chapter 9- Involving Parents and Communities

My favorite line for this chapter was: that evidence shows: “when schools work together with families to support learning, children tend to succeed not just in school, but throughout life. The most accurate predicator of a student’s achievement is not income or social status, but the extent to which that student’s family is able to create a home environment that encourages learning, expresses high expectations for their children, and become involved in their child’s education.” I totally agree with this passage and believe that it can give hope to low-income areas that with hard work and a team effort, all students can succeed in learning anything they put their mind to.
I like the other facts this chapter gave, such as:
Student benefit for parent- school interactions and receive higher grades and test scores, have better attendance and more homework done, fewer placement in special programs, more positive attitudes and behaviors, higher graduate rates, and greater enrollment in college. I loved that this chapter made these points. It seems almost unreal to think that by just improving communication between parents and school students schooling and lives can be improved in so many aspects. All of these points really show how important it is for parents to be involved in school and their child’s progress. I think this is due to the child’s two separate worlds being connected and making it one. In this way, the child does not just associate learning as occurring in one environment, but both, and it provides the child with an example of how to communicate and be responsible for the job set before you. Working with willing parents can be so good for kids.
Yet I can sort of understand the other side of the spectrum that the chapter presented on parents distancing themselves more and more as teens get older. I actually have felt the same way about my brother who is in middle school. He is the type that constantly needs a family member keeping in contact with his teacher to see how he has been doing and what he needs to get done as due dates approach. My aunt was constantly helping to talk to the teacher to get problems straightened out and guide him to getting his homework done each night when he visited her house. I totally see how this is beneficial for kids and it did help my brother get back on track in school. Yet parents aren’t going to be there to call a professor when teens get to college. So when is it time for the checking in, and motivation for homework, go from a family members job to the teen’s job? On that note, I can see why parents way to back off and make their child learn to do these things more and more. I think there must be a middle ground that can be taken to help both sides as middle school students are becoming more independent.