Family engagement

RESEARCH FINDINGS ON PARENT/FAMILY INVOLVEMENT: HIGHER STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

• Students achieve more, regardless of socioeconomic status, ethnic/racial background, or the parents’ education level. • Students have higher test grades and test scores, better attendance, and complete homework more consistently. • Students have higher graduation rates and greater enrollment rates in post secondary education. • Student achievement for disadvantaged students improves dramatically.

RESEARCH FINDINGS ON PARENT/FAMILY INVOLVEMENT: STUDENT BEHAVIOR

• Students exhibit more positive attitude and behavior. • Students have more self-confidence and feel school is more important. • Student behaviors such as alcohol use, violence, and other antisocial behaviors decrease.

RESEARCH FINDINGS ON PARENT/FAMILY INVOLVEMENT: CULTURE

• Children from diverse cultural backgrounds tend to do better when parents and professionals work together to bridge the cultural gap between home and school. • The school’s practices to inform and involve parents are stronger factors in whether parents will be involved in their children’s education than are parent education, family size, and marital status. • Successful schools engage families from diverse backgrounds, build trust and collaboration, recognize and respect and address family needs, and develop a partnership where power and responsibility is shared. • For low-income families, programs offered in the community or at church or through home visits are more successful than programs requiring parents to come to the school.

RESEARCH FINDINGS ON PARENT/FAMILY INVOLVEMENT: AGE

• Parent involvement clearly benefits students in the early years, but continued parental involvement shows significant gains at all ages and all grade levels. • Middle school and high school students make better transitions, maintain the quality of their work, and develop realistic plans for the future.

RESEARCH FINDINGS ON PARENT/FAMILY INVOLVEMENT: SCHOOL QUALITY

• Schools with parent-teacher organizations have higher student achievement. • Improved teacher morale and higher ratings of teachers by parents. • When schools are held accountable, school districts make positive changes in policy and practice, improve school leadership and staffing, secure resources and funding to improve the curriculum and provide after-school and family support programs. • Schools have more support from families and more respect in the community. • Schools make greater gains on state tests.

(National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs, National PTA, 2004)