The Role of Parents

Amid all the acrimonious debates about what’s best for the nation’s schoolchildren, one goal has won nearly universal acclaim: increasing parents’ involvement in education.

Yet a new study by Public Agenda, a nonpartisan, nonprofit public opinion research group in New York, appears to contradict the current thinking of many education reformers that parents should take a stronger role in school governance.

Rather, teachers and parents heartily concur that the most vital aspect of parental involvement occurs not on school grounds, but at home. Raising polite, disciplined, respectful children who want to learn and work hard, the report said, is “the most fundamental and indispensable job for parents.”

Far too many parents, however, “are just not living up to their end of the deal,” the two groups also agreed. That is so even though 83% of parents viewed checking homework and encouraging their children to learn as their most important role.

Titled “Playing Their Parts,” the report summarizes findings from two national polls, assessing the views of 1,000 public schoolteachers and 1,220 parents of children in public school.

The dual surveys revealed that neither parents nor teachers want parents to assume more of a role in schools’ hiring and curriculum decisions.

Yet reform efforts up and down the education chain have championed a much fuller parental role. They range from efforts such as the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now, or LEARN movement, to a major parental involvement policy initiative launched by the U.S. Department of Education.

In 1991, California became the first state to enact a law requiring that schools develop parental involvement programs. Among other things, such programs typically solicit room parents to act as liaisons with administrators and parent volunteers to help with school events, chaperon field trips and oversee classroom projects.

Teachers appreciate those roles, the report said. But when it comes to governance, educators fear “uninformed meddling and second-guessing” by well-intentioned parents. Parents say that they do not feel qualified to make such decisions and would not be comfortable doing so.

“What this study suggests is that [policymakers and reformers] should not expect a swarm of parents to rally and immediately take up the cause of school governance,” said Steve Farkas, Public Agenda’s director of research and a co-author of the report.

As a parent and teacher, Laura Selva comes at the issue of parental involvement from both sides. Parents of the preschoolers she teaches at Euclid Avenue School in Los Angeles are required to volunteer 7 1/2 hours each month or find substitutes to fill in. The involvement pays off, she said, because many of those children go on to magnet schools.

At home, Selva can attest to the hard work required to keep children performing. She and her husband, Arturo, have spent an average of one to two hours an evening helping their four school-age children with homework.

“Yes, it was a sacrifice, and it still is to this day,” she said. “[But] it was well worth all the effort that we put in.” Public Agenda’s research was sponsored by Kraft Foods, an operating company of Philip Morris Cos. Inc. It followed a series of eight focus groups, including two in the Bay Area, with parents, teachers and teenagers.

Contrary to anecdotal evidence of unpleasant interactions, Farkas said, parents in the survey gave teachers good marks for accessibility and offering sound advice. Teachers generally reported positive, polite interactions with parents.

However, teachers were “quite dissatisfied” with the performance of parents overall. In particular, they were distressed that parents tended to adopt a sink-or-swim attitude about their children as they moved into their teens.

Many parents, educators said, seem to calmly accept limits on what their children can achieve. Parents, meanwhile, said they wanted to encourage children to act independently, rather than rely on parental nagging to prod them to complete assignments.

Overall, Farkas said, the survey suggested there is a realization that “schools can’t do their jobs if parents aren’t taking care of business at home.”

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Parental Guidance Suggested

Parents and teachers agree that parents can help most with education by rearing respectful, well-mannered children who are eager to learn and by helping with their homework, according to a study by Public Agenda.

PARENTS

Which is most important for parents to do in the partnership between parents and school?

83% Check homework and encourage children to learn

11% Other

4% Help choose staff and develop curriculum

2% Volunteer to raise money and help at school

Schools Can Succeed...

Suppose a child has parents like the ones described below. Do you think the schools should still be able to do a good job of teaching this child or not?

% of Parents Saying Schools Can Suceed If Parents:

Teach respect, hard work and good values, even if parents have not had much schooling: 89%

Are highly educated, but are constantly fighting and arguing: 64%

Give love and affection, but pay little attention to discipline: 51%

Homework as Headache

% Saying They Have Done the Following, Parents:

Have had a serious argument with their child where there was yelling or crying over homework: 50%

Have let child deal with consequences of not doing their school work rather than deal with child’s constant stalling: 49%

Have done part of child’s home-work because it was too hard for them or they were too tired: 22%

TEACHERS

Which description of the partnership between parents and school comes closer to your own?

For parents to:

53% Check homework and encourage children to learn

28% Do their job at home and volunteer to do fundraising and help out at school

15% Do their job at home, volunteer at school and help make decisions about staffing and curriculum

5% Not sure

Teachers’ Views on Parental Role at Home

Based upon your experiences and observations at your school, how serious a problem is each of the following:

Parents who fail to set limits and create structure at home for kids

Somewhat Serious: 36%

Very Serious: 47%

Parents who fail to control how much time kids spend with TV, computer and video games: Very Serious: 34

Very Serious: 49

Parents who refuse to hold children accountable for their behavior or academic performance:

Somewhat Serious: 31

Very Serious: 50

Parents who allow sports and social popularity to be their children’s biggest priority*:

Somewhat Serious: 19

Very Serious: 47

Parents who are so tired of battling children over homework that they give up:

Somewhat Serious: 12

Very Serious: 41

Parents who are so focused on their own careers that their children’s schooling is not a priority:

Somewhat Serious: 12

Very Serious: 38

Parents who go directly to the principal when there is a problem instead of talking to the teacher first:

Somewhat Serious: 13

Very Serious: 34

Parents who blame teachers for their children’s failures:

Somewhat Serious: 11

Very Serious: 34

New teaching strategies and approaches that confuse parents:

Somewhat Serious: 4

Very Serious: 29

Parents with unrealistically high expectations for what kids can achieve academically:

Somewhat Serious: 5

Very Serious: 26

Parents who put too much pressure on their children to get good grades:

Somewhat Serious: 4

Very Serious: 27

Parents who are so concerned that their children have fun and enjoy school that academic achievement takes a back seat

Somewhat Serious: 5

Very Serious: 20

Parents so attached to old ways of teaching that they resist innovative and improved teaching methods

Somewhat Serious: 3

Very Serious: 16

Parents who are so active at their child’s school that they stifle the student’s independence and maturity:

Somewhat Serious: 3

Very Serious: 13

*Asked only of the middle school, junior high school and high school teachers