How Can We Improve the Home/School Connection?

1. How Can We Improve the Home/School Connection? 2009

2. Why is the Home/School Connection Important? • Children get more out of school if there’s a message of support • When parents are involved, especially those with special education students, they can see their child’s difficulties more clearly and can help rectify the problems more effectively • Parents and teachers should assume equal responsibility in meeting the needs of the child • When parents become more knowledgeable about their child’s learning, the child benefits even if the parents themselves come from a poor reading background

3. What Does the Research Say? (Cordy, 2004) • Studies show that children whose parents are involved in their education do well academically and exhibit less behavior problems. • Active parental involvement improves student morale, attitudes, and academic achievement, reduces their child’s risk of failure academically and reduces the chance of dropping out • Students with active parental involvement have less destructive behaviors in school and are less likely to be involved in drugs, violence or teen sex

4. Things to Ponder……. • For each child enrolled in public school, the expenditure averaged $9,266 and $560,000,000,000 was spent on public education last year (Kim, 2009) • Student achievement over the last four decades has remained relatively flat • In many of the nation’s largest cities, fewer then half of high school students graduate and a significant portion of students scored “below basic” in reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (Kim, 2009) • In 2002, nearly 7,000,000 students between the ages of 12 and 18 repeated a grade (Kim, 2009) • Studies show that kids raised in intact families (two continuously married parents) tend to fair better on a number of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral outcomes then children who don’t Children of parents who frequently praise and show affection to them are less likely to require classroom attention for behavior and socio-emotional issues (Kim, 2009) • Youths who feel bonded to their parents and enjoy good communication with them tend to have higher grades and physical well- being. • According to one study, 87% of the kids who earned mostly A’s and B’s said their parents helped them with their homework and 49% of children with grades lower then C’s said their parents didn’t take an interest in what they did at school (Fry, 2001)

5. Questions to Ask Ourselves • Are all school meetings with parents problems focused? • How easy is it for a parent to find out what is going on in a classroom? • Are parents a source of information? • Is parent input valuable? • Are parents informed when their children are doing well? • Did most parents struggle with school themselves?

6. Ideas to Increase Communication with Parents and Families

7. Parent Teacher Conferences,PPTs,Meetings The parent- teacher relationship is the most important interaction between home and school. It is also one way for families to begin to know the teacher and understand what takes place in the classroom and school. Many parents were uncomfortable with school when they were children, they may feel reluctant to participate. Parents may also feel intimidated by education jargon and the system • Speak the language of the family; use their words and definitions • Try to keep jargon to a minimum • Monitor your own level of discomfort; do you resort to “the facts” when you become uncomfortable? • Try to build a collaborative, rather then an adversarial system • Ask the family to suggest solutions

8. P/T Conferences, PPTs, and Meetings continued… • Recognize signs of a power struggles • Allow students to lead the meetings because student involvement helps students take personal responsibility • Plans for IEPs should not be written prior to the meeting, a draft of suggestions for goals/objectives should be forwarded to parents before PPT so they may be better able to respond to them in the meeting and not feel like they are already set in stone without their input • Contact with parents for both positive and problematic behaviors should be maintained to make the parents feel more part of the team • Always remember that you share a mutual goal- providing the best possible program for the student • Parents and teachers should assume equal responsibility in meeting the needs of the student

9. Put it in Writing…. • Have newsletters that tell what is going on at school, honor roll, student work, resources for parents, as well as a calendar of important events and parent response form (could the newsletter have a theme and have information about that theme i.e. hygiene or tips on managing difficult behaviors) • Could we revamp our Friday letter format to be more parent friendly? (have space for parent to put comments, have a section for each subject, etc) • Send completed work home with Friday letters and encourage a parental response • Could we look at getting our own Natchaug School Web portal like most public schools have?

10. Homework Homework time is one of the most chaotic times of the day because of many students resistance to it. Many parents also have issues around homework like how much they should help their child, how much homework is too much, and some busy parents resent the intrusion of homework. Homework allows parents to monitor their child’s progress while taking a supportive role in their education. • Make homework interactive • Parents who experience the least amount of resistance to homework are those who are consistent • Should we have homework notebooks? • Encourage parents to help their child gain good study habits

11. Resources to Help Parents • American Library Association’s Great Websites for Kidshttp://www.ala.org/gwstemplate.cfm?section=greatwebsites&template=/cfapps/gws/default.cfm • North American Council for Online Learningwww.nacol.org • How to Study.comwww.how-to-study.com • Welcome to SafeKidswww.safekids.com • PTO Todaywww.ptotoday.com • NetSmartz Kidswww.netsmartzkids.org • Free Tutoring Oppurtunitieswww.ed.gov/nclb/choice • Supporting Ways Parents and Families Can be Involved in Schools www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/fanmcomm/pal00.htm

12. Resources for Us • http://www.education-world.com/parents/home_to_school/index.shtml • http://www.cyfc.umn.edu/schoolage/resources/supporting.html • http://parenthood.library.wisc.edu/Graue/Graue.html