Decades of research has shown that parent engagement in their child’s education is paramount to their success in school.
Why is this the case? Parents are their child’s first and most consistent educator. Teachers, Principals and even schools will change for a child through their school journey. However, a parent’s involvement will give them confidence to face all these changes and assist in increasing their academic achievement.
Parent involvement goes much further than simply academics. It opens the door to having regular conversations about their feelings, their teachers, friends, challenges they have. Being involved let’s your child know that you are interested and committed to their life at school.
EQAO
The recent provincial report released by EQAO shows that the level of parent engagement continues to be low. In particular, it clearly shows that parents involving themselves with their child on a computer to be extremely low at 11 – 16%. This compares to educators using computers to teach language and math at 74 – 91%. Clearly parents are not keeping up with the way children are learning in school.
This report also shows that only 34% of parents in grade 3 (children aged 8-9) read with their child regularly. This drops to 22% in grade six (children aged 11-12).
In a province where students are clearly struggling to bring their math scores in line with the provincial average, only 24% of parents work with their child on math regularly. This drops to 21% in grade six.
The statistics also show that only 50% of parents actually talk about school with their child on a regular basis.
Clearly, there is a lot more work to be done.
It is obvious from these statistics that the strategies needed to engage parents must change because the numbers are not improving.
When Parents Engaged in Education speak with school boards, many indicate that they rely on their Parent Involvement Committee or a specific parent organization. School boards are reluctant to embrace new organizations or to try new methods to engage parents.
Parents Engaged in Education are looking at new ways to engage parents by working with organizations that can bring new ways of learning to the forefront. We will be using Facebook Live and offering workshops that focus on technology as well as mental health supports. We are in the process of developing a free mobile game app. This app is designed to engage parents in the Ontario curriculum from grades 1-12.
What the Research Shows
For years and years, when you research the benefits of parent engagement all the data says exactly the same thing:
- parent involvement results in increased achievement
- better attendance
- better social skills
- more confidence
- higher graduation rates
- students that are more likely to go on to post-secondary education
What the research doesn’t tell us is why this is true. All of us involved in parent engagement in Ontario have a responsibility to do more. We need to start an “education series”. This series would explain why each of these reasons are true. Not just list the reasons a parent should be involved in their child’s education.
As parents, we have become complacent in believing that these points should be enough for a parent to say, “I better become more involved in my child’s education”.
We need to stop thinking of grandiose events, trying to attract hundreds of people and instead work to get back to the grassroots of engaging one parent at a time. School Boards, Administrators and Educators need to put parent engagement on the top of their list of priorities. They need to be the supply chain for materials and notices of information, events etc. This will provide an easy flow to parents to get started early. We need teachers to ask parents if there are any barriers that prevent them from being fully engaged with their child and their school. Then work with the Principal, School Board and Parent Involvement Committees to assist in removing these barriers for the parent.
Mental Health
Mental health issues are increasing for our children right from the early grades through high school. If parents are not connecting with their child about school, children will start isolating their stress. They may not open conversation about their confidence level, peers or bullying issues. While clearly Parents Engaged in Education are not “experts” in mental health, we recognize that there is a huge gap for children when their parents are not involved in their education journey.
Parent involvement needs to be on the top of every School Learning Improvement Plan (SLIP). The greatest effect on academic achievement is the involvement of parents. Along with the strategies teachers will use to implement the curriculum each year, there should be a strategy for involving parents in each child’s learning. Classrooms are challenged in many ways. These include the number of students in the class, behaviour and learning issues of individual students. Parent engagement and involvement should be welcomed so that they can help support the learning of their child. School Learning Improvement Plans always plan for an increase in academic achievement and should also include a measure on increasing parent engagement.
Parent Engagement Week
We have appealed to the Ministry of Education to recognize the important role of parents in the education circle by establishing a “Parent Engagement Week” in Ontario. By creating this recognition of the vital role of parents, it gives organizations involved in parent engagement a specific period to educate parents on the need to become involved in their children’s education and school. After two years, we haven’t received a reply on this suggestion. We will continue to pursue this objective with the Ministry. We stand firmly behind the belief that in a system where we celebrate every other single role in school, we owe it to parents to recognize them as well.
As a parent who is vested in their child’s education, and after reading this blog, if you agree with the importance of establishing a “Parent Engagement Week”, we ask that you write or email minister.edu@ontario.ca the Ontario Minster of Education to voice your support.
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