Lately I have been dwelling on the messiness of parent school relationship. The negative thoughts that parents and teachers have about each other that create barriers to involving/engaging parents in their child’s education. I believe that issues and conflicts need to be discussed before people can move forward. Agree to disagree. Respect others opinions. Accept each others failings then find ways to do things even when people say it can’t be done. For me it is time to move on. I hope that I can create a wave.
I went back to review the
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with Dr. Joyce Epstein from National Network of Partnerships Schools and the discussion about their research based school family and community partnerships model.
One of the things that I, as the “doubting Thomas”, need to know is what is the research actually saying. Where is the proof? Can increasing parent involvement actually increase student achievement and will this model do what it is advertised to do? I wandered through the NNPS web site to find numerous research papers and documentation that verified not only that it is possible but also that the Epstein model, as it is so aptly called, works.
I was particularly impressed when I read a report
about a study that examines the impact of interactive homework – Teachers Involving Parents in School work (TIPS) on Student Achievement in Math, Reading/Language Arts, and Science. Some of the work is on going but key findings were reported with a comparison of a control group of students (No TIPS) and students with Teachers Involving Parents, the TIPS families.
In that horror of all horrors – math homework – parents were surveyed about their feelings with helping with homework. “In grade 4, about 57% of the TIPS families reported positive attitudes to math home work as opposed to 40% of the control families (No TIPS). Imagine actually being postive about helping with math homework. In addition, the study reports that TIPS Student earned higher standardized math test scores than control students.
Key findings from the study showed:
More assignemnts were completed
More families were involved in the home work
More families were postive about doing the homework
Less help was requested from the school
Students earned higher standardized test scores.
Please read Family and Community Involvement:Achievement Effects. for more details.
Additional information about the NNPS Research programs is also available.
Certainly makes sense to me to take a careful look at how to use the Epstein Model of School Family and Community Partnerships.
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In my experience the Epstein model can be a very effective way of talking about parent involvement with parents. They can understand and appreciate the differences in the types of involvement and they can see how each type of involvement can be valued by the “system”.
I think some of the messiness you refer to is the product of our changing society – the breaking down of our systems. We know the “industrial model” of education is not preparing students adequately for the 21st century. But we (by we I mean administrators, teachers, parents, researchers…) haven’t figured out how to deliver public education in this information laden, flat world.
Have you read any of Mark Federman’s work (OISE/UT)? He writes of the challenges faced as we move from a bureacratic, authoritative and hierarchical world to one that is ubiquitously connected and pervasively proximate. I highly recommend his paper “Why Johnny and Janey Can’t Read and Mr. and Mrs. Smith Can’t Teach”.
While researchers must delineate and differentiate terms such as partnership, involvement, and engagement, I think that we as parent advocates simply need to find ways to take the research findings and make them come to life in our schools.
I believe that whether or not the “system” is failing (and who is to blame for that failing) is a moot point. Our entire society is transforming, “systems” are becoming obsolete. We can either be a postive force in that transformation, or not. Messy indeed!