Parents' Role in Student Performance

Identifying Teacher Practices that Connect Home and School

Why is it important for parents to be involved in their child's education? It has been found that less formal interactions with print, such as reading a story out loud, lend themselves to oral language development. Whereas, more formal interactions, directly teaching children about reading, tend to develop written language skills. This is just one example of how parent involvement can affect educational outcomes. Parents need to adequately access information regarding the development of their child. They need to get that information from teachers. Unfortunately, studies have documented that differences among communities in their literacy practices have led to discontinuities between students' lives and school literacy practices. Lower-income, working class families from diverse cultural groups often keep their distance from schools. While highly educated parents tend to be more perceptive of their child's needs. These differences can affect educational outcomes. What are the current practices regarding home-school connections? Which ones work? Which ones do not?

Teachers should teach all students equally, but account for their ethnic back- grounds. Teachers should give all parents equal attention, guidance, and information. For example, many educators tend to give students with diverse backgrounds drills in basic decoding skills; whereas, predominantly white classes tend to focus on reading comprehension. Also, teachers tend to pick books that relate to their heritage, and not the backgrounds of their students. Thusly, teachers can create a secondary roadblock for reading comprehension. In most cases, middle class families had more information about what children had and had not learned. In interviews published in "Parents' Perceptions of an After-School Reading Tutorial Program", it was found that tutors were able to make up for the breakdown between teacher and lower-income families' communications. They were also able to give reading comprehension skills, but why should they have to?

Some teachers use an exclusionary curriculum. Exclusionary curriculum can include; book selection that focuses on predominantly white, middle class characters, and low expectations for performance. Parents reflect the attitudes of teachers. If a parent is consistently told their child cannot succeed, that parent will expect, and sometimes facilitate, failure. Teachers should understand that different cultures have different value systems. For example, Native Americans tend to think communally. They gain identity from understanding their place within a group. Most public schools focus on individual achievement. However, a Native American child may have more success answering an analogy question that required comparison. Also, a recent study found that when African American parents speak to their children, they tend to ask comparison questions rather than request that known facts be repeated. Exclusionary curriculum does not just hurt students. It also deters parents from becoming involved in the educational process.

Sometimes teachers feel so culturally distanced from their students that they ignore them. When this happens, parents, who could be sources of information, become disillusioned with the school system. They feel prejudice against themselves and their children. This serves to widen the gap between teachers and parents.

Teachers who view literacy not just as reading and writing, but as ways of thinking and interacting with others, can use a student's ethic background to build literacy. It should be understood, and never ignored, that culturally appropriate use of language is formed at home, prior to school. To reach out to students, teachers must use culturally relevant teaching. Culturally relevant teaching can serve to pull parents into the picture. Parents can and should be used as a cultural information source.

I think there are some fundamental things teachers can do to prevent breakdowns between themselves and parents. Teachers should use parents as information sources. Parents can be the cultural key to reading comprehension. Educators should never ignore students or parents because they are culturally distanced. Instead, teachers should use parents as a source of information. Also, teachers should address diversity by picking diverse reading material. A teacher should try to pick tasks that are relevant to the student. They must guard against making students and parents feel like outsiders. However, educators should keep in mind that their students will be expected to function as productive members of society, and assist them with acculturation. All students should be given the same quality education. No one student should be picked out as lesser because they are different. Moreover, parents should never be told their child cannot or will never achieve. Parents tend to reflect the attitudes of teachers. Most importantly, students reflect the attitudes of their teachers. Pointing out a student's shortcomings is not in a teacher's job description. Teachers should always remember they are the springboards to success.
One way that teachers could level the playing field for their students would be to use essay questions as often as possible. Essay questions allow students to answer in the way that makes the most sense to them. Also, essay answers allow students to get credit for what they know. They will be less likely to be penalized for forgetting a few small facts, and rewarded for learning and understanding concepts. A teacher can learn how to write essay questions for his or her students by gaining knowledge of the student's backgrounds, and cultural contexts. Where can information about a student's background come from? Parents, of course.

Engaging in practices that will promote good relationships between teachers and parents is one step towards gaining better educational outcomes. Teachers should always remember they are the springboards to success.