I attended a very interesting workshop discussing successful schools and the “Four Paths” that they take in leadership. As Ken Leithwood discusses these in “School Leaders’ Influences on Student Learning: The Four Paths”:
- The Rational Path – Based on the understanding of learning, teaching, and curriculum.
- The Emotional Path – The development of relationships and trust within our organizations.
- The Organizational Path – Structure, policies and procedures of our schools.
- The Family Path – The importance of parental engagement.
From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theodorescott/2570991524/
What I actually found interesting, but wasn’t surprised, was that the “Organizational Path” was listed as the lowest factor on student learning and achievement, while the “Family Path” has the highest impact. Leithwood shared that although parent engagement in the education of the child at school is important, their impact at home is much higher. He also discusses the importance of bringing parents on side to be a part of this learning:
Although parent involvement in school has far less impact on student learning than parent influence in the home, children benefit from their parents’ engagement in their learning in both locations (Epstein, 1995). Evidence from Leithwood and Jantzi’s (2006) review indicates that parent engagement in school is nurtured when parents come to understand that such involvement is a key part of what it means to be a responsible parent, when parents believe they have the skills and know-how to make meaningful contributions to the school’s efforts and when they believe that school staffs, as well as their own children, value their participation in the school. (Leithwood, School Leaders’ Influence on Learning; The Four Paths, p.8)
This year at Forest Green, we have really tried to impact parent understanding of learning by having teachers share learning through blogs, switching to student led conferences, having a comprehensive report card that works to identify each child’s strengths and areas of growth. As principal, I often see parents volunteering directly in their child’s classroom which would obviously further their understanding of learning in the classroom. I have also collected several links on how we can further engage parents in the learning process within our schools.
As we know that a parent’s engagement in their child’s learning significantly impacts the achievement and growth of each child, what are some other ways that we can facilitate this? Many parents are not able to spend significant time at school, so how can we do more to bring them in on their child’s learning? With easy access to technology, are there better ways that we can provide opportunities for parents to be more connected with this learning at home?
I would love your thoughts on how we can further facilitate this important connection.
Hi George,
I'm starting an online class for parents in Los Angeles parents will learn ways in which to best support their kids in schools. It's my belief that parents need (and want) education about how their kids are learning in schools, and what things they can do to help mentor their kids. I'm planning on bringing in experts to lead online discussions on such topics as 21st century pedagogy, educational technology, learning styles, child/brain development, and educational resources available in and out of school. My plan is to eventually build an online "school" for parents where cohorts of parents would take a series of courses together in order to learn not only from subject matter experts but also from each other.. If you (or anyone else) would like to know more about my project, please feel free to email me at randall@shoyu.com.
Thanks for your post. I'm a big fan of your writing and talks (and also your brother's!).
–Randall
Great example of working smarter. Educators can leverage the parent-child relationship and attain much more results in a much shorter time than if they were to spend that time cranking away with lectures.
Refreshing to see a principal embrace parental engagement… we do have a role to play at all grade levels; it just changes along the way. We have tried many new things this year at West Meadow Elementary School in Claresholm, AB (see http://www.lrsd.ab.ca/school/westmeadow/Pages/def… under Parent Engagement tab) but seems to be a struggle in the higher grades. Love this conversation. I think parents are interested in learning more, so would be interested in how Randall's project proceeds. A former Superintendent of ours said over 10 years ago, "The more the community knows about what is happening in our schools, the more they will support our schools. The more support schools have, the better our students will do." I think it is the root of all school/parent/community success…
As a parent, I'd love to know about the upcoming themes for the week and month being taught in school so that I can also shed light on different aspects of the subjects that may help my kids get more excited by/interested in what's getting covered during the school day. I strongly feel that student interest in the subject matter plays a key role in not only how eager students are to learn in the first place, but how much they learn in the end. (And that ANY subject can be interesting to kids if you can draw parallels to things they already enjoy!)
Jen Lilienstein Http://www.kidzmet.com
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George, I am bit late in blog activity but thought I would pass on a personal strategy that helped in working with our daughters teachers (many years ago).
As parents we became aware of our daughters strengths and weaknesses as they grew to school age. I come from a family with a history of dyslexia and recognized that our younger daughter had inherited dyslexia. Equally important, we also recognized that she was unusually strong and well coordinated, had unusually clear spatial perspective, a strong number sense and a good ability to interpret main ideas and plots in movies. My wife and I shared these strengths with teachers regularly. We believe that by understanding her strengths, her teachers could help her compensate for her learning disability.
I believe parents can share their understanding of their children's strengths with teachers to everyone's benefit and suggest that every teacher-parent dialogue could include t he question: "What do you think your daughter son is good at (in their non-school life)?"
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