Social networking is the "coolest" way for children nowadays to build relationships. All you parents know that your child's friends mean the world to them. To learn more about how your child is interacting with his/her friends, both on the internet and on their cell phone, click this sentence. 

Links

Urban Extension:

This website from the University of Illinois Extension discusses several topics including: Parental Involvement in School, Parent/Teacher Communication, and Learning Styles.  The site also offers a link at the bottom of the page to receive the same information in Spanish.


More Engagement 


Project Appleseed

“Project Appleseed seeks to create partnerships with state departments of education, nonprofit groups, and corporate partners whose business, philanthropic, and educational objectives can be met through a ‘leave no parent behind’ partnership.”  This page offers numerous resources for parents and educators and also offers a Parental Involvement Pledge and links to many national education sites.

Parental Involvement Strategies

This website offers a general education on parental involvement and why it is important and how parents and educators can get involved in becoming leaders, educators, and trainers in the movement for parental involvement.




Other Websites for Increasing Parental Involvement in Low Income Areas:


NCPIE: National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education


   This is a resource website for parents and families, and is made up of different resources offered by various education and parent organizations. Included among the resources are books, pamphlets and information brochures, videos, and other multimedia materials. The groups include resources ranging from working with exceptional children to discipline tips to improving a child’s literacy and/or other content areas in school to helping children with social-emotional issues. While some of the resources must be purchased, there are a number of them that are free. Not only would this be a great website to share with parents and guardians, but it is a wonderful site for teachers as well, as they could possibly take the initiative and order some of these resources to have available in their classrooms for parents. There is a wealth of information on this site, but it is worth giving it a thorough look.


Questions?

      This is a blog website, where parents can post questions, articles, or just topics of discussion and voice their opinions while also being able to access and read other parents’ postings. The subject of the blog is Parents’ Role in Education, and it offers topics such as homework help, teacher conferences, and finding outside resources to educate your children, to name just a few. Parents relating to parents find they have a lot in common in their children’s education, and can make comments on other parents’ posts. A wonderful resource to stay in communication with parents across the nation in the world of education.

Articles for Increasing Parental Involvement in Low Income Areas:

Ecologies of Parental Engagement in Urban Education

 This article discusses a framework which marks a fundamental shift in how we understand parents’ involvement in their children’s education—a shift from focusing primarily on what parents do to engage with their children’s schools and with other actors within those schools, to also considering how parents understand the hows and whys of their engagement, and how this engagement relates more broadly to parents’ experiences and actions both inside and out of the school community.  The article discusses several important points in Parental Engagement with a focus on urban schooling.  Also, the article provides a visual conceptualization of the outdated idea of what Parental Involvement was vs. the more modern idea of Parental Engagement.

(Note: If you cannot access these articles through the Miami Server, you can sign up for a free trial at www.ebsco.com)

Cooperman, Saul. Good Families Make Good Schools. Education Week, 1/24/2007, Vol. 26 Issue 20, p38-39.

Family Involvement in Schools

      This article, written by Saul Cooperman, discusses the importance of parent and family involvement in the schools. It can be found through the Miami University Libraries Education Research Complete database. Following is an abstract of the article, written by the author:
      “The article reports that spending large amounts of money on schools and education does not ensure academic achievement, as proven by New Jersey's experience. The author acknowledges that existing goals, such as careful supervision, accountability, and good practices, are important, but states that ultimately it is parent and community involvement that will make a difference in U.S. schools. The author cites work by John Ogbu and Leonard Pitts to support his argument,” (Cooperman 2007).

Flood, James; Lapp, Diane. “I Never Knew I Was Needed Until You Called!”: Promoting Parent Involvement in Schools. Reading Teacher, Apr95, Vol. 48 Issue 7, p614.


Why Don't We Get Involved?

    This article explains the different reasons that parents don’t get involved. These are very important views to take into consideration when developing ways to improve parental involvement. Parents assist and support instruction in three ways: as teaching partners, resources, and at-home teachers. Flood and Lapp go on to specify ways to reach out to parents and get them involved in the classroom, doing things such as sharing integrated language experiences for ESL families, tutoring, sharing ideas, events, journals and memories.


Padgett, Raven; Padgett, Raven. Best Ways to Involve Parents. Education Digest, Nov2006, Vol. 72 Issue 3, p44-45.

Parental Engagement Activities

      This article, written by Raven Padgett, includes suggestions for ways to involve parents in their child’s education. Among these recommendations are the use of technology, which can be supplemented by the websites listed above. This article can be found through the Miami University Libraries Education Research Complete database. Following is an abstract of the article, written by the author:
      “The article focuses on the importance of parent participation in schools, and suggests ways to involve parents. The benefits of parent participation, including improved attendance and positive behavior, are cited. The author suggests setting goals, identifying potential communication or transportation issues, and including the parent in the learning process. Technology also plays a role in linking parents and teachers and administrators: websites and blogs are also cited as methods by which parents became involved. Other examples are provided by school administrators and the National School Public Relations Association,” (Padgett 2006).