Education Advisory

[The report was published by Education Advisory in 1982 to stimulate discussion and improvement. Hopefully comments will bring us up to date on parent involvement in 2007.]
EDUCATION ADVISORY REPORT

Parent Involvement in Public Schools in BC, February 1982

Summary: A lot remains to be accomplished to improve home-school communications in BC public schools.

Evaluation Standard

Indicators are:
Parents (guardians) should experience dialogue and a sense of belonging (vs. alienation) with the schools their children attend. Indicators are:

• The level of parent satisfaction with their own child’s education
• Quality of home-school communication
• The degree of consultation and resulting responsiveness
• The level of parent satisfaction expressed via school accreditation/evaluation procedures

Present Status

• Minister of Education, Hon. Brian Smith, after 3 month tour of the province said, “Many parents expressed concern with the lack of communication between themselves and their school.”
• B.C.Council for the Family Report, Aug. 1980, noted: “With respect to education and schools considerable attention was focused on the alienating effect public schools were felt to have on families and the potential (but often unused) power schools had to help strengthen family competencies…Most parents are concerned about the welfare of their children in school, and their own involvement in the overall process of education…However, not all parents felt that their views were welcome or appreciated…from our reports, we do know that only about 25% or ¼ of the school boards in BC have known policies encouraging parent-school committees…Given the results of the survey…it is not hard to see why Council members feel frustration with respect to home-school communication.”
• Education Advisory mail from parents and schools indicates considerable interest in improvement of home-school communication, and a low level of information on the subject.

Remarks

Overall impression is that, generally, parents appear dissatisfied with present home-school communication. On a 4-point rating scale (Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor) we would rate the situation in BC at present as Fair.

Recommendations

1. Dissemination of material and other resources to schools about improving home-school communication and increasing parent involvement
2. School Boards develop written policies and backup support promoting substantive parent involvement in every school
3. Workshops for parents, principals, teachers on the skills of home-school communication, conferencing, consultation, co-operation, etc.
4. Monitoring each school’s home-school communication (possibly via accreditation/evaluation procedures)
5. Teacher training and administrator training to include theory and practice in home-school communication

Outlook

Given that:

• The present level of parent satisfaction with school communication appears generally low,
• That there is awareness and interest by parents and educators in improvement in the field,
• A gradual trend exists of parents exiting the public school system for other forms of education (tutoring, private schools, home learning, correspondence, etc.),
• School-based management (with parents an integral part of school-site decision making) is a viable model of school governance gaining favor in some circles,
• That research shows a strong positive correlation between parent involvement and effectiveness in achievement of educational goals,
• That social services in general are moving to the model of partnership with clients vs. “medical” delivery-of-service model,

THE OUTLOOK APPREARS GOOD FOR IMPROVEMENT OF PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN BC PROVIDED THERE IS A CONCERTED EFFORT, BY ALL CONCERNED ON

ATTITUDES
POLICIES
MECHANICS
SKILLS, AND
MONITORING