Effects of Parent Involvement in Inner City School - Term Paper Example

? Effects of Parent Involvement in Inner School Effects of Parent involvement in inner schools Over time, debates on whether parental involvement has an effect on a child’s learning progress in school have influenced various researches as a way of ascertaining this aspect. Essentially, parental involvement translates to improvement in the learning outcomes of a child, school attendance, and student behavior in school. Many schools grapple with the definition of and measuring of parental involvement as it creates tension between teachers and parents. On one hand, teachers may feel that a parent does not engage much in a child’s life hence presenting the challenge of how much a parent has to put in order for their efforts to appear worthwhile. On the other hand, teachers also may feel that parents are the prime reasons for their work related stress because of the sour relations that may exist between the two parties. Therefore, parental involvement n a child may have substantial or negative effects as depending on the level of engagement. In this regard, this essay will delve on the significant effects of parental involvement in inner city schools by evaluating whether the effects are influential on child behavior and learning aspects. Definition of active parent involvement As analysts would have it, active parent involvement for parents is an ongoing participatory process in which a caregiver or a parent in the progress of their children. The demonstration of this progressive involvement may be through the discussion of school events, assisting in homework assignments, attending various school functions, and helping out in classroom activities when required (Van Voorhis, 2003). Another aspect of parent involvement is the attribute of parent serving as full and not partial partners in the education of their children by being part of the decision making process in their respective schools. However, not many public schools have the capacity to influence parent involvement as experiences and resources tend to vary hence this becomes the role of district schools. In essence, district schools should foster the underprivileged inner city schools in the creation of capacities that would influence an increase in parent involvement. Impediments to successful parent involvement A lot of misconception exists on whether parents or guardians have the ability to engage effectively in the activities of children in a district school (Moran & Ghate, 2005). The problems lie in how parents can heighten their involvement in child activities rather than the perceived notion that parents do not intend to participate in child learning in schools. According to Education.com (2008), one of the reasons that influence parents to have minimal involvement in schools is the fact that many of the parents residing in inner city schools have minimal spare time because of their strict work schedules (Hook & Wolfe, 2011). Additionally, the parents of those that attend inner city schools tend to be from minority ethnic groups that do not speak fluent English (DCSF, 2008). This facilitates their reluctance to engage in school activities, as they fear discrimination. On the contrary, this creates disconnect between families and schools as the parents feel unwelcome partly because of their education history. Parent involvement as stipulated by law Many parents may view parent involvement as a privilege to their school-going children while in the real sense it is a mandatory requirement under the law. As per the No Child Left Behind Act in Section 1118, parents have the responsibility of committing themselves to the parental involvement policy present in many inner city schools. Additionally, the section also emphasizes on the need for inner city schools to develop structures that would foresee the effective implementation of the provisions under the parents’ policy in these schools. The section also asserts the relevance of adopting the Title I policy in any public school funded publicly that involves written policies by parents on their involvement (PEN & NCPIE, 2004). In essence, the written policies involve the scribbling of the structures and implementation procedures by both the parents and schools in order to influence cordial relations between families and schools (Epstein & Salinas, 2005). However, this section of the NCLB act does not have any enforcement aspects that may penalize a school that has not adopted the policy as part of its governing rules. This creates a major loophole in the achievement of active family involvement in schools, as many schools have not made this aspect a priority in education. Primarily, inner city schools that have not implemented the Section 118 act do not qualify to receive any Title I funding, but according to survey, a minimal number experiences this consequence. Further, development of the Title I plan also involves the active participation of parents in its development that would state the coordination aspects that would be relevant to them. This serves as a complement to other acts that include the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, as well as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, among a list of others. On the contrary, the funding by NCLB also helps in the aiding of parents in better understanding report cards, standards, and evaluations (PEN & NCPIE, 2004). The monies disbursed by NCLB also facilitates parents in order for them to attend school meetings, making home visits, child support and mobility incase these factors serve as contributors to lesser parental involvement (Carpenter & Lall, 2005). Never the less, inner city school also have the responsibility of scheduling school meetings at flexible hours in order for the time to accommodate more parents that claim that their work schedules hinder them from being more participative in school activities. The influences to parent involvement According to research, the level of parent involvement in a child’s life draws influence from the level of attainment that the child portrays. This means that children that have low achievements in both learning and other school activities attract minimal parental involvement (Desforges & Abouchaar, 2003). However, the law does not permit the limited involvement of parents in their child’s school activities due to dismal performance. Another factor that may or may not influence parent involvement is social class, poverty and a family’s material wealth. Essentially, families that have recognizable wealth trend to have more involvement in matters pertaining to the children’s learning. On the contrary, single parents may feel sidelined due to their status hence making them have lesser parent involvement. Psychosocial health of the parents may also be another factor that may inhibit parental involvement for parents in inner city school districts. On the contrary, parental involvement diminishes as a child grows meaning that focus on influencing learning goals and objectives shifts when a child advances in age. Therefore, parents consider their children as though they no longer need guidance and motivation as a way of furthering their interests in schooling. This aspect has a downside effect as many children lose their sense of judgment as they advance in age due to the lack of parent interest in matters that affect them as they grow into adulthood. Overly, parental involvement should be a progressive aspect of educational and growth in a child as the lack of it presents significant consequences that may occur at later stages of a child’s life. Advantages of parent involvement In a larger context, the ability in children to maximize their learning potential is through active and full support of parents towards their children. Therefore, one of the advantages of parent involvement is that parents get the opportunity to exercise democratic governance in the operation of inner schools that they children attend. In some countries within the EU, parent involvement serves as the prime indicator to high standard learning (Harris & Goodall, 2007). Primarily, the critical factor that influences parental involvement is through enhancing the information access levels, valuing their opinion, and lastly recommending parental engagements in schools. Therefore, this aspect facilitates public schools into being accountable and answerable to provide quality learning to school going children. Secondly, parent involvement helps children to improve on their areas of weakness as the parents serve as motivation towards the achievement of learning goals. This aspect helps in the prior realization of the weaknesses that in turn allows for improvement and growth. Essentially, children that have minimal parental involvement in their school matters tend to have ill behavior where in most cases the parents fault the teachers for the ill mannerisms portrayed by their children. Thirdly, the levels of parent involvement help children in the development of skills because home is another place that can cultivate a child’s skill. Ideally, parents may help in the nurturing of talent for their children as long as they take an interest in what the children may be doing. This would propel a parent in providing financial and moral support to the advantage of the child (Harris & Goodall, 2007). Arguably, this aspect may be of help to the children that have limited educational potential but have talents and skills beyond the classroom. In addition, parent involvement also influences children to become responsible citizens as they grow up, as the parents are able to communicate the law requirements to their children. Essentially, children that have irresponsible parents tend to grow towards irresponsible behavior as their parents or guardians have no interest in correcting their behavior. This can serve as the prime reasons as to why children grow into being criminals and drunkards in accordance to their parents’ behavior. Therefore, parent involvement by morally upright parents is essential in cultivating good morals in school growing children. Fourthly, this aspect of child nurturing helps in the cultivation of self-confidence and esteem especially for children that come form needy backgrounds in inner cities (DCSF, 2008). Parents that have contentment in their economic backgrounds find no hardship in attending functions as they appreciate their situations regardless of their social standing. In turn, this influences their children in developing confidence and having pride in their way of living as long as it is modest and decent. They act as guides to their children during their growth as a way influencing positive and desirable behavior. These pro-learning effects include values, goals, aspirations, and attitudes. Personal adjustment is another area in which parent involvement is impactful in a child’s development, a factor that peers, teachers or other family members may not tackle effectively when tackled. For instance, during a child’s growth certain biological changes occur in the body a young child that may be confusing for them. Here, parents assist in the communication of the changes that the children could be experiencing, which helps the children to undergo the transformation with relative ease. Disadvantages of parental involvement Researchers have proven that parental involvement may have its disadvantages, which may draw influence from divergent interpretation of the parental involvement aspect. Families and parents tend to have different ideologies on an array of matters that they may in turn communicate to children. This presents a conflict between teachers and students as children tend to believe what their parents say more than any other individuals in their lives do (Akerman et al, 2011). Sequentially, a conflict may arise between parents and teachers if the latter confronts children because of their parents, ideologies. As earlier mentioned, the working schedules for parents whose children attend inner city schools are hectic but for those that have immense time at their disposal tend to influence their ideologies on the running of inner city schools. Despite the fact that No Child Left Behind Act that advocates for the signing of involvement policies, parents that have time to engage in school operations may coerce school management into implementing policies that may not portray the views of the majority of the parents. Therefore, this present the downside effects of heavy parental involvement. As a mandatory requirement, parents have the exclusive right to make critical decisions as they sit in school management boards (Estyn, 2009). However, as much as this may be an advantage it is also disadvantageous, as some parents tend to strike down any attempts that may result to progress. This aspect tends to derail the progress of the school institution because the parents may not agree within the stipulated period that may in turn affect the progress of a learning institution. Over involvement of parents in school may also influence undesirable behavior in children as it may make children engage in healthy practices because their parents allow them to do so. In turn, teachers may not be able to restrain these children from ill practice as their parents access these learning institutions frequently. In such instances, teachers would prefer that parents limit their involvement in order for teachers to assert their authority as the school overseers (Gonzales-DeHass & Willems, 2013). Conclusion Parental involvement is a critical aspect in influencing the learning outcomes of children at all stages of learning. This aspect has advantages and disadvantages to learning and behavioral outcomes but the benefits are more than the misgivings. In essence, parents need to take up their responsibilities in helping a child to grow as they contribute towards healthy learning environments for their children. On the contrary, the school management should also engage parents not only when a child misbehaves but at all levels that require their input and contribution. This means that rather than providing financial parents should also participate in class activities that help instill proper values in children (Epstein & Sheldom, 2005). Further, inner city schools should formulate schedules that are accommodative to parents’ work schedules in order to increase parent involvement. Schools should also adopt the NCLB act and implement it effectively in order to include all parents irrespective of their income levels or their marital status. They should also allow for equal parent involvement by not valuing the opinions of some parents more than that of others. In turn, the involvement of parents would have a positive rather than a negative effect on the learning outcomes of children within the inner city schools. References Akerman, R. et al. (2011). Review of best practice in parental engagement. Department of Education. Carpenter, V., Lall, M. (2005). Review of Successful Parental involvement practice for ‘Hard to reach parents’. London: University of London Press. Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). (2008). The Extra Mile-How Schools Succeed in Raising Aspirations in Deprived Communities. Desforges, C. Abouchaar, A. (2003 June).The Impact of Parental Involvement, Parental support and Family Education on Pupil Achievement and Adjustment: A Literature review. Retrieved from Education.com. (2008). Getting Parents involved in schools. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Getting_Parents/ Epstein, J. L., Salinas, K. (2005). Partnering with families and communities. Educational Leadership. Retrieved from http://pdonline.ascd.org/pd_online/success_di/el200405_epstein.html Epstein, J., Sheldon, S. (2005). School programs of family and community involvement to support children’s reading and literacy development across grades. Research and Policy. Newark, DE. Estyn. (2009). ‘Good Practice in Parental Involvement in Primary Schools. Wales: Inspectorate for Education and Training. Gonzales-DeHass, A. Williems, P. Underutilization of parent involvement. Retrieved from http://www.adi.org/journal/ss03/Gonzalez-DeHass%20&%20Willems.pdf Harris, A. and Goodall. (2007). Engaging Parents in Raising Achievement. Do Parents Know They Matter?. Department for Children, Schools and Families. Hook, J., Wolfe, C. (2011). Parental involvement and Work schedules: Time with Children in the United States, Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom. European Sociological review. http://bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/files_uploaded/uploaded_resources/18617/Desforges.pdf http://www.ncpie.org/nclbaction/parent_involvement.html Moran, P., Ghate, D. (2005). “The Effectiveness of Parenting Support”. Children &Society. Public Education Network and NCPIE. (23 April 2004). Parental involvement. Retrieved from Van Voorhis, F. (2003). Interactive homework in middle school: Effects on family involvement and students’ science achievement. Journal of Education Research. Read More