Day One SummaryDay One considerably warmed up and nuanced the topic of parent involvement, pointing to several factors that need to be weighed in this debate:Several contributors to the discussion addressed barriers to parent involvement that often confront parents:

• Parent involvement narrowly equated with fund-raising, particularly by PTAs.  Parents can feel quite "put upon" when asked for more and more contributions on top of school fees.
• Poorer parents can feel excluded from participation when money feels like the primary measure of their investment in their children
• Orientation meetings at the start of school and "rushed 5-minute conferences" to discuss the child's performance by subject are the main school-parent engagements, besides PTA and child behaviour issues which call for consultations.  These were felt to be inadequate avenues for meaningful parent-school engagement.

All contributors suggested directly or indirectly that parents not only DO want to be involved in their children's education, THEY ARE ALREADY--in the ways that they can be and know how to be.  PTA or school visits may be a very inaccurate measure of the degree to which parents are inveested in their children's achievements.  Considerable evidence points to the sacrifices and difficult decisions most parents have to make to keep their children in school and equipped for school.  Parents want their children to achieve well in school, but may not know how to support this within the home environment, or have too many stressors to pursue guidance in this matter from the school.  Nor are they often invited to do this.The exchange offered some specific ideas for what could be considered more meaningful parent-school engagement:

• Urging parents to become "a pest to the teacher" in order to find out what the teacher expects of the child
• Creating school climates in which parents can volunteer, drop in and observe, help some children with their work
• Teachers and principals engaging parents in goal-setting and improvement plans for individual children, sharing methods for assisting children with homework
• Regular conference spaces and days/times when teachers are more accessible to parents
• Capacity building for PTAs to become true monitors of all aspects of school life, holding all stakeholders accountable
• Schools and parents goal-setting together (for children and schools) and developing strategies to achieve the goals

You are urged to read the full contributions made during Day One to get the full import of these points.Day Two seeks contributions describing what some schools are doing to broaden and improve parent involvement, as well as ideas for ways in which teachers and parents could together work toward this goal.  It hopes to help answer the excellent questions posed by one contributor about the evidence we have (or do not have) about what aspects of parent involvement make the real difference in children's outcomes.  The posted bibliography on the CoP site points to some of this evidence; Grace-Camille (and perhaps others) will share more during Day Two.   Have a productive day, and wade in on the discussion.