Getting parents involved with tutoring efforts
Abstract
Parent involvement in a child's education is considered critical to the success of a tutoring program. However, parents often need much encouragement to participate, especially if they have literacy challenges themselves. These practices, from the Winter 1998 edition of The Tutor, are intended to help national service programs encourage involvement from parents or guardians in their tutoring efforts by including a family literacy component.
Issue
A child tends to be more successful in a tutoring program if his or her parents are involved as well. However, parents must be invited and encouraged to participate. Reaching out to parents includes asking them for help, understanding the barriers they face that might prevent them from helping such as transportation, language or literacy challenges, and engaging the parents by asking for their advice and recognizing their involvement.
Action
The following are suggestions on how to increase parent involvement:
- Involve parents in the planning process from the very beginning.
- Encourage parents to take leadership and mentorship roles within the family literacy program.
- Make sure meetings are scheduled at convenient times for parents.
- Find a parent liaison for the program so that there is someone specifically in charge of communication between the parents and the program.
- Be respectful to all parents regardless of education, ethnicity or economic class.
- Discover which languages are spoken by the parents, and provide translations of program materials into those languages.
- Use communication tools other than just print materials to communicate with parents, some of whom may have literacy challenges. Use cassette tapes, videotapes, and personal communication.
- Reward parent involvement with ceremonies, field trips, and recognition from school or city newspaper articles.
- Be prepared to provide transportation assistance.
- Find different words to describe "meetings" or "appointments" that will be less intimidating for some parents, and try to meet at places outside the school, such as the public library or community center.
Citation
Greenlee, Gale. "Getting Parents Involved," The Tutor. Winter 1998.
Outcome
Making this close connection with parents or guardians helps national service programs to better meet the needs of the students.
