Positive involvement in parent-teacher collaborative models.

Abstract

Collaboration and consultation have become important issues in public education. Many districts have acknowledged the importance of parent-teacher collaboration by implementing different models. This article addresses the importance of establishing parent-teachar collaboration models that focus on communication and respect. First, I will discuss the characteristics of parent-teacher collaborative models and offer educators ideas on how to start their own. Next, I will present challenges that may arise when implementing a parent-teacher collaboration process and possible solutions to these problems. Finally, I will discuss an example of a parent-teacher collaborative model that provides opportunities for effective communication and present an acronym to help educators remember the importance of positively including parents in education.

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The terms "collaboration" and "consultation" have been linked to the public educational system in recent years. The American Heritage College Dictionary (2002) defines both terms in a concise manner. To collaborate means to "work together, especially in an intellectual effort,"--while to consult means to "seek advice or information". In education, a combination of the two terms results in a procedure that requires gathering information and advice from parents, students, teachers, and administrators and then working together on curriculum, instruction, and other methods in order to provide positive learning opportunities for each student. Many types of collaborative efforts can take place in school settings. There are several reasons why educators would consider implementing collaborative teams. Some of these include: involving parents, increasing school moral, accounting for learning, providing support to general education teachers who have special education students included in their class, and increasing students' opportunities to learn. Epstein (1995) notes other educational reasons such as: improving school climate and programs, providing family support, increasing parental skills, connecting families with other families, and helping teachers with their workloads. Epstein's main rationale for parent-teacher collaborative models is to establish communication systems between families, schools, and communities in order to help children be successful in school and later in life.

Researchers have stressed the importance and benefits of including families in different educational aspects, but teachers are consistently not utilizing this knowledge (Parodi, 1997; Knight & Wadsworth, 1999). This gap may have been created due to a lack of knowledge of both parents and educators in how to engage in a collaborative educational model. The seriousness of this issue, involving parents in education, has been addressed in past literature and recently in The No Child Left Behind Act. The purpose of this article is to offer teachers suggestions and examples of how to better communicate and involve parents in their child's education. First, I will discuss basic ways to set up a parent-teacher communication and collaboration systems in schools and give a brief explanation of team members' roles and agendas involved. Then, I will discuss challenges and possible solutions that may arise when parents and teachers work together. Next, I will offer an example of a researched-based program focusing on parent-teacher relationships. Finally, an acronym will be provided to help educators remember the importance of collaboration with parents.

Getting Started

Communication between those involved in education, including policy makers, district personnel, administration, teachers, parents, and students, can vary depending on geography, demographics, economics, culture, and individual personalities. Creating a collaborative model in schools is a complex, lengthy, and detailed process. Many different collaborative models can exist, but there are some universal aspects that can be beneficial to remember when creating your own model of communication. Two important beginning steps in the collaborative model are 1) understanding the need, reason, and goal of collaboration and 2) defining each person's role in the collaborative process. Friend and Bursuck (2001) list seven key characteristics to consider when implementing a collaborative model in education. These include 1) being voluntary, 2) being based on equality, 3) requiring shared goals, 4) including shared responsibility for key decisions, 5) including shared accountability for outcomes, 6) having shared resources, and 7) involving assessing and changing over time. Each team member must accept and understand that their roles are important and appreciated by others.

If you are considering forming a collaborative model at your school, you should first contact your administrator and complete a needs assessment. Together, you must discuss why a collaborative model is needed, what the purpose would be, which students or parents need to be involved, who to include as a team member, when to start, and if additional training is needed or available. With the proposed plan formed, your next step is to approach the potential members and convince them of the importance of the proposed collaborative model. Do not force any teacher or parent to be involved in the team process. Attitudes and willingness of those involved in can determine whether the collaborative model is a success or a failure. Presenting the idea of a collaborative model, while demonstrating support and positive attitudes, will hopefully encourage resistant parents and teachers to become team members. Once a collaborative team has been formed, the next step is to determine goals for each team based on the student's needs. The goals may be related to academic or social objectives. Communication strategies, to promote and assess the progress of goals should also be established. Whether the team decides to communicate with the parent daily or weekly, by phone or by notes, it's important that teachers remember to involve parents in both positive and negative progressions of the student. If parents are only involved when there are problems with the student, the collaborative process purpose of positive atmosphere and rapport will be diminished and parents may lose interest or faith in working with educators.

Next, each team member should be assigned their role and responsibilities in carrying out the goals for the student. Each role, depending on the situation, can range from specific, implementing certain procedures for the student, or broad, offering a suggestion or comment for others who may work more closely with the student. Despite the need for equity in the role assignment, there should be a team captain who acts as the facilitator and organizer of meetings. The captain is still held responsible for their role in the participation, listening, implementing, and assessing the collaborative model. Finally, before the collaborative model is implemented, the team members must establish an accountability system. This will vary according to each team's purpose. The reason for this accountability aspect is to help assess the model's effectiveness for the student, parents, and other members. Daily, weekly, or monthly checklists can be created in order to assess how the student is progressing and address any concerns or suggestions that team members may have. Some teams may fred that, over time and through learning experiences, there may not be the need to meet as often as scheduled. Flexibility is an important component of any collaborative model in education. Teams may have scheduled meetings but members must also be aware of the fact that additional meetings, time, and effort may be needed in order to revise the goals and roles of the model.

Barriers to Parent-Teacher Collaboration

Unfortunately, many schools and teachers do not have the rapport with parents and families of students needed to promote a positive learning environment. Possible challenges that may prevent successful parent-teacher collaboration include: time constraints, disconnection and mistrust between teachers and families, hesitation of family members to collaborate due to fear and uncertainty, inflexible work hours of family members, poverty, transportation, availability of childcare, and language/cultural barriers (Riley, 1994; Pena, 2000; Pryor, 1995). In a similar discussion, Vandrick (1999) notes that parents were more involved and supportive when they themselves receive support and caring from the schools. Examples of such support include receiving information from their children's schools, meeting with teachers and counselors, participating and learning from workshops, and being provided reading materials and publications dealing with education and parental issues.

The theme that seems to be evident in all of the barriers discussed is a lack of communication. Teachers can perform a number of steps to ensure positive and effective communication with parents. First, schools and teachers should make contact with parents at the beginning of the year and record information such as home and work phone numbers, e-mail and/or home address, number of siblings, and work hours. Teachers can offer flexibility in scheduling meeting times and invite parents to 'drop in' at any time during the year to observe their child or set up a future teacher meeting. Often districts will provide transportation to those parents who find it difficult to get to the school. Some teachers may even make home visits, when appropriate, in order to meet with parents. Sign language or interpreters may be available through the district and can be invited to meetings where parents have trouble with language or cultural divergence. The extent to which administrators and teachers are actively involved in encouraging parental support could be the key to creating and providing successful collaborative models in education.

Teachers can not always expect all parents to automatically and voluntarily be involved in their child's education. Many parents need encouragement and want teachers to take those fast steps in initiating a working relationship. Unfortunately, not all educators have the personalities or training that are needed in order to implement and facilitate a parent-teacher collaborative model.

Additional Training for Teachers

Administrators should not assume that future or current teachers will become leaders or facilitators when working with parents. Gersten, Darch, Davis, and George (1991) found that even experienced teachers do not automatically become skilled consultants, advisors, or team members. Many instances, teachers may not receive the field experience or training that is needed in order to assume a leadership role. School administration, as well as colleges and universities, should provide the opportunities, time, and resources for such training through courses, field experiences, and staff developments. Collaborative models should be taught and demonstrated at college, elementary, middle, and secondary levels of education.

Teachers and parents will need many important personal and communication skills in order to work together as a team. Some of the personal skills that are needed include: open-mindedness, flexibility, respect, listening skills, reasoning skills, and an overall knowledge of the educational system. Many instances will arise in which parents and teachers may disagree. It's important that teachers are trained and prepared for when these events occur. Epstein (1995) discusses other skills teachers should acquire in order to facilitate a collaborative model. These include: effective communication skills, awareness of cultural and environmental influences on learning, and knowledge of how family diversity plays a role in parental support. How teachers, current or future, accept the need for and learn these skills are the responsibilities of colleges, school districts, and themselves.

Example of a Collaborative Model

For those educators who are uncertain about creating a collaborative model on their own, I offer an example and explanation of a collaborative model already established and proven to be effective. MAPs--Making Action Plans for Students, created by Forrest, O'Brien and Pearpoint, is a collaborative model that has provided opportunities for effective parent-teacher communication by avoiding conflict and facilitating student achievement (Malatchi, 2002). MAPs includes a number of different conferences, over the entire school year, in which parents, teachers, students, and even extended family and friends form a team to personalize a student's educational program. Frequently used for students with severe disabilities, but applicable to other students, MAPs, utilizes eight key questions:

1. What is a MAP?

2. What is the person's history or story?.

3. What are their dreams?

4. What are their nightmares?

5. Who is the person?

6. What are the person's strengths, gigs, and talents?

7. What does the person need? (What will it take to meet the dreams and avoid the nightmares?)

8. What is the plan of action? (Recommendations, goals for an IEP)

Brainstorming, during each session, is used in order to generate responses to these questions. Each team member is given an opportunity to respond to the questions. The responses are then recorded on large sheets of paper for each group to review, discuss, and devise a plan of action for promoting a positive learning environment. The benefit of this model is that it places accountability on each team member. Follow-up meetings are held to discuss team roles, student's progress, and any suggestions or changes that need to be made to the plan of action. Teachers will need some pre-training in the MAPs program before implementation. Training videos of MAPs and other models of collaboration can be found on the interact through many searches or specifically at the Marsha Forest Centre website found at www.inclusion.com/PI-MAPS.html.

Summary

Personal, social, economic, and cultural diversity among students and families has attributed to the importance of teachers' roles in actively encouraging and involving parents in all school activities. Many parents may seem uninterested or uninvolved in their child's education, when in fact, they are extremely concerned but unsure about how to approach educators. The skills of communicating and becoming 'approachable' are often easier said than done; but like most skills, they can be improved through application and practice. Even though some states and districts may not have created policies or training for implementing successful collaboration models, I have just discussed many steps and strategies that teachers can initiate with parents in order to create a positive partnership and learning environment for all students. Also, by utilizing my knowledge and past personal experiences, I have developed a simple way of remembering how to create and maintain a positive relationship between teachers and parents. I combined important aspects of effective communication strategies and skills that teachers can use and developed an acronym for promoting collaboration between parents and teachers. I call this procedure "POSITIVE INVOLVEMENT".

P--Present all information to parents in a positive and caring manner

O--Opinions. Listen to and respect opinions about a child or situation from other teachers, administrators, and family members

S--Stress strengths of the student when talking to parents

I--Initiate change. Explain any problems or concerns and discuss changes that ca can be made to promote a more positive learning environment

T--Test scores--Explain what test scores mean, what they don't mean, and what students can do to improve their scores

I--Informed decisions--Make educational changes or decisions only after discussing matters with the parents

V--Value opinions, concerns, and fears of parents

E--Explain every aspect for parents in great detail

I--Input from parents should be solicited throughout the year

N--Notebooks, word cards, graded work, and assignments can be sent home for parents to sign

V--Volunteer extra time to support a child who is struggling or needs extra help

O--Open House--Allow parents to visit your classroom and have children's work on display

L--Listen to feelings and problems parents may have

V--Visit homes or encourage parents to visit the school or classroom

E--Expectations--Have high expectations for parents and students

M--Make phone calls or set up conferences to discuss positive and negative issues

E--Eating--Allow parents to eat breakfast or lunch with the class during the year

N--Negotiate--Be open-minded and work with other teachers and parents on the academic and behavior plan for each child

T--Time--Make time to talk with parents and students and do whatever it takes to get parents involved.

With the high demands and time restraints placed on both teachers and parents, establishing and maintaining collaborative teams will be a difficult, but attainable task. When parents and teachers collaborate, students will ultimately be the ones who reap the benefits. However, it's important to remember that changes in education don't come easily or by themselves. My suggestions for educators are twofold. First, I recommend that educators not wait until a collaboration model is needed to start one. Collaboration should be viewed as a preventative procedure to help parents and teachers communicate and focus on the progress and growth of the children right from the start. Secondly, I propose that teachers not wait around to be asked to be a member of a team. Take the initiative by acknowledging the need for collaboration with certain teachers, parents, and students and implementing a model to address this need. Find the support needed from administration and other teachers, and help transform your school into a more welcoming and nurturing environment.

References

Epstein, J. L. (1995). School/family/community partnerships: Caring for the children we share. Phi Delta Kappan, 76(9), 701-713.

Friend, M., & Bursuck, W. (2001). Including students with special needs: A practical guide for classroom teachers (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Gersten, R., Darch, D., Davis, G., & George, N. (1991). Apprenticeship and intensive training of consulting teachers: A naturalistic study. Exceptional Children, 57(3), 226-236.

Knight, D., & Wadsworth, D.E. (1999). Endorsement of family issues in curriculum offerings of teacher training programs nationwide. Education, 120(2), 315-325.

Malatchi, A. (2002). ABC's of education: Making action plans (MAPs). Retrieved May 16, 2002, from http://www.ttac.odu.edu/Articles/abc.html.

Marsha Forest Centre. Inclusion.com: Books and Videos. Retrieved March 25, 2003, from http://www.inclusion.com/PI-MAPS.html.

Parodi, C. (1997). Parent involvement and student achievement. Retrieved March 25, 2003, from http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/notes/51/parstu.html.

Pena, D. C. (2000). Parent involvement: Influencing factors and implications. The Journal of Educational Research, 94(1), 42-54.

Pryor, C. (1995). Youth, parent and teacher views of parent involvement in schools. Education, 115(2), 410-419.

Riley, R. W. (1994). Strong families, strong schools: Seven good practices for families to use their time. Vital Speeches of the Day, 60(4), 745-748.

The American heritage dictionary (4th ed.). New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Vandrick, S. (1999). A school parent group which supports families, education, and community. Education, 120(2), 249-253.

Mathis is a third year doctoral student at the University of South Carolina. She is majoring in special education with a focus on learning disabilities.