If you haven’t already, you will soon read about the fact that many state legislatures are providing funds to provide teachers with bonus’ who involve parents during the school year. While this idea has real merit as far as children’s achievement is concerned, the laws passed by these states only require parents to come to “back to school nights” and attend “parent-teacher conferences.” Those who wrote these laws and passed them have not read the research that shows this type of parent involvement is so limited in terms of its impact it is almost as if no contact is being made. There are two reasons for this. The first is that schools typically use these times to educate parents about how to promote the objectives of the school while the children are in school rather than use these times to show parents what they can do in their families to develop mental skills, promote positive social and character skills, and acquire a “growth and learning” mindset. These are the ingredients for successful school achievement, social development, and a sense of fulfillment. Second, parents who come to these events are typically those whose children are doing at least fairly well and those who do not come are those where they are fearful of the schools or fear their children will be identified as failing. They will avoid contact in order to limit their exposure to negative things.

There are others things schools could do that have much greater and lasting impact on families. First, they could call a “Parents Make the Difference,” night and during this meeting raising expectations for what parents can do and then give them specific things like memory strategies and etc. to teach at home. Second, teachers could take a few extra minutes to survey parents to learn what type of family cultural emphasis is give to hard work, to family traditional activities such as games, music, and celebrating their ethnic culture? On occasion the teacher could introduce types of similar activities to help the classroom match the culture of the children and parents. This brings parents into a real partnership with teachers. For example, one inner city school teacher used rap rhythms and music to motivate kids to learn the multiplication tables. The worked faster and learned better. Third, teachers could communicate with parents about a working partnership to promote character qualities in class that parents are working to teach at home. Values like this matter to most parents, sometimes more than academic learning. When teachers show a desire to teach these and invite parents to join in, a partnership is formed that reaps tremendous benefits for teachers who get greater student engagement, for parents who have support for their family, and for children who learn and achieve more.

If your school is not doing these things you could ask teachers to participate with you. Most will appreciate your interest and will work with you. Try out the website, AchievementSynchrony.com and see if it will be useful for you to give your kids a more powerful experience with character, learning, and achievement. It is the best we know of to provide teachers and parents a truly effective partnership.