FamilyFamily -School Partnership

What if 500 thousand parents, grandparents, and caring adults volunteered 10 hours in Malaysians public schools each year?
They would contribute 5 million hours of valuable family involvement capacity - critical to increasing student achievement for the nations 500 thousand students. Financially, if 300,000 teachers dedicated similar time one-on-one with their students, the minimum ringgit benefit to children and schools would be $210 million.

Based on the average teacher pay in Malaysia of RM70.000 an hour (Average pay of RM1700.00/month

Family School Partnerships - FSP

A FSP is a relationship involving close cooperation between parties having joint rights and responsibilities.

Effective FSPs enhance success for students

and improve childrens academic, social, emotional and behavioral experiences and outcomes.
(Christenson & Sheridan, 2001)

Review of the Characteristics for Effective FamilyFamily-School Partnerships

Parents are viewed as empowered partners. Interactions among partners are collaborative and bi bidirectional. Relationships are cooperative, interdependent, and balanced. Maintenance of a positive relationship is a priority. Services provided are flexible, responsive, and proactive. Differences in perspectives are seen as strengths. There is a commitment to cultural competence. There is an emphasis on outcomes and goal attainment. (Sheridan, 2004)

Parent Involvement Definitions

The participation of significant caretakers in the educational process of their children in order to promote academic and social wellwell-being (Wolfendale, 1983). A schoolschool-initiated and directed engagement of the parent that, under optimal conditions, evolves into a homehome-school partnership working towards a mutually agreed upon goal with shared responsibilities that results in positive student/child outcomes (Christenson, 1995). The active engagement in home, school, and community activities initiated and maintained by the parent that supports the healthy development of their child(ren) (Epstein, 1986, 1995).

Epsteins 6 PI Categories
(1987; 1995)

Parenting parents provide for basic needs: food, shelter,

emotional support

Communicating methods that help parents and schools

stay in contact

Learning at Home - home practices in which parents

interact, monitor, or assist children in educationally related activities Volunteering and/or Attending - parents coming into the school setting to either help or support Decision Making - parents participating in parentparent-teacher organizations and school advisory or governance Community Connections - parents collaborating with community and other agencies to facilitate students education

Evolving Definitions
Over time PI has changed from exclusive focus on one type of specific activity to a wide range of parent activities that support learning and achievement. Now considered a multidimensional concept that can include parent behavioral, personal/emotional, and cognitive/intellectual overt actions and affective experiences in support of a childs schooling (Grolnick & Slowiaczek, 1994).

BottomBottom -line
Effective Parent Involvement is designed to extend the education mission of the school to help students be successful by informing and engaging parents in the education of their own child and in school improvement efforts.

Characteristics of Effective PI
Empowers parents as advocates and active participants in the education process. Fosters teacherteacher-parent collaborative relationships with a common goal of student success. Provides additional support for teachers and students in the classroom. Facilitates positive parentparent-child relationships implicitly related to educational success

A Rationale for PI

No matter how skilled professionals are, or how loving parents are, each cannot achieve alone what the two parties, working handhand-in in-hand, can accomplish together .
(Peterson & Cooper, 1989; pp. 229, 208).

Another Rationale for PI

Specific things families do facilitate a childs learning & educational success more than specific descriptions of who families are. are.
(Kellaghan et al., 1993)

Support for PI Child Outcomes

There is empirical evidence supports the relationship between PI and improvements in school achievement and students educational success. Parent Involvement was found to be the strongest moderator of literacy performance in he lower primary students across both low and high income families (Dearing, Kreider Kreider, , Simpkins & Weiss, 2006)

Support for PI Parent Outcomes

Parents indicate more involvement in learning activities at home and more positive attitudes and behavior towards and understanding of the work of schools (Epstein, 1986, 1995). Contact and communication with educators increases and parents indicate a desire for more involvement (Hoover(Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1997).

Support for PI Teacher Outcomes

PI also improves teacher and staff morale and satisfaction (Becher, 1984). PI increases classroom prosocial conduct PI increases academic achievement in other academic areas. (Heller & Fantuzzo, 1991)

How Parent Involvement Relates to MultiMulti -tiered Family School Partnerships

Tier 3: Intensive, Individual PI Interventions
Parents as collaborative partners for individualized intervention for child with poor response to the first two tiers. Examples: parents as academic tutors at home for reading fluency (Parents Encourage Pupils)
Tier 3 1-7%

Tier 2: Targeted Group PI Interventions

PI interventions for targeted groups of students identified as at risk for specific academic difficulties (ie. Reading, math). Example: Parents assist in reading or math intervention (Parent Tutoring; Reciprocal Peer Tutoring with Parent Involvement)
Tier 2 5-15%

Tier 1: Universal PI Intervention

Engaging parents as collaborative partners by involvement in their childs education process. Examples: Homework expectations and stations; interactive conversations about progress; home rewards

Tier 1 80-90%

Three EvidenceEvidence-Based Parent Involvement Programs

Fishel & Ramirez, 2005

1. Parent Tutoring (PT)

Duvall, Delquadri, Delquadri, Elliott & Hall (1992) Hook & DuPaul (1999)

2. Parents Encourage Pupils (PEP)

Shuck, Ulsh Ulsh, , & Platt (1983)

3. Reciprocal Peer Tutoring and Parent Involvement (RPT(RPT-PI)

Heller & Fantuzzo, Fantuzzo, 1991

EvidencedEvidenced -based Selection Criteria

(Kratochwill & Stoiber, 2002)

Strong empirical/theoretical foundation, design, and statistical qualities. Demonstrated effectiveness on school-based outcomes OR conducted in a school setting. Demonstrated efficacy under the conditions of implementation and practice. Evidence of external validity and utility. Also see Fishel & Ramirez, 2005

Similarities Across PI Programs

Utilize collaborative parent-teacher instructional involvement efforts to improve students academic success. Parents learn to directly assist in their childs education at school and/or at home through academic tutoring approaches. Employ parent reinforcement of positive academic behavior through praise, earning points for home/school rewards, and one-on-one parent-child attention. Parent-teacher partnerships are primarily directed by teachers and focus on a single specific home-based activity.

Enhancing PI
Foster bibi-directional communication Enhance problem solving across home and school Encourage shared decision making Reinforce congruent homehome-school support Consider flex time to accommodate flexible scheduling Provide workshops and inin-service training for teachers Conduct scheduled home visits Establish parent centers within schools Conduct activities/social events to increase parents opportunities to communicate with educators

Enhancing PI
Establish Universal climate Strategic and intensive parent involvement is more targeted PI in intervention increased involvement with riskproduces culturally appropriate and more effective interventions and outcomes Add here..best practicenext is definition of PI specific to this training module for strategic and intensive interventions

Additional Resources
The Harvard Family Research Project has compiled and categorized a large body of resources on parent involvement to make it easier to access and use. This resource guide contains web links to research, information, programs, and tools from over 100 national organizations. It provides information about parenting practices to support children's learning and development, homehome-school relationships, parent leadership development, and collective engagement for school improvement and reform. Available online at http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/resources/guide/guide.ht ml