Brief History of Parent Involvement
“Parents are a child’s first teacher.” It is true not only biblically but historically. Prior to the establishment of any public school system in America, it was parents who were primarily responsible for educating their children as well as developing character qualities, work ethics, and instilling disciplines in them. Even during colonial times, parents still had a control of their children’s education since the board members were comprised of parents in the township. …show more content…
The poor performance of American students was documented, especially in the area of math and science, when compared with those of other countries. In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education recommended the sweeping reform of American education system which in return prompted many educational policy changes afterwards. Many educational reform policies were discussed in the 80s and beyond. Among them were better school reform, the role and nature of assessment, partnership with business and community, curriculum change, emphasis on Science and Mathematics, leadership training for educators, development of standards for teachers and students, creation of accountability. In addition, parent involvement in education has surfaced as a major issue as well (Cotton & Wikelund, 1989). The growing awareness and interest for parent involvement in education was supported by the emergence of research and studies which pointed to the positive effect of parental involvement on student learning success (Christenson, Rounds, & Gorney, 1992; Epstein, 1991; Singh, Bickley, Trivette, Keith, Keith, & Anderson, 1995; Zellman & Waterman, 1998; Izzo, Weissberg, Kasprow, …show more content…
(Becher, 1984; Collins, Moles, & Cross, 1982; Christenson, Rounds & Gorney, 1992; Hara & Burke, 1998; Christian, Morrison, & Bryant, 1998; Marcon, 1999; Hill & Craft, 2003; Barnard, 2004; Fan & Chen, 2001; Zellman Waterman, 1998; Desforges Abourchaar, 2003). The report, A New Wave of Evidence, by Handerson & Mapp (2002) of the Southwest Educational Educational Development (SDEL) also concluded, based on the synthesized research from 51 studies that there is consistent and convincing evidence that parents play a significant part on their children’s achievement in school and through life. The students with involved parents are to get higher grades and test scores, have a higher passing rate, have a better attendance record and social skills. Hoover-Dempsey Sandler (1997) also state that involved parents contribute a significant influence to shape their children’s behaviors and attitudes, competence and work