Answering the Perplexities of Parent Involvement

To successfully get African American and Hispanic parents involved in education requires answering what Bre Peeler Sanders calls the "perplexities." These are the critical questions that educators must answer to improve parent engagement in school. Unfortunately, answering them requires bridging the communication gap between parents and educators and resolving the interrelated issues surrounding parent involvement that perplex most educators.

Most of these questions can be addressed by teachers and principals, according to Sanders. Her sold out session, "Lessons Learned: Actively Engaging African American and Hispanic Parents," was engaging and lively, with audience members laughing with Sanders as she recalled her own adventures and missteps as a parent liaison at Riverside Intermediate School outside of Atlanta.

Sanders started her efforts to increase parent engagement by randomly selecting families to survey about their involvement in the school. Many of the parents were hard to get in touch with, often because of the long hours they worked, but Sanders kept contacting them until she was able meet with them. She joked that the parents on her list took to calling her "the stalker" for her relentless efforts to meet with them at their homes.

Because these were often parents who did not participate at the school, Sanders found that it was important to reach out to them in their homes to ensure their involvement in the survey, and also to get a better feel for some of the issues confronting them, which would keep them from becoming actively engaged at the school. Doing this, Sanders discovered that there are many barriers to parent involvement, many of which are interrelated, including

• Lack of time
• Single parents
• Undocumented status
• Boring meetings
• Language barriers
• Customer service factors

Sanders quickly found that the first critical question she had to resolve was "What exactly constitutes successful parental involvement?"

When she asked African American parents what they felt their responsibilities were as parents, they responded that their role was to support school efforts and discipline their children. Hispanic parents, on the other hand, believed that their role was to help with homework. So, in most cases, when Sanders asked these parents why they weren't involved at school, they were offended, asking her what she meant. This led her to explain how educators define parent involvement.

Sanders focused on these groups, along with educators at her school, because 65 percent of the students at Riverside are African American, and 30 percent are Hispanic. As she talked more with the Hispanic parents, Sanders found that there were culture gaps that needed to be bridged. For example, in Mexico, where most of the Hispanic parents from her district come from, there is no PTA or equivalent organization, and there is no parent involvement at schools.

This is no small issue in her school, where when Sanders started four years ago, there was one Hispanic student that she knew of, but where there are now eight or nine Hispanic students in each class.

In addition, in a school where 85 percent of the students receive lunch assistance, many of the parents, African American and Hispanic, work multiple jobs, and many work intensive hours. Twelve hour work days are not uncommon for parents. Sanders explained that "when they work three jobs, you're not going to see them in the classroom. And, the catch-22 is that if you do see them, it's because they lost a job."

After trying several involvement strategies that didn't work, such as credit repair and computer classes for parents, Sanders finally discovered, through continued communication with the parents, what works to increase active engagement:

• Food
• Positive attitudes
• Personal relationships
• Interpreters
• Sense of belonging
• Child care at meetings
• Transportation

Individually, each of these addressed a specific need; taken together, they resolved a set of interrelated problems that kept many parents from becoming involved at the school. Many of these, such as positive attitudes and personal relationships, had to be implemented by educators throughout the school to succeed. Teachers and administrators were glad to make these changes, knowing that they were in response to parents' needs. "Teachers want to be involved, but they don't know what to do," Sanders observed.

By getting teachers the information they needed and by educating and encouraging parents, Sanders was able to resolve many of the perplexities preventing parents from becoming actively engaged in school.

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• Learn how you can use technology to boost parental involvement in school.
• Take ASCD's poll on parental involvement in schools and explore our list of related resources.

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Is parental involvement a perplexing issue in your school? Do your students' parents hold different views about what their role in their child's school should be? Have any of Sanders' involvement strategies worked for you? Use the "Comments" link below to tell us about your experiences.

Comments

[Elaine Davis]

First, I want to recognize and commend Bre Sanders for the well-developed presentation on the complex issue of "Parental Involvement". This is a topic that has value for every teacher, administrator and student in the public schools of our nation. I was impressed with the techniques used by this young gifted teacher who assumed her new position as parent coordinator with the enthusiasm and optimism of an "explorer moving into new territory". She heard all of the traditional assumptions from her colleagues as to why the Hispanic and African American parents were not actively involved and approached the problem using action research techniques to challenge their assumptions.

As a retired high school principal, I wish that more professionals would learn what Bre Sanders learned, that the presentation of data makes a compelling case for either the substantiation or renunciation of strongly held beliefs. Bre Sanders provided an invaluable service for those educators who are committed to hear the voices of all the stakeholders in a childs' education, especially the parents.

Congratulations Bre, you are well on your way to providing your school community with quality programs and services for your parents....Bravo!! You made this veteran administrator very proud.

[LisaRose Knudson]

To encourage parent involvement at my school, Mesa Arts Academy, a K - 8 charter school in Mesa, AZ, (about 70% Hispanic) we hold parallel meetings, where those who don't speak English meet with a translator and other school personnel. We also allow our older students to translate. This helps to prevent some of the tensions the retired Detroit principal mentioned.

[Arlene Allen]

I am presently doing two projects. 1) I created a theory which implies that the main reason for lack of parent involvement is because of the competing values that parents have.Some do not value school and so will not take an active role and the obvious implications of reduced learning and achievement. Any thoughts on this or resources you could direct me to.
2. Creating a proposal to train general educators for inclusion as most times these general educators are not equipped with the skills necessary to teach our special needs population. Please send feedback. would be gladly appreciated.

[carmen blum]

1) Please consider that there is an amazing COMMUNICATION GAP that leads to misinterpretations, assumptions and ultimately hurt the very effort that we are putting forth. This gap enables us to do the best we can with what we got: it is not about getting more money to deliver services is about using and redirecting the current resources to achieve success.

2) The parent's true education level (most of the data we obtain for enrollment provides options beginning High School education), many parents did not have the fortune to receive elementary education, thus, are unable to begin understanding the educational system and their children's needs even in their native language.

3) When it comes to special needs identifying the needs of the student should include considering that perhaps the parents may have to deal with unidentified special needs themselves.

4) Socio-economical disadvantaged families undergo stressful situations that we possible could not imagine unless we have had experiences in our lives that touch the surface of what they have had to endure; working two shifts and been a single parent, not having enough money to obtain health care, insurance, enough for clothing, basic needs, even food. Their children may dread coming to school and going back home, not experiencing success in any are of their life, can only lead to depression, poor decision making, loss of hope, etc. etc. undergoing these, would you an I have any motivation to learn? Or, as a parent find any energy to attend school meetings that you may not understand, where more is going to be asked of you, etc. etc. and will only feel embarrassed not knowing how to ask for help or resources.

5) When the school provides individuals who have not received the appropriate training to interpret and/or translate. When the LEA seeks to remedy the need to hire individuals in part time positions to provide the services because there are not enough funds; underpaid positions do not provide opportunity for a successful program.