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TYPES OF PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT

Everyone supports "parental involvement". But, what is it? It is a variety of activities. For people to have a meaningful dialogue, it is essential that they understand the many meanings of the term "parental involvement".

During the 1970's Ira J. Gordon conducted extensive research on parent education as a way to improve student learning. In a 1980 publication(1) outlining Gordon's work, six different types of parental involvement were listed.

1. Audience or recipient of information
2. Adult learner of new skills
3. Teacher of one's own child
4. Volunteer in the classroom
5. Paid semi-professional
6. Decision maker and policy advisor

Additional aspects of #3 type parental involvement include:
7. Getting the student up and off to school in the morning
8. Providing a quiet place for study and homework
9. Showing an interest in all aspects of schooling.

Everyone agrees that parents should do all of these things to help their child get an education. Activities #5, and #6 above go beyond "my-child" thinking and take a school-wide viewpoint. Activity #6 focuses on ways to improve "our school" and the education of "our children".

For over 10 years, this citizen has been running for the Columbus School Board on a platform of encouraging #6 type of parental involvement. More details on this reform are given on the following web pages.
[X] ACADEMIC QUALITY ASSURANCE AT EACH SCHOOL
[X] HELP PROMOTE ACADEMIC QUALITY ASSURANCE IN THE COLUMBUS SCHOOL DISTRICT
[X] RECOMMENDED POLICY ON SCHOOL COMMUNITY COUNCILS

A variation of Ira Gordon's ideas have been published by the National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS) and Johns Hopkins University. The NNPS handbook titled, School, Family, and Community Partnerships lists the following six types of partnerships.(2) This list is called the "Epstein Model" after Joyce Epstein, author of the NNPS handbook. It is on file in the Columbus Public Schools Professional Library. The partnerships are:

• Parenting
• Communicating school-to-home and home-to-school
• Volunteering
• Helping students learn at home
• Decision Making (Including families as participants in school decisions, governance, and advocacy through PTA/PTO, school councils, committees, and other parent organizations)
• Collaborating with community.

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The main point of the above discussion is to encourage the reader to avoid the trap of being misled by those who say that they are all for "parental involvement". To avoid being misled, have the term "parental involvement" defined early in the conversation.

References
(1) Figure 3 on Page 19, Parent Education: The Contributions of Ira J. Gordon, by: Patricia P. Olmsted, Roberta I Rubin, Joan H. True, and Dennis A. Revicki, published by: Association for Childhood Education International, 1980.

(2) School, Family, and Community Partnerships a handbook prepared by Joyce L. Epstein, Director of the National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS) and Johns Hopkins University.

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This page last updated: January 25, 2005