Participation by parents can transform a school from mediocre to stand-out. Examine your own strengths and use them to help create a great school for your kids!
All parents want a terrific school for their children. As parents, we know that education is the doorway to opportunity and success--but in the real world, our children may not be attending an optimal type of school.
Anne Henderson and Karen Map, authors of A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School Family and Community Connections of Student Achievement pull us right to the heart of the matter: "Decades of research strongly suggest that families have a major influence on their children's achievement in school and through life. When families are involved at home and at school, students of all backgrounds achieve at higher levels."
How do you get your child into a great school? Help to create one! One of the best partners you can have is your local Parent Teacher Association (PTA). Not only has the PTA created partnerships between schools and parents for decades but, according to the PTA's national communications director Jackie McCarthy, it has been a strong advocate for change in areas that impact you every day: the TV ratings you use to choose appropriate shows for your kids to watch and the adoption of national standards for parent involvement in schools. Just as importantly, local units are making a difference in the quality of children's educational environments.
Translate your interest into participation and transformation
Join your school's chapter of the PTA. It provides a network to learn how the school community functions, how best to communicate with teachers and administrators, and how to improve student learning for every child.Recognize it is possible to transform your school and that it comes in small steps with many people making contributions. Helen Keller said it well: "I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moving along, not only by the might shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker."Take the initiative. Don't wait for someone to come to you. Maybe you do work full time with limited resources. That doesn't mean you can't contribute. Tina Treviso, a parent in Sacramento, California says, "As a mother of three who works full time for the state government, I never imagined having time to volunteer for the PTA. However, once I learned what the PTA was all about and what the organization was doing to help parents become partners in education, I was hooked!"
Find out about volunteer opportunities (including those for people who cannot regularly be at the school during the day). Most PTAs share information at open houses or through membership committees.
Look for your own meaningful ways to contribute. Not everyone is cut out for the tedium of filing library books in the media center. If you find no connection between your talents and tasks that the school or PTA have identified, examine your abilities and volunteer them. Perhaps you are a webmaster. Devote time to creating or updating a school website. Maybe you are passionate about the importance of children reading or being physically active. Introduce a project to encourage that. There is a role for everyone.Make sure any task you take on has a direct connection to your goals and the school's. If you are going to give your valuable time, it must have a valid return for you. Many volunteer organizations have "feel good" programs with few results. Use this question as a yardstick to help choose what you will do: Is this project/program contributing to my child's and other children's education? If the answer is "no," choose another project.Understand that the PTA isn't all about asking you to give. PTA affiliates have access to a special "members only" section of the www.pta.org website where more than 50 online workshops (many of them free) are available. These focus on personal development and growth in areas that can contribute to your success inside and outside of PTA. Topics include: The Power of Listening, Planning and Goal Setting and Grant Writing (another way busy parents can contribute to their school and parent-teacher organization).If you decide to take on a leadership role in your local unit, state and national conventions and summertime leadership training programs offer additional educational opportunities. There is even a national program called, "Building Successful Partnerships: A Guide to Developing Parent and Family Involvement Programs." This multi-faceted program has over 600 PTA leaders available to help you start your own version of successful parent involvement at your school.
