Pop Quiz: 20 Questions Parents Should Ask About Their Children's School
Current evidence shows that when parents are meaningfully involved their children's education greatly improves.
Articles within this series
- Overview
- Pop Quiz: 20 Questions Parents Should Ask About Their Children's School
- Six Challenges Facing Public Schools, Part 1
- Six Challenges Facing Public Schools, Part 2
- Next Steps / Related Information
Current evidence shows that when parents are meaningfully involved in their children's education, scholastic achievement can greatly improve.
The most important reason to be actively involved in your children's school(s) is that you as a parent are responsible for your children's education. Current evidence shows that when parents are meaningfully involved in their children's education, scholastic achievement can greatly improve. According to the book The Evidence Continues to Grow, by Anne Henderson, the positive impact of parental involvement "is beyond dispute" (p. 1). "Programs designed with strong parental involvement produce students who perform better than otherwise identical programs that do not involve parents as thoroughly, or that do not involve them at all" (ibid.).
Christian parents should be involved because two critically different world views operate in the schools today. The Christian worldview, which states that God is supreme and the source of everything that is good, is directly opposed to the secular world view that man is the final authority and that man can overcome all social ills through education. Parents must monitor school programs to ensure that their values are not undermined.
The type of parental involvement that makes a positive difference in student achievement is more than "volunteering." While supporting the teacher by helping with school activities such as bake sales, holiday parties, or booster clubs is important, your concerns go deeper than this; and so should your involvement. Parents must become directly involved in their children's academic learning experience.
To help with parents with their involvement, a long-time teacher, Linda Page, developed 20 questions that parents should ask their schools:
- How Involved Am I as a Parent?
- How Good Is My Children's School?
- What are the Best -- and Worst -- Teaching Strategies for My Children?
- How Can Communication Be Improved among Parents, Teachers, and Administrators?
- How Can I Talk To My Children about School?
- How Can I Help My Children at Home with School Work?
- How Can I Monitor My Children's Progress in School?
- What Kind of Communications Should I Receive from the School?
- When and How Should I Contact the Teacher?
- What Do I Need to Know about Parent-Teacher Conferences? Suggested Questions for Parent-Teacher Conferences
- What Should I Look for When I Visit My Child's Classroom?
- How Do I Become (and Stay) Informed about My Children's School? Back To School Night Checklist
- What are the Roles and Responsibilities of School Personnel?
- What Do I Need To Know about My Children's School Records? Questions for Reviewing School Records
- What Rights Do I Have as a Parent?
- What If I Have Concerns about Materials, Programs, or Policy?
- What Can I Do on the Classroom Level If I Object to Materials?
- How Can I Try To Change a School Policy with which I Don't Agree?
- What Is Outcome Based Education (OBE) and What Should I Do If I Believe that My School Subscribes to It?
- How Do I Get Involved in the Decision-Making Process at the School, District, and State Levels?
The key, claims Linda Page, is to stay well-informed about the educational program of your child. Though you may delegate the activity of educating to a school, you still need to know the answers to these questions:
- What skills and information are my children being taught in each subject?
- How much time is spent on core subjects? (such as reading, writing, math, science, history, etc.)
- Are solid, objective methods used to instruct my children?
- What textbooks and materials are used?
- What kinds of testing instruments are used?
- How can I be involved in a workable way in making decisions at my children's school?
Page also advises parents to become involved in decisions about curricula and textbooks. As parents become concerned about outcome based education, sex education, curricula which may undermine their values, and the importance of learning basic skills, there is a critical need for parental involvement in decision-making at the local school and district levels. Parents have the right and responsibility to be involved in the selection of textbooks, materials, and school programs. Ideally, they should go beyond supporting the teacher to becoming knowledgeable participants in making decisions about these important areas.
Involvement in key school issues may be difficult to achieve, since some teachers and administrators view parental involvement in curriculum and instruction as "meddling" or as "being a nuisance." Some teachers and administrators assume that once the child comes to school, the responsibility for education belongs exclusively to them, and that parental involvement should be limited to support for their programs. Perhaps some educators have forgotten that parents are ultimately responsible for their children's education.