Research
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Research Paper Assignment
Rebecca Peeler
EDUC 735
Dr. Paino
October 11, 2020
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Abstract
Family engagement shows a lot of research and the research all shows that it is essential for
families to be engaged in their child’s education. Family engagement is not always as easy and it
can be time consuming, especially when dealing with families that have a language barrier.
When a family member does not speak English and there are no interpreters available, the family
will struggle to understand what is being said at the event and may leave not knowing how to
help their child be successful in school. When a family member feels helpless like that, they may
not want to come back to that school. Teachers need to find ways to reach out to all families and
educate them about how they can help, either at school or at home. This will show students that
there is a team behind them, supporting them, and encouraging them to do their best and be
successful at school.
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Introduction
Family engagement research has shown that it is essential for families to be involved in their
child’s education because the family will help make life decisions for that child. Family does not
always need to be solely the parents, but anyone that will help contribute to their growing up.
Family engagement is essential to a child’s life and learning. Families can be involved by
attending events that happen at school as well as parent-teacher conferences. They can help with
homework at home and simply talk to their child about what they are learning about in school.
This will show students that the family cares and they will be held accountable if they are not
producing their best work.
English as a Second Language families have a reputation of not being involved in school
events, which can affect a student’s academics negatively. Family involvement is more of a
struggle for the families with language or financial barriers for several reasons. Some families do
not speak English and they are not comfortable going to the school if they cannot communicate,
especially when interpreters are not available or are immigrants and they do not feel comfortable
going into schools. A lot of families are single parents, lack transportation, lack daycare or sitters
for younger siblings or cannot take off from work. “There is a common misconception by school
personnel that parents of EL students are disinterested in their children’s education; however, EL
parents report receiving less communication from schools than non-EL parents, despite being
just as likely as non-EL parents to want their children to succeed in school” (Sibley & Dearing,
2014).
When educators are going through their college preparation classes, they are not being
prepared to facilitate parent events or conduct parent meetings. This makes educators lack the
confidence to effectively communicate with families about their child’s education. It is essential
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to have conversations with families about each student because the parents are a child’s first
teacher. They were the ones educating them for the first 5 years and will continue to educate
them when they are not at school. Families and teachers should ideally work as a team to educate
each child. All family engagement events should consist of the family knowing more about what
the child is learning in school and ways they can help them excel.
Historical Summary
The public education system in our nation has changed a lot since 1921, but one thing is still
seen as vital to student achievement-family engagement (Garcia & Thornton, 2014). Research
since then has provided ways that family engagement has been beneficial. Family engagement
helps increase student achievement, gives parents and family member confidence in their child’s
education, builds a trusting relationship between the family and the school, reduced absences,
students show better social skills and behavior, and students feel protected and safe since their
home and school life are combined.
When education first was seen as a structured schooling in the seventeenth century, the
parents had the primary responsibility for their children’s education. As more and more people
came to America, children were needed to help farm for the community until unions put a stop to
children working in those conditions. Children then had nothing to do while their parents were
working and some became mischievous. Some people still see these parents as being low-skilled
and uneducated because of that they feel like parents are unable to help educate children be able
to improve society. This caused parents to lose the control they had of helping to educate their
children, which is why public schools began to become popular across the nation (Hiatt, 1994).
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Parents did not like the way public schools were devaluing their efforts and contributions to
their children’s education and they decided to pushed back as they formed the National Congress
of Mothers in 1897, the committee before the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA)
(Martinez, 2004). The National Congress of Mothers sought to legally find a way for parents to
be involved in their children’s education. Parent Involvement first started as school events; such
as, parent teacher conferences, PTA meetings that discussed fundraising goals for student
centered events.
From 1897 to 1960, most of the time it was the mother who was participating in school
events. Throughout the 1960’s, several policies were created that were seeking to find ways to
increase parent involvement for minority, poverty, and disadvantaged children. Although,
policies were being created to increase parent involvement nothing was being decided on how to
increase parent involvement or what that would look like in the school and home setting.
Parent involvement was mandated by the National Congress of Mothers and they continued
to reach out to committees to develop ways that parents can continue to be involved, which
resulted in finding ways to implement parent involvement strategies in each school (Martinez,
2004). During the 1960 focus on involving the hard to reach parents, fathers also started to
become more involved.
These roles started in the preindustrial era and continued to modern day to defined the tole of
the father, he began as the moral teacher, and then needed to become the breadwinner and role
model for what was expected as a man, to now nurturing father (Pattnaik and Rajalakshmi,
2010). Pattnaik and Rajalakshmi (2010) also stated in his research that fatherhood in the 1900s
showed him as the stern patriarch of the family before he was the breadwinner and in present
times he is now seen as an involved father or co-parents.
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As time went on, parents were seen as partners in their child’s education and
communication was open between parents and teachers. Together they tried to find effective
strategies for parents to use at home and at school. Policies created for disadvantaged children in
1960’s were federally funded and inspired additional policies to be created. The Elementary and
Secondary Act of 1965, which in 2001 was revamped into the No Child Left Behind legislation,
clearly stated that parent involvement was vital and an essential factor in student achievement
(Parent Plus, n.d.).
In 1964, Project Headstart was created and for the first time a president made was a
federally funded program to decrease the poverty, it had explicit requirements that schools had to
follow that required families to be involved and help support the disadvantage children in the
community (Hiatt, 1994). In 1994, the America 2000 Act was signed by President Clinton,
making it required for all parents of public-school children to be involved in their child’s
education (Coleman, 1991).
For four decades, numerous policies were made due to the academic and behavior
success students were showing in the classroom. In 2002, president George Bush signed the No
Child Left Behind (NCLB) that detailed the role parents and families should have in their child’s
education. “This policy connected the development of parent involvement policy with the receipt
of federal dollars more succinctly than any other policy regarding this issue” (Webster, 2004).
The fathers and mothers role changed dramatically as they needed to move from living a
farming life to being a part of a workforce and it left a hole in the family’s role to education their
child on things that before were the primary role of the family (Coleman, 1991). Parents
transitioned to expect the school to teach their children character skills, traditions and morals,
discipline, and structure due to their working schedule.
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“No Child Left Behind (NCLB) had a requirement of parent involvement in schools; the
discussion was from a sociological perspective, which suggested that parent involvement should
be revamped to allow for more equitable and effective programs of school, family, and
community partnerships” (Epstein, 2005). If a school has 40% or more of their students
considered low income or in poverty then they are considered a Title I school. Title I schools
receive federal dollars to use on parent involvement activities. Those schools need to submit a
plan to determine how those funds will be used to increase parent involvement in their schools.
Parent involvement programs must recognize parents as partners with shared
responsibilities for children learning, and parent involvement must be designed to reach the hard
to reach parents, those not typically or easily engaged in the act of schooling. NCLB made it
very evident in their requirements that communication with parents and families would be made,
despite any language barrier that may be present- it needed to be equal for all parents to be able
to communicate and be involved (Epstein, 2005).
Current Issue Described in the Present Culture of Education
Families that have a home language other than English tend to not participate in school
events. They support the school staff and trust that they have their child’s best interest at heart. If
the family attends school events or parent teacher conferences, they may not fully understand
what was being said or how they can support their child in their educational journey. There is
usually a limited number of interpreters for each school system, which makes it uncomfortable to
participate. The family may feel judged for not knowing the language or feel a form of racism
from others. This leaves that families feeling a disconnect to the school system and can also
result in feeling a disconnect with their child since their child is learning more and more English
daily and spends most of their day at school. Parents need to interact with their children in
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multiple ways depending on their own abilities, experiences and expectations for their family
(Rogers, 2018).
Most struggling families cannot take the time off of work to be involved. This is
especially true for single parents; they are the sole caregiver of the children and cannot find or
afford daycare for the other children or take off of work to attend events (Lechuga-Peña, 2018).
English Learner families suffer from more than a language barrier. They could also suffer from
financial hardship, anxiety due to immigration status and fear of deportation, or frustration of not
knowing how to help their child academically.
Research recommends that teachers recognize when parents use la Familia and praise
them for teaching their children those values while they are in the home (Goldsmith, 2016). A
home-based strategy could be simply helping their child with their homework, even if that means
setting aside time for it to be completed and emphasizing the importance of doing it.
An English learner has the ability to speak two languages. Families should encourage the
child to keep their home language because it will help them be successful in school. The brain is
amazing and it can distinguish which words belong to which language and in what setting the
student should use them. Parents can ask questions in their home language after they complete
their reading in English. At first, English learners are shy because they fear saying the wrong
thing in English around their peers.
Living in poverty for a student between birth and age two can result in lower skills; such
as, cognitive, language, executive functioning, and social skills. If the student is able to get out of
poverty, they have the ability to close the academic gap before they reach their 3rd birthday.
Between the ages of three and five, the student has a greater chance of suffering from lower
academic scores.
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Parent involvement is crucial for student success and parents will not go to a place they
do not feel welcomed (Lowenhhaupt, 2012). It is the school’s responsibility to make the parents
feel welcome and to provide opportunities for immigrant and non-English speaking families. All
family engagement opportunities should be informing families of their child’s educational needs
and strengths, which is why interpreting resources should be utilized to increase the family’s
academic success. Depending on the needs and languages at each school, family engagement
may look different.
Each school, depending on the parent education level and location has their own
community environment and have different struggles to engage parents during events (Povey,
2016). Schools create their family engagements based on the types of students and families they
have in their community. Surveys are a good indicator on what types of events and other things
families would like to be involved in. Getting families opinions is a good starting point to
making them feel comfortable at events.
It is important for schools to build a trusting relationship with families, especially English
learner families. Promoting positive communication will open a door that will leave the student
academically growing (Walker, 2017). Finding unique ways to collaborate together is the easiest
way to ensure student success. It is helpful for teachers to know what experiences the family has
gone through to help understand and teach the student as a whole. Students with involved
families also had more social skills with other children and adults, even children from diverse
families or low-income families (Buchanan, 2016).
When pre-service teachers are attending college, schools do not effectively address
family engagement, but should be a priority to fully prepare teachers for their first teaching
position. Some colleges have found success in putting future educators through simulators to
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teach them how to create successful parent, family and community engagement to better serve
their students in the classroom. Simulations give teachers the tools and a better understanding of
the concepts to strengthen this relationship (Prieto, 2016). We need to find other resources that
will help prepared educators to work with families and help them determine what type of
involvement is appropriate with families living in poverty or multicultural families.
The best way to bring students to their full potential in school is to increase educator’s
knowledge of appropriate family engagement. Families should be informed of positive and
negative things that occur in the classroom. Families will get discouraged if they only hear from
the school when their kid is behaving or preforming negatively.
Strategies that are in Place to Address the Issue
Parent involvement and family engagement can look different at every school and within
every community. It is important that it is at least happening in every school to help students be
successful in their educational journey. Family engagement should start with simply setting goals
with their child’s teacher and how they all can help foster achievement for the student in reaching
those goals.
Families can communicate weekly with their child’s teacher through phone, text, email,
or a parent portal/communication platform; such as ClassDojo, remind 101, etc. It is important to
constantly be communicating with each other to ensure that the student is still on track for being
successful in their academic goals. That relationship will help hold students accountable in their
academics and help families feel empowered to advocate for their child (Garcia & Thornton,
2014).
The easiest and most impactful involvement families can do are at their home. After
families have built that relationship with their child’s teacher, they will have the ability to help
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support their child’s academics by monitoring their homework and grades. It is essential for
families to provide a quiet place for their child to complete homework, study and reflect about
the school day. Families can be engaged by ensuring that their child gets every opportunity to be
successful within the classroom.
Researchers have found evidence that family engagement has a positive effect on not
only the children, but the families, and school when schools and parents are constantly
supporting and encouraging the child's learning and development (Olsen & Fuller, 2008). Most
educators assume that the family’s income level or social status has a great impact on student
achievement, but research has shown that family engagement has been shown to have the
greatest effect on student’s achievement (Henderson & Berla, 1994).
Family engagement can be as involved as the family would like it to be, but some
engagement from families is better than nothing. The two most impactful ways that families can
be engaged in their child’s learning is to create an environment at home that will be conductive
to learning and the express their educational expectations for their child so the child knows they
are being monitored and held accountable for their academics.
The benefits of family engagement are most evident by the students. They are the ability
and drive to achieve more and it does not matter what highest education level their parents have,
their socioeconomic status, or even their ethnic or racial background. It is simply that they
families are engaged in the academics and help motivate them to achieve more. They typically
have better classroom grades, standardized test scores, completed homework daily and have
fewer absences. Fewer absences and completed homework will help the students understand the
curriculum better and miss fewer lessons. It can also give them an opportunity to stay on track
and not get behind academically.
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When families are engaged the students have better self-esteem about themselves and they
show more self-discipline. When the students are being successful in school they are motivated
to continue the success and continue getting praise at school from the teacher and at home from
the famiy. The students also have showed to have greater aspirations for themselves because they
feel good about themselves (Olsen & Fuller, 2008). When students are feeling positive about
their academics they also strive to have better behavior in school. When students have improved
behavior, it results in less suspensions due to disciplinary actions and therefore results in more
time in the school building.
Having families engaged can result in having less children being placed in special education
programs or remedial classes. Some students in those programs are simply there because they
need the extra support and guidance. It is important for families that come from diverse cultures
to be engaged and work with the teachers to help bridge the cultural gap. Teachers and families
need to make an extra effort to learn about the culture that is expected at home and the culture
that is happening at school. The benefits of having family engagement for students do not stop in
elementary school, it is vital that parents stay engaged while their child is in middle and high
school. Staying involved and engaged will help keep students on track, ease their transition to the
different school and make them less likely to drop out.
There is a lot of benefits for parents and families when they get involved and are engaged in
their child’s education. The children are at school five days a week for most of their waking
hours and the school gets to understand their child pretty well. When families and the teachers
work together, it helps the families be more in touch with their child’s social-emotional needs as
well as their intellectual needs. They are more responsive with their child and have more
interactions and discussions with them on a daily basis. The increased amount of interactions and
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discussions will lead the family to feeling more confident as a parent and more confident in
making decisions for their child or helping their child make decisions. This confidence and
understanding of how children develop social-emotionally can result in the family showing more
affection and patience with their child. It can also result in less punishment and more uses of
positive reinforcements.
Once families are engaged, they have a better understanding of what the teacher’s role is at
school and more about the curriculum that is being taught. Once families can understand what is
being taught to their child, they are more likely going to be able to help their child when/if they
ever begin to struggle by creating different learning activities for their child at home. Once they
are able to help, family’s perception of the school overall will improve and they will continue to
build that relationship and commitment to the school. Once that commitment is built, families
can become advocates for their child and the school regarding school policies and procedure that
will affect their child’s education. Throughout the year, the school may ask families to be a part
of certain decisions regarding the policies and procedures made for the school.
There are numerous benefits for educators when families are actively involved and engaged
in their child’s academics. Staff morale is a huge benefit of having a high number of families
engaged. It makes students more successful and their job easier which will boost morale within
the building. They will feel respected and understood by parents for the work that they are
putting in to make sure all students are successful. This could lead to an increase in their
satisfaction of the job they perform.
It is truly a blessing to have a job that you love doing every day, not a lot of people can say
that. Having constant communication between teachers, parents and administration will improve
the relationship that families have with the school and give educators a better knowledge of each
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family’s culture. It is essential as a teacher to learn about each students culture in order to best
educate them, it also forms a deeper respect and understanding of the family, their ability, their
diversity and the amount of time they can commit to being a partner in educating their child.
The entire school can benefit from having families involved and engaged in their child’s
academics at home and a school. The school will experience support from within the community
because families will be actively improving the school’s reputation. The family will help support
and advocate for the activities and learning that is occurring at school. Families talk while they
are in the community, they talk to their friends or other families, they talk to business owners and
community members. That can help make or break a school’s reputation. School programs that
are supported by the families and community usually have a better success rate than when
families are not involved. The quality of the programs are better with family engagement.
Biblical Integration
Families are the child’s first teacher that they experience. Each child learns from their
family’s actions and lessons. “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he
will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6 NIV). Schools have the ability to go in depth with
historical lessons and help support what the family has already started to teach them. But, the
home is where children learn the presence of Christ and the lessons He has to teach us; such as
love, forgiveness, honesty and acceptance. A child’s family members are the role models that
show them how to have respect and concern for each other in the Lord. This is helpful for
English Learner families because they can talk to Him in any language and they should feel a
sense of peace knowing that they are not alone in their struggle with a language barrier.
English learner families have a pattern of staying close with their entire extended family. This
does not mean that the larger community of faith does not have a responsibility for helping to
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shape children's souls. “The Great Commission to "make disciples" was given to the whole
people of God and includes every age-group” (Matt. 28:19). They all demonstrate how children
should act in a way that Christ will approve. “No one comes to a class or small group completely
"on empty," we all come with experiences, biases, and perspectives that shape our beliefs and
convictions” (Hynson, 2019). Families can develop a relationship with their church or school to
help develop skills that their child needs in their life, but families still have a responsibility to
bring God into their child’s life and educate them for life.
Conclusion
By families getting involved and being engaged in their child’s education, it is showing them
that education is important. It is a hard first step for teachers to make because it is not being
taught to them in their education courses at college. The first thing that every teacher should do
is get to know their students, their gamily, their culture, their learning style, and their language.
They may not be able to do that alone; the teacher should contact the students’ family to open
that communication door and make the family feel valued and important. Families and teachers
need each other in order for the child to be successful academically in school. Not every family
is willing to be engaged with their child’s education, but the teacher needs to start with those
families that are willing.
Once those families are on board they have the ability to spread the word out in the
community of how their child has shown academic growth, hopefully it will inspire other
families to get involved. A teacher should never give up trying to persuade a family to be
involved because it truly is what is best for that child. Family is a child’s first teacher, this is
where they learn to talk, walk and behave (Mapp, Carver & Lander, 2017).
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There are some families that are unable to come to the school for events, conferences, or
activities. That doesn’t mean those families do not want to be involved with their child’s
education. Teachers need to educate the family on ways they can help their child be successful at
home. The family can set aside a time for their child to complete their homework, have a
conversation about what they learned during the school day, ask comprehension questions when
they are finished reading a story on their own, communicate with their teacher over the phone,
text, email, or a communication platform that the school uses.
Families can help in many ways without coming into the school. It will always show the
child that they are engaged in their learning, they want them to succeed and that the teacher and
family have a trusting relationship where they have the same high expectations for their
education. Sometimes a teacher needs to think out of the box and be create in order to convince
families to be involved, home visits are a great way to attempt to get them involved. Home visits
can provide the teacher with an abundance on information about their student and the family.
When students have a teacher do a home visit, they showed that they had 24% fewer absences
than those students who did not get a home visit from their teacher (Mapp, Carver & Lander,
2017). A home visit is a simply was to show families that the teacher is there for them in
whatever way they need.
Teachers should not be scared or nervous to go into the family’s home, most families
welcome the teachers. It is a quick way to understand the student and gain respect from the
family. It will help the teacher gain knowledge about the student, learn about the student’s family
dynamic, how the family lives and the values that they are trying to instill in their child. Every
family is different and there is a lot to learn about each of them. One key component that can
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help the teacher get their foot in the door is food. Every culture and family has food associated
with them and that can be a great conversation starter that could turn into a relationship.
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