Why Engaged Parents are a Critical Key to Success

Educators continuously point to parent involvement as one of the key indicators leading to student achievement, but many educators seem to struggle with how to foster parental involvement.

Students perform better when parents are engaged with the education of their children. Parents can have a positive impact on the outcome of the education of a child by communicating to children that education is a priority and by actively supporting the student’s learning process.

Web-based student information systems go a long way toward allowing parents to track the progress of the student. Properly implemented, these systems allow students and parents to instantly access test results and assure that assignments are completed on a timely basis. While technology can leverage communication, it cannot replace the human element.

Educators at every level need to be accessible and communicate proactively with parents to jointly educate students. Parents who abdicate the responsibility of educating their child to the school are not properly providing the foundation for the student to succeed. Schools who do not fully engage the parent in the education process are not leveraging one of the most effective resources available to them. An active partnership between the school and the parent will enhance the shared goal of a student learning to his or her full potential.

Because parental involvement is such a key factor in the achievement of the student, schools need to foster a culture of parental involvement. Any organization that wants to change its culture knows that the change must come from the top. In the case of school districts, this means the senior administration and the school board must lead the way. The first step is by example.

Parents should have access to all activities of the board. This includes proactively placing all governance documents that can be legally shared online in a searchable format. Meeting agendas, supporting documents, strategic goals, policies, and procedures should be shared with the public. In the case of meeting materials, well in advance of the meetings so they can be reviewed. Then, if the parent decides they should come to the meeting they will arrive more informed and better-connected to the activities of the board. After the meeting, each agenda item that results in action should indicate the motion and the results of the vote. Attaching an audio recording of the discussion to each agenda item will better allow stakeholders to understand the rationale.

Policies and procedures should be shared with the public. As soon as the board adopts a policy or approves an administrative procedure it should be posted on the Web site. The resulting centralized, searchable on-line policy and procedure manual should accessible to all stakeholders via the districts Web site. The policies should include and support the board's desire for all staff members to treat parents as partners in education.

At the school level, principals should maintain a school-wide communication system that provides information to the parents in the way they wish to receive it. This should include a consistently updated Web site, proactive emails and written communications to the home. Automated phone and paging alert solutions should be used to communicate important events and not only used for emergencies. Accessibility should also be a priority so that parents with concerns are treated with respect and issues are quickly addressed. Too often, Web sites look good, but the information is not kept current and schools choose one method of communication rather than relying on many forms to assure the message gets through.

The most important place to engage parents is at the classroom level. This should take place in advance of the first day of school and continue throughout the year. Teachers should have the ability to share developmental and academic expectations with parents so that everyone understands the goals far in advance of the term. Parents should be allowed to communicate the specific learning needs for their student to the classroom teacher. Fostering an early parent-teacher dialog can firmly establish the educator as a respected professional to the parent. This respect can be reinforced in the home - from the parent to the student. This foundation of professional respect and early communication will serve the parent-teacher partnership well, should the need to address specific concerns occur during the term.

Teachers should utilize technology to engage and inform the parent throughout the year. This includes building and maintaining a classroom Web site that supports classroom activities. The site should include a summary of projects, deadlines, classroom activities and study aids that so the parent and student can be fully prepared for what is to come. Teachers should also promptly update the district’s student information system so that parents and students have immediate home access to the classroom performance of the student.

Ongoing communication is also important to maintain the parent-teacher partnership. Teachers can set the expectation that email is the preferred communication tool. Email can provide the ability for a teacher to reach out to a parent or for a parent to ask the teacher a quick question at any time without fear of interruption or the need to make an appointment.

Top to bottom, open communications can be the basis for forming a partnership between the school and the parent that will ultimately enhance the school experience for the student. Starting at the top will show the district staff and parents that the board is serious about partnering with parents. Ultimately, it may be the least costly initiative that a district can implement that will directly affect the performance of the children.

Open Governance

With Ample Tools Available For Sharing Information, Why Is The Government So Far Behind In Opening Governance?

Governance directly affects us all, and while media focuses on the federal government most decisions take place at the local level. Cities, counties and school boards significantly impact our daily lives – after all, it’s their responsibility to represent the public. Unfortunately, access to the activities of many governing bodies is hit and miss, at best.

For example, a few months ago there was talk in my small town of a new airstrip. I work with local governing bodies every day and thought getting up-to-speed on the topic would be relatively easy. I started by looking on my county’s Web site where I found a list of meetings for the county commission and the zoning board. The minutes for preceding meetings had been posted by date, and I even found a couple of the agendas there, too. However, I couldn’t find any information about the airstrip, nor did the Web site provide a way for me to search for the information I needed.

I did, however, locate the county’s phone number and called the county clerk to request the documentation. She searched through some files and, after a couple of days, eMailed the information to me. She also let me know that they had audio tapes of the meetings, and if I wanted to stop by their office, I could listen to the discussion about the airstrip.

I’ve worked with hundreds of local governments, so I know most clerks have to gather all documents for each meeting, print and copy these documents and bind them to create meeting packets for their commissioners and stakeholders. Additionally, these “paper packets” must be physically distributed prior to every meeting. Clerks take notes at these meeting and listen to the audio tape the next day to compile minutes. Next, someone from the IT department updates the Web site with the information, hopefully in a timely manner.

Most commissioners will proudly tell you that their governing body shares meeting information with the public via the county’s Web site. Really? Though this may be true in part, I would bet that many citizens would describe their experience with “open” governance unsatisfactory or even downright frustrating. In my case, after I scoured the Web, I had to make a phone call to the clerk, who had to take time out of her day to find the documents that I needed, organize them and then email them to me. To complete my information search, I would have to physically go to the county office to listen to audio tapes.

Looking back, getting to the bottom of the issue could have been much less complicated by utilizing simple technology and communication. The reality is that most local governing bodies do a poor job sharing information in a way that the public can easily access it. In other words, transparency in governance isn’t as transparent as they think.

With a Web-based content management system, clerks can quickly upload meeting documents to the Internet, where commissioners are able to securely log in to review the agenda. The county can share the information with the public in a convenient, proactive manner prior to each meeting via the county’s Web site – all without the need for support from the IT department. Clerks can notate the action taken on each agenda item, in real time, and even record the discussion using a simple MP3 audio recorder.

Open governance supported by readily available technology is a win-win for all parties involved. Had my county implemented such a system, I would have been able to go to their Web site to quickly and easily search for background information relating to the airstrip. No call would have been necessary.

But technology sounds expensive and even time consuming, right? Surprise! It’s actually more cost effective than producing and distributing paper packets and responding to records requests. In fact, the right technology can save organizations up to tens of thousands of dollars annually. And most local governing bodies that use this type of system see a 75% reduction in staff time!

In the end, a group of community members attended the zoning meeting, and, as a result, the developer and commissioners decided an airstrip in our little town was not a good idea. I hope one day my commissioners come to the realization that using technology to open governance is a good idea - one whose time has come.

Happy Landings.