, their involvement increases, their overall evaluation of
educators improves, and their attitudes toward the program are more
positive.
►► Parents are much more likely to become involved when educators
encourage and assist parents in helping their children with their schoolwork.
National PTA
Plan and Collaborate

What Now?
So we know that we must involve parents to in-
crease student engagement, and we know that
teachers must collaborate with parents in ways
that will encourage and assist them as they help
their children with schoolwork.
But what are some specific ways we can create
these meaningful partnerships and programs?
The next section will show us how.

PART TWO
How to Create and Structure Effective
Parent Involvement: Tips, Techniques,
and Tested Programs

1 Leading the Way
We don’t always know what we want to know until
someone teaches us what we want to know.
Simply put, parents need guidance about how
to effectively contribute and be involved in their
child’s education. Most parents want to help, but
they simply aren’t sure what to do.
You must be their guide and show them the best
ways they can promote their child’s engagement
in the classroom.

Figuring It Out
This struggle is emphasized in Back to school: How parent
involvement affects student achievement:
“Teachers, parents, and students have little under-
standing of each other’s interests in children and
schools….Most teachers do not know the goals
that parents have for their children, how parents
help them learn, or how parents would like to be
involved. Most parents do not know much about
the educational programs in their children’s school
or what teachers require of them.”

Positive Pestering2 Some teachers fear that bombarding parents
with communications about their child’s prog-
ress, behavior, and engagement is unwelcome
or unnecessary, when in fact, the opposite is
true.
A recent survey of 42,000 parents from the
National School Public Relations Association
found that parents want more communica-
tion on a regular basis about their children’s
progress. The survey also found that parents
would like this information to be delivered by
email and online parent portals. (As a side
note, electronic communication is also a great
opportunity for schools to save money by go-
ing paperless!)

Ideas and Tips
Implement meaningful, two-way communication with your students’ parents with the fol-
lowing tips (according to the National PTA):
►► Regularly use a variety of communication tools that will promote two-way interac-
tion through each channel.
►► Create opportunities for parents and educators to share parenting information, like
student strengths and learning preferences.
►► Provide clear information about your curriculum, academic expectations, student
placement, school activities, student services, and optional programs.
►► Circulate information on school reforms, policies, discipline procedures, assess-
ment tools, and school goals, and include your students’ parents in any related
decision-making process.
►► Encourage immediate contact between parents and yourself when concerns
develop.
►► Distribute your students’ work for parental comment and review on a regular basis.
►► Communicate with your students’ parents about positive student behavior and
achievement, not just regarding misbehavior or failure.

3 Facilitate with Technology
Check out the following story about one
instructor’s successful experiment to
blend technology, education, and parent
communication. Let’s call it “Success with
Tech.”
A few years ago, the instructor of a class called
Supervised Tutoring and Reading had an
epiphany. The class, which was designed for
graduate-level teaching students to get one-
on-one tutoring experience with the children of
local families, traditionally communicated with
the students’ parents through paper-based let-
ters and documents that were either mailed,
emailed, or hand-delivered.

The instructor discovered that a “secure, web-based technology system could
easily be used to help facilitate the communication and sharing of this infor-
mation between the parents and tutor” (Enhancing Parent-Teacher Commu-
nication Using Technology). An enthusiastic teaching student volunteered to
explore this possibility.
During the semester, the volunteer tutor used an online forum to “share as-
sessment results, informal tutoring updates, artifacts with captions of the child’s
work in identified goal areas, as well as audio and video segments from les-
sons.” Check out the resulting advantages of this electronic experiment:
►► Proved technology’s potential to enhance communication between
school and home
►► Provided “a more powerful venue to showcase the child’s literacy
strengths and growth areas” in an online environment
►► Shared child’s work with parents in a timely, up-to-date manner (instead
of waiting until the end-of-term parent conference)
Success with Tech cont’d

Happy People
“The parents had instant and ongoing understanding of what we were doing
during the sessions,” declared the volunteer tutor. “They were also able to
compare and contrast across activities with a single click of the mouse.”
One student’s parent raved about the new electronic communication method;
she said that she “could even hear how his comprehension had increased
along with his confidence as he read. To see it all here . . . he accomplished so
much high quality work!”
Success with Tech cont’d

Communication in Action Again
In An Assessment of Classroom Communication with Ethnically Diverse Parents,
Lyons shares the following story of a teacher who successfully used technology to
enhance parent communication and improve student engagement:
[A few years ago,] a teacher in Texas tried an email system as a part of her action
research in her graduate studies. In her study, she sent messages out weekly to
keep families aware of what was happening at school.
She found that this system helped parents to feel more involved in their students’
school activities. Busy parents felt that this system made it easy to communicate
with their child’s teacher. Parents could easily email questions about homework or
let the teacher know why their child was absent.

More Happy People!
Not only did this teacher’s study show that this system worked for parents, but it
affected students positivelly. “Students increasingly felt that it was important that
they turned in their work and homework – they all wanted to have positive notes
about their week emailed home.”
The results of her research suggest that electronic communication can improve
students’ interest in their schoolwork and that it creates a system where parents
and teacher can communicate frequently with one another.”
Many teachers have had similar success implementing parent communication
and involving parents in their student’s learning both at school and at home.
The benefits always outweigh the drawbacks!
Assessment of Classroom Communication with Ethnically Diverse Parents, cont’d

Kechia’s Tips
Kechia Williams is a middle school teacher. She talks
about the best communication methods she uses to keep
parents engaged in her article 9 Techniques for Building
Solid Parent-Teacher Relationships: Using a Variety of
Communication Methods Throughout the Year Can Keep
Parents Connected to the Middle School Classroom.
Read on to check out three of her best tips!

Contact Parents with Good News Regularly
“So much time is devoted to students who are not doing what
they are supposed to that students who perform well do not
receive adequate praise. Parents are so pleased and some-
times shocked when you call and say, “It is such a pleasure
to have Brian in my classroom.”
I attempt to make these calls weekly during a planning peri-
od or after school; three to five per week. I found that sched-
uling the calls in my planner means I am more likely to do
them – and more likely to make a difference in a parent’s
and student’s day.”
•
Kechia’s Tips, cont’d

Utilize Technology Whenever Possible
“Parents and teachers both are extremely busy, so I used tech-
nology to stay in touch (emails, Web page, homework hotline,
and our parent portal that allows them to access student grades
via a computer). Of course, not all parents have access to tech-
nology, so I provide the same information in different written for-
mats:
►► Creating a web site
►► Publishing a pamphlet
►► Sending emails (I email homework/project assignments for a par-
ticular week on the Friday before. To make it easy, I create an ad-
dress book for each class period, so I am really only sending one
email out per period.)
►► Connecting to a parent portal. Allow parents to access their child’s
grade via an online portal. Parents have to have an email address
in order to access the system. Once signed in, they can see their
child’s progress and recognize problem areas.”
•

Send Out Parent Surveys
“Two to three weeks after school starts, I send a parent
survey home. The survey asks questions such as:
►► What was your child like as a baby?
►► What are your child’s strengths and weaknesses?
►► What does your child do in his spare time?
This information helps me get to know each student
as a person and learner. It’s also useful when plan-
ning lessons. Even though parents are just as busy as
teachers, they eagerly take the time to write as much
information about their child as they can. Seeking the
advice of parents shows respect and helps gain and
sustain their support.”
•

4 Taking It Home
In addition to proactive, two-way com-
munication, there’s another way to im-
prove student engagement: involving
parents in student learning at home.
In Back to school: How parent involve-
ment affects student achievement, the
SEDL found one very important com-
mon factor during its research:
“Programs and interventions that en-
gage families in supporting their chil-
dren’s learning at home are linked to
higher student achievement.”

Bring on the Data!
The same Back to school report reveals that similar findings were
uncovered in reviewing National Educational Longitudinal Study data,
which focused on “analyzing data on 13,500 families as their children
progressed through school.”
One primary conclusion was that techniques to enhance learning at
home had the strongest effect.

Make It Yours
So how do we involve parents in their children’s
homework (and make sure it doesn’t end up in
a crumpled wad, forgotten at the bottom of their
backpacks)? Back to school says that interactive
homework assignments that bring parents and
children together are quite valuable for elementary
and middle school-age children.
Read on for a delightful, true story featuring the
success of interactive assignments!

Education Week recently published Interactive Homework Spurs Parent Involvement, Study
Finds, which reported the findings of an experiment with the parents of middle-school stu-
dents in New Jersey.
“During a seven-week trial during the 2010-11 school year, 192 students in nine 8th-grade
classes were given one assignment each week using the Teachers Involve Parents in
Schoolwork, or TIPS, program, which includes assignments that require students to dis-
cuss concepts they learn in class with a family member to complete projects. Half of the
teachers also were asked to reach out to parents about the assignments with five-minute
personal conversations.
►► [It was found that] the students whose teachers contacted parents turned in 64 per
cent of their homework assignments, compared with 45 percent of other students.
►► Parents working on the TIPS homework attended more parent-teacher meetings
than parents of students who did not have interactive homework.
►► The teachers . . . continued to use more interactive homework after the study ended,
reporting that they were talking to parents they never talked to before.”
Story Time

Test Your Knowledge
By way of reviewing what we’ve just read about
parents’ involvement being a crucial element of
education reform, ask yourself if the statements
on the next page are true.

True or False?
►► Teachers and parents must become
strategic allies and participate in
meaningful, two-way communica-
tion that supports student learning
both inside and outside the classroom.
►► Effectively engaging parents and fami-
lies in the education of their children
has the potential to be far more trans-
formational than any other type of edu-
cation reform.
►► Parent involvement is the “great equal-
izer” and the most accurate predictor
of student achievement in school.
►► Regular parent-teacher interaction
helps students adjust more easily
to school and classroom expectations,
which can produce higher achievement.
►► Forging effective parent-teacher
partnerships takes planning
and collaboration.
►► Parents need guidance about ways
to effectively contribute and be in-
volved in their child’s education.
►► Parents want more communication
on a regular basis about their child’s
progress.
►► Technology has proven its poten-
tial to facilitate and enhance parent
communication and involvement.
►► Higher student achievement is
linked to programs and inter-
ventions that engage families in
their child’s learning at home.

The Bottom Line
The evidence overwhelmingly supports the truth of each and every statement.
Teacher-parent communication is the best tool to improve student achievement,
engagement, and success. Combined with the right technology, every teacher
can improve student outcomes and make an even bigger difference in the lives
of your students than you already do!
Enhance your existing parent-communication programs by implementing some
of the best practices that have enabled schools to improve student achieve-
ment. In addition, consider leveraging technology to improve and automate
these programs.
A bonus section that includes a checklist of these best practices is included on
the next page to provide you with a handy reference as you build on your com-
munication programs.

Bonus Tips! Parent-Teacher Best Practices
“The most accurate predictor of a student’s achievement in school is not income or social
status, but the extent to which that student’s family is able to create a home environment that
encourages learning . . . and become involved in their children’s education at school and in
the community.” ~ National PTA
►► Regularly use a variety of communication tools that will promote two-way inter-
action through each channel.
►► Create opportunities for parents and educators to share parenting information
such as student strengths and learning preferences.
►► Provide clear information about your curriculum, academic expectations, student
placement, school activities, student services, and optional programs.
►► Circulate information on school reforms, policies, discipline procedures, assess-
ment tools, and school goals, and include your students’ parents in any related
decision-making process.
►► Encourage immediate contact between parents and yourself when concerns develop.
►► Distribute your students’ work for parental comment and review on a regular basis.
►► Communicate with your students’ parents about positive student behavior and achieve
ment, not just regardng misbehavior or failure.

Consider This, Too!
Practice the use of technology whenever possible.
According to Scale to Measure Parent-Teacher Communication at the K12 Level, parents
who were asked to choose which mode of communication they preferred overwhelmingly
selected the method that offered the most convenience. And for an overwhelming majority of
parents, that means email.
The many benefits of electronic communication include:
►► Receiving immediate feedback
►► Sharing up-to-date information in a timely, ongoing manner
►► Reducing the amount of paper being distributed (and lost)
►► Creating and reusing learning materials that can be tracked for recipient understanding

Ving is an all-in-one communication tool
that enables educators to send dynamic
multi-media communication to parents
and deliver content to student mobile
devices.
A cloud-based application, Ving makes
it easy to create, share, and track mes-
sages that can include video, audio,
documents, pictures, and assessments.
Educators use Ving to:
►► Proactively communicate with
parents
►► Develop and monitor multi-media
assignments
►► Create flipped classrooms
►► Improve student engagement
Get started now.
Try Ving for free!

Resources
►► National PTA, http://www.pta.org/programs/pfistand.htm#Affirm
►► “Back to school: How parent involvement affects student achievement (full report)”, www.centerforpubliceducation.
org
►► “Creating Effective Teacher-Parent Collaborations,” Teaching Today, www.glencoe.com/sec/teaching today/educa
tionupclose.phtml/print/5
►► “An Assessment of Classroom Communication with Ethnically Diverse Parents,” by Lisa M. Lyons, Concordia Uni-
versity Portland
►► “9 Techniques for Building Solid Parent-Teacher Relationships: Using a Variety of Communication Methods
Throughout the Year Can Keep Parents Connected to the Middle School Classroom” by Kechia Williams
►► “Parent-teacher relationships essential for student success,” www.ocregister.com/ocmoms
►► “Scale to Measure Parent-Teacher Communication at the K-12 Level”
►► “Enhancing Parent-Teacher Communication Using Technology: A Reading Improvement Clinic Example” Merkley,
Schmidt, Dirksen, Fuhler. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 6(1), 11-42.
►► http://www.leading2learning.com/three-frightening-factsthat-every-parent-should-know/ “Three Frightening Facts
that Every Parent Should Know” by Patricia Porter
►► http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2012/12/interactive_homework_parent_involvement.html
“Interactive Homework Spurs Parent Involvement, Study Finds” by Sarah D. Sparks
►► National Center for Education Statistics

About the Author
Rebecca Whittenberger is an eleven-year veteran of working in non-
profit organizations and academic institutions. She served as curator of
education and education consultant for the Mahoning Valley Historical
Society for six years and is currently a communications specialist in
marketing and public relations at Ving.

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