Involving the African American Parent: Recommendations to Increase the Level of Parent Involvement within African American Families

Abstract

This article focuses on increasing African American parent as a tactic to improve the school performances of African American children. The importance of parental involvement, emphasizing the areas of mandated parental involvement, achievement/behavior, and empowerment will be discussed. Factors contributing to the lack of parental as well as recommendations for increasing the levels of parental will be presented. African American children are failing at record rates. Educators have identified several variables that contribute to the problem, including rates of poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, 1999), lack of adequate resources (Kozol, 1991), poor communication between home and school (Weitock, 1991), and low rates of parental (Wallis, 1995). Each of the aforementioned variables are important and impact the school success of African American children. Parents hold a critical role throughout the educational process. Because parents serve as the first teachers in a child's life, they are considered to be the primary educators of their child. Parents can also serve as decision-makers and advocates and can collaborate with school teachers in an effort to aid in the smoothness of their child's educational career. Like other ethnic groups, African American parents want their children to achieve academically. However, some of these parents may lack the knowledge and resources to assist their child with academic success. This article focuses on increasing African American parent as a tactic to improve the school performance of African American children. The importance of parental involvement, emphasizing the areas of mandated parental involvement, achievement/ behavior, and empowerment will be discussed. Factors contributing to the lack of parental follows, as well as recommendations for increasing the levels of parental will also be presented. PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT Parental has been defined in a variety of ways. Perroncel (1993) defines it as a partnership among home, school, and community members to support a child's education process. The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) defines parent as the active, ongoing participation of a child's parents) or guardians) in his or her education (NREL, 1999). NWREL recognizes that parents participate in their children's education in a variety of ways, ranging from reading to children at home and assisting in the classroom, to sitting on advisory councils at school. Similarly, Epstein (1995) summarized the ranges of family within a classification system that included school-home communications, parent within the school and the community, providing their child with home learning activities, and parents serving as decision-makers. Weitock (1991) uses the term high parental involvement and defines it as parents) who attend parent-teacher conferences, are able to be reached for conferences by phone, and attend PTA meetings and school programs. These parents are also described as those who are motivated and interested in the value of a good education, provide supervision for their children after school, and have materials such as paper, pencils, and books within the home. To parents, in their child's education may include an array of meanings. Some may feel that participating within the school setting in the capacity of a teacher's aide, a tutor, assisting with fundraising activities, and/or attending field trips is considered parent involvement. Other parents may feel that adequate parent includes providing a place for their child to study, helping with homework, setting curfews, and monitoring the quantity and quality of such activities as watching television and hanging out with friends (Finders & Lewis, 1994). As described, parents posses different skills and differing levels of comfort when it comes to school and it is important that educators take this into consideration (Decker, Gregg, & Decker, 1996). …