Personal Philosophy Statement Education reform has been tasked with reducing the gap in student achievement. One of the strongest influencer of student achievement is connected to the level of family engagement between the student-family and the school experience. In a society that is relying more on technology, there has been less of an effort to connect with parents at home. But, ease of information does not mean that all families are able to easily connect to the information, or that the families understand the information that they are accessing. If the achievement gap is to be closed, it is necessary to bring the family unit back into the schools and in extreme cases to bring the school to the family home. The family dynamic has
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This is evident by the passing of the Family Engagement in Education Act in 2011 which earmarks one percent of a district’s Title I funding to be spent on family engagement efforts. The Family Engagement in Education Act was renewed in 2013 and again recently this year in 2015 increasing the amount from one to two percent (Reid, 2015a). Identifying schools to receive federal funds to support at-risk students has been federal policy since the mid-1960s, but earmarking a portion those Title I funds to be spent on family engagement efforts had not. The National PTA provides a strong recommendation that “parents have the right to work with schools and districts to ensure that this money is being put to good use” (Chevalier, 2011, …show more content…
It is important that “timely, useful, and easily understood communication with parents provides opportunities for exchange of information, appropriate for those involved” (Mutch and Collins, 2012, p.183). Communication needs to be open and in both directions freely. Teachers need to ensure that they are easily accessible and readily available to assist parents with their student’s situation. It is also necessary to employ multiple formats of communication for the same material, although this may seem redundant, each family uses different forms of communication including telephone calls, emails, or traditional paper notes/newsletters
This is evident by the passing of the Family Engagement in Education Act in 2011 which earmarks one percent of a district’s Title I funding to be spent on family engagement efforts. The Family Engagement in Education Act was renewed in 2013 and again recently this year in 2015 increasing the amount from one to two percent (Reid, 2015a). Identifying schools to receive federal funds to support at-risk students has been federal policy since the mid-1960s, but earmarking a portion those Title I funds to be spent on family engagement efforts had not. The National PTA provides a strong recommendation that “parents have the right to work with schools and districts to ensure that this money is being put to good use” (Chevalier, 2011, …show more content…
It is important that “timely, useful, and easily understood communication with parents provides opportunities for exchange of information, appropriate for those involved” (Mutch and Collins, 2012, p.183). Communication needs to be open and in both directions freely. Teachers need to ensure that they are easily accessible and readily available to assist parents with their student’s situation. It is also necessary to employ multiple formats of communication for the same material, although this may seem redundant, each family uses different forms of communication including telephone calls, emails, or traditional paper notes/newsletters