Improving Parent Engagement in High School
Educators recognize the significance of parental participation in a student's life. My statistics professor in graduate school informed us that parental support is an underlying aspect that influences all research projects. That is, regardless of what we as graduate students examined for our thesis, such as links between nature experiences and achievement scores in science class, parental support is an ever-greater predictor of academic success.
It is critical to leverage family influence, and I struggled with interacting with parents in high school. Emails, phone calls, and open houses did not generate the level of parental involvement that students required during such a challenging school year.
Emails were the most convenient for me because I could send them to an entire class of parents at once, but I rarely received a response or even confirmation that the email was read. I would then make phone calls. If you're anything like me, the prospect of phoning parents due to conduct or academics made you nervous. When I did generate the nerve and make the time to call my parents, I frequently left a voicemail and almost never received a back call.
I understand. Answering a phone call at work is not always possible. In this day and age of texting, I dislike chatting on the phone. Furthermore, open houses are a time when teachers stay late into the evening so that parents can meet them, but very few parents go. I had one family participate in such event last year.
There has to be more effective ways to engage parents.
EFFECTIVER STRATEGIES
Google Voice was introduced to me by an English instructor at my school. Last year, she bemoaned how parents never answered to emails, but when she began texting them via Google Voice, the response rate skyrocketed. She had talks with parents that she would not have had otherwise; parents became more aware of missing assignments, and children began turning in work, which resulted in higher class pass rates.
There are numerous advantages for teachers. They can still keep their personal phone number private, and they can switch off Google Voice at the conclusion of the school day to recharge both their phones and themselves. Teachers simply need a Google account to set up a Google Voice phone number. Teachers and parents prefer texting to calling because it saves time and is more convenient.
Interest-based open houses: A standard open house, in my experience, is rarely well attended. However, when we provided activities targeted at a smaller population of students at the school, parents went in considerably greater numbers. My school, for example, held an AP Info Night to discuss the benefits of AP and the subjects we provided. Introduction meetings for ACT Academy, an after-school program focused on ACT exam prep, were also well attended. Smaller, more personalized open houses centered on a specific interest boost parent engagement.
Attending extracurricular activities: Many parents are quite enthusiastic about their child's extracurricular activities, such as athletics, theater, arts, or robotics. I was requested a few months back to manage the scorebook for high school basketball games. Because I have trouble saying no, I blocked out 10 evenings in my calendar for this task. I had more nice chats with parents in the span of a few games than I ever had in my classroom. We discussed anything from prior professors to present academics to issues in our neighborhood of South Knoxville, Tennessee. I felt like I was a genuine member of the community.
Of course, athletics aren't the only extracurricular activities available to students. Teachers can engage with parents while also supporting kids at school musicals, marching band competitions, choral performances, and robotics competitions, to name a few examples. The presence of a teacher at these activities conveys to both students and parents that they care about children beyond their test scores.
Some teachers, admittedly, find it quite difficult to participate in extracurricular activities. Teachers may be responsible for smaller children who need to be picked up from day care or older children who are involved in their own extracurricular activities. Some teachers work part-time in the evenings to supplement their income. Other instructors work as bus aides before and after school, which takes a lot of time and energy. Attending extracurricular activities means going above and beyond the call of duty.
To be clear, this school year is hard, and teachers are already working a lot. There is pressure to make up for missed time due to closures and virtual learning, and kids are misbehaving, failing to turn in work, and being hooked to their phones, exacerbating academic problems. Teachers should not overburden themselves by attending every extracurricular event, which would be difficult given the number of activities available after school. It's important to understand one's own limitations.
Because parents and guardians are such key stakeholders in their children's education, let us as educators find the best and most successful ways to interact with them. Teachers need all the aid they can get throughout a school year that requires so much attention for mask demands, student conduct, boosting academic success, and providing a safe space for children.
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