National Parent Engagement Day 2023!
A Spotlight on Family Engagement
Educating the next generation is not a solo endeavor! Involved parents and guardians help ensure a high-quality education for their children. Decades of research confirm the significance of family engagement in lives of children and young adults. Students whose families are actively engaged tend to have higher attendance rates, steer clear of disciplinary issues, achieve at higher levels, and finish high school.
Family Engagement Benefits the Whole School
This isn't just about students alone; schools also reap the rewards of family engagement. Research underlines that it's as crucial to school improvement as effective leadership and a rigorous curriculum. The link is clear: engaged families contribute to thriving schools.
Differing Perspectives on Engagement
While there's a consensus about the importance of family engagement, the challenge lies in differing perceptions of what this engagement entails and how to engage a diverse community of parents. Surprisingly, many public schools continue to rely on family engagement practices that have persisted for decades. Well-intentioned events and traditions often fall short when it comes to reaching every family and making a tangible impact on student progress. The few innovations that do emerge tend to be isolated to specific educators or schools, leaving the potential for widespread improvement untapped.
Barriers to Equity
Inequities further complicate the picture. Some parents may possess the confidence, skills, and connections to readily participate in school activities, while others face layers of social and economic barriers that hinder their involvement.
Embracing Technology for Better Communication
In the last decade, schools have harnessed a wide range of technologies to connect with students' families. From texting services to online student information portals and everything in between, technology is now the bridge that brings vital information to families. Research is beginning to shed light on the positive impact of family engagement in the digital age.
The potential for technology-driven family-school communication to enhance student learning and well-being is immense. The latest communication and collaboration tools can equip parents with insightful questions and ideas for supporting their child at home. They can be used to give family members more opportunities to share their thoughts on their child's needs and progress with educators. These platforms build or expand a two-way street between home and school, allowing families to provide valuable input and teachers to easily provide more feedback. When done right, tech is a game-changer for families and schools!
But, here's the catch: it all comes down to effective and consistent implementation.
Navigating the Digital Maze
There are two main challenges to realizing this potential.
The Digital Divide
Not all families have equal access to the internet or have the necessary level of tech literacy to take full advantage of the all information available on edtech platforms and apps.
A Dysfunctional Ecosystem
- Existing systems lack desired features
- Parents overwhelmed by a lack of coherence in communication from the school (too many places to check)
- Poor data quality and limited interoperability of parent contact information
In response to these challenges the National PTA Center for Family Engagement released a toolkit and made five recommendations for how to optimize the use of technology with families.
- Define your communication purposes and map your current approach. Conduct regular equity audits of all existing technologies to improve access.
- Use more intentional and inclusive decision-making around family-school communication technologies. Federal funding may help improve the implementation and reach of your systems!
- Invest in texting services with greater accessibility options to engage more families.
- Partner with technology vendors to improve implementation and support. Take advantage of the many features they may already offer, while pushing for more analytics, interoperability, and parent and teacher training.
- Support collective efforts to build transparency and understanding of family-school communication technologies by advocating for easily accessible cost and evaluation information from technology providers. Share your experiences by emailing FamilyEngagement@PTA.org.
Check out these great resources on tech from the National PTA and the Family Engagement Center:
- Questions to Ask Families and Educators to Improve Your Family-School Communication Systems
- Map Your Family-School Communication Technologies
Promote Family Engagement!
Help raise awareness by using the hashtag #NationalParentalInvolvementDay on social media.
Celebrating family engagement deserves so much more than a single day of recognition! Family engagement is a practice and a mindset that deserves attention year-round!
