Parental Engagement: Research Insights and School Strategies

1. What research tells us about parental engagement - and what schools can do about it Janet Goodall

2. What is parental engagement?

3. Parental Involvement with the school Parental engagement- involvement continuum • Parents’ evenings • Reading in class • Going on trips • Parental involvement with children’s schooling • Helping with homework • Keeping track of coursework • Parental engagement with children’s learning • Moral support Attitude toward learning Model, Guide Discussion

4. What is parental engagement and why does it matter? • Research findings... • Parental engagement strategy

5. Parental Engagement Literature • Vast – even when considering only peer reviewed work • More than vast when considering “grey” literature • Frustrating – often descriptive, rather than showing impact

6. Research Findings… Main sources • EPPE • Desforges • EPRA • Save the Children report • Review of Best Practice in Parental Engagement

7. EPPE (1997-2008) Findings • The importance of home learning. • “For all children, the quality of the home learning environment is more important for intellectual and social development than parental occupation, education or income”. • “What parents do is more important than who parents are”.

8. The impact of parental involvement,parental support and family education on pupil achievement and adjustment:a literature review Desforges and Abouchaar, 2003

9. Desforges – what matters: • Good parenting in the home: • Intellectual stimulation, parent-child discussion • Good models of constructive social and educational values and high aspirations relating to personal fulfilment and good citizenship • (Links to Baumrind’s work – Authoritative Parenting) • Contact and participation with schools

10. Parental Engagement in schools • What happens in school with parents has little or no effect on achievement • Why?

11. Usually very small! Think of the three parents most likely to come into school Think of the three parents staff would most like to see What is the overlap?

12. Engaging Parents to Raise Achievement - EPRA • Worked directly with schools, through the SSAT • Parental and Student voice prominent • Important findings: • Meaning of parental engagement • Barriers

13. Staff Learning Students Parents

15. Parental engagement in ‘supporting learning in the home’ is the single most important changeable factor in student achievement.

16. Other factors include: • Parental (especially maternal) experience of education • Maternal qualifications • SES • Ethnic background • We can’t change these • But we can support parental engagement with learning

17. Parents’ influence on student learning outcomes is greater than the school influence “Your parents are your main influence, really – if they don’t care about it, you don’t take as much of an interest in it” Student

18. Parental engagement positively affects student behaviour. • “If your parents had nothing to do with school you could skip your lessons and nobody will be bothered…” Student • “It’s great when my teacher is pleased with me, Miss, but ... Your dad’s your DAD!” Student • “I’ll never forget me dad was proud of me” Student

19. Independence • Theme for many older pupils • Different “profiles” at home and at school • But still insist that parental support is vital

20. “You need your independence at this age but you also need your parents’ guidance.” Student

21. Helping families support their children’s success at school Sought to answer four questions…. Is now the basis of StC’s educational theme and facilitated a 5 year parental engagement programme

22. Save the Children • Principles of validated good practice to support low SES families that have been shown to have an impact on children’s achievement • Barriers to such programmes • How to eliminate the barriers • Recommend interventions - £2 million for UK delivery, based on robust evidence

23. What are the principles of validated good practice that support low-income families to impact on raising the achievement of their children?

24. Intervention in the early years and preschool intervention • Providing support for parents to assist their child’s learning in the home • Bring the home and school closer • Services and support targeted directly at individual children’s needs • Family-based multi-agency support that encompasses health, education, social services

25. Voluntary rather than compulsory engagement in design, delivery and sustainability • Parent up-skilling and focused support for literacy or numeracy • Emphasis on school transition points and helping parents to support children through the various phases of education

26. Recommend practices.... • Based on the recommendations made in that report, Save the Children has instituted the FAST programme across the UK – hoping to reach 50,000 children by 2014

27. REVIEW OF BEST PRACTICE IN PARENTAL ENGAGEMENT • Reviews research-based interventions – what has been proved to work, where, when, how and with whom • Includes practitioner-aimed “pull out” section • Doesn’t cite the research • Just says what works

28. Review of Best Practice in Parental Engagement (2011) • The overall aim of the review is to: • highlight findings and conclusions from the evidence reviewed • identify key themes and messages for practitioners and school leaders. • Includes a Parental Engagement Strategy

29. Scale of the review • Limited to English • Limited to published work • Original trawl: over 47,000 titles • Over 12,000 investigated • 42 cited in main report • 32 in appendix

30. The evidence is presented in three categories: • School – home links • Support and training for parents • Family and community based interventions

31. Home School Links • Whole school approach • Informed by an ongoing parental needs assessment in the context of a school improvement strategy • Schools which successfully engage parents make use of a broad understanding of parental engagement, and their parental engagement strategies accord with the interpretations and values of their parents

32. Home school links • Clear and consistent goal the improvement of children’s learning. • School staff should receive training in parental engagement, ITT and CPD • Parental engagement with children’s learning is effectively supported when parents receive clear, specific and targeted information from schools.

33. Home school links • Improving home school links can lead to improvements in completion of homework, learning behaviours and improved attendance. • Building home-school links through out of hours’ clubs, parenting classes, extended schools and outreach work is a powerful lever for improving children’s achievement.

34. Home school links • More parents now believe that they have a responsibility for their children’s education – but confidence to help with homework is declining • Overcome barriers: • car-pools, including children in school based parental activities, take account of parental work schedules when organising programmes

35. Home school links • ICT can contribute to improved parental engagement • In a Becta study only 25 per cent of parents received information about their child’s learning via online tools • Levels of parental engagement could be improved if schools made more use of the potential of technology to support at-home learning.

36. Support and Training for Parents • Informed by a parental needs analysis and targeted at particular groups of parents • Focus on both academic outcomes and training in parenting skills are more effective • Parents require specific and detailed guidance and understanding of programmes, and what programmes expect parents to do.

37. Support and training for parents • Parental engagement interventions can significantly improve the relationship between parents and children. • Parent tutoring interventions are effective in improving literacy skills for children.

38. Support and training for parents • Training parents to teach their children reading skills can be more than twice as effective as encouraging parents to listen to their children read. • The Supporting Parents on Kids Education programme (SPOKES) can yield a benefit for children equivalent to six months of reading age.

39. Support and training for parents • A supportive, non-judgemental approach is most likely to lead to parents internalizing and using tools provided by a programme aimed at supporting parenting skills. • Studies frequently provide too little information to permit conclusions about how and why interventions are related to outcomes.

40. “It takes a village to raise a child”

41. Family and Community based interventions • The evidence of the impact of family literacy, language and numeracy programmes on children’s academic and learning related outcomes is extensive and robust, particularly in the case of literacy. • Mother-Child Education Programme in Turkey.

42. Family and Community interventions • Family literacy and numeracy programmes can have a positive impact on the most disadvantaged families • Giving parents written information containing simple, specific techniques for helping their children during parent reading yielded greater benefits than providing parents with more general information

43. Family and Community interventions • Conflicting evidence on the impact of the location of the intervention – whether home or centred based interventions are most effective. • Partnership and multi-agency arrangements are an essential component of a comprehensive strategy for parental engagement.

44. Family and Community interventions • An evidence-based model that looks to build relationships across the family, the school, and the community • Multi-agency arrangements enable schools to share information and to draw on external expertise

45. Family and Community interventions • Schools are in a stronger position to respond to their communities when they receive information and data identifying how their performance compares with other schools and services. • Information was often not shared between schools and other services when learners moved on from one stage or location to another.

46. A parental engagement strategy • Planned • Embedded in whole school strategy • Comprehensive needs analysis • The establishment of mutual priorities • Ongoing monitoring and evaluation of interventions • Public awareness process to help parents and teachers understand and commit to a strategic plan.

47. A parental engagement strategy • Leadership • Senior leader • Needs SLT buy-in and enthusiasm

48. A parental engagement strategy • Collaboration and engagement • Active collaboration with parents • Pro-active rather than reactive • Sensitive to the circumstances of all families • Recognise the contributions parents can make • And aim to empower parents.

49. A parental engagement strategy • Sustained improvement • Ongoing support, monitoring and development • Strategic planning which embeds parental engagement in whole-school development plans, sustained support, resourcing and training, community involvement at all levels of management, and a continuous system of evidence based development and review.

50. A parental engagement strategy • Challenges • Parental perceptions of schools as presenting obstacles – lack of encouragement, not giving enough information, not having enough scope to fit around busy lives • Parents facing barriers to engagement: time, costs, transportation, language, literacy, lack of confidence in supporting children’s learning or engaging with school