Week 5 Final Executive Summary
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School
Central Texas College *
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Course
499
Subject
Communications
Date
Apr 3, 2024
Type
docx
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Uploaded by isabelleavilla2203
Executive Summary Isabelle Avilla
The University of Arizona Global Campus
GEN499: General Education Capstone
Joseph Marangell
3/18/2024
The Problem
Within every school district we see a lot of faults and where the school districts could do better.
However, one of the most common ones we see that everyone has problems with is getting the
parents more involved with their child’s events as well as extra curriculars if they have any.
Getting parents involved has been hard because everyone has a life so there is not always time
for an extra event to add on your plate. When you have children, these things get hard to keep up
with and as an educator I completely understand this. After speaking with parents and listening
to some suggestions it seems as if we must appeal to the parents’ senses and make it worth their
time to volunteer or help with their child’s education. At this moment schools are not doing
anything to improve parent involvement and that is putting more stress on school staff.
Furthermore, Schools should provide training to staff on proper professional reactions and
responses to the parents and public community and Schools should have teachers keep open
communication through third party apps or email with parents to make them feel more welcomed
and involved. The problem statement is Parental involvement in our schools, specifically elementary schools
being lower than expected. Background Overview
For me this exists in a professional context because I am part of the staff members at the school being trained in proper communication as well as different communication techniques to use with the overall public as well as parents of our students. Professionally I have had to attend communication training as well as help my co-workers to learn professional communication because of the lack of friendliness and welcomeness reported by our students’ parents.
Some cultural influences that may have contributed to the problem are some parents may not be able to contribute to school events or even participate in any of them, and different parents have different views on involvement and student success. In many cultures both parents are working and there is not always a free parent to help with events like this. There is also an economic standpoint to look at. Not everyone can afford to participate either. Economically this is hard as well too especially now a days because cost of living is going up as well as the cost for groceries and insurance so both parents must work in order to create a safe living environment for their child(ren). In other homes it is just the norm or because of beliefs that parents do not get involved in their child’s school. Some believe that if they stay out of their child’s way they will do better in school. However, on the other side of that topic some parents in many cultures believe that the more they are involved the more the child will succeed in life. Finally, a lot of parents do not get involved right away because they were not invited to do so, and the teacher did not keep open communication with them. For example, in Mexican American cultures “Participation in their children’s lives ensures that their formal education is complemented with the education taught at home. Monitoring their children’s lives and providing moral guidance results in greater learning opportunities.” (Messinetti, Cultural considerations for parent participation in Education 2023). In this culture they believe that if you are extremely involved in
your child’s life then it ensures that they have a great future full of many opportunities to come their way. While as I mentioned earlier other cultures are the opposite of this and do not believe in the help.
The urgency of this problem is one that needs to be addressed fairly quickly because if parents quit being involved all together, we will have no one helping us to make these children succeed but our admin team and our education standards for them. I think this is an extremely important
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topic because studies show that the more you participate in your child’s school life the happier, they are and the more they succeed and are willing to participate. “Researchers say when this happens, the motivation, behavior, and academic performance of all children at a particular school improve. Simply put, the better the partnership between school and home, the better the school and the higher the student achievement across the board.” (The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2022). A child’s motivation, determination, behavior, and academic performance are
all influenced by their home life as well. So, having parents more involved would increase student success and decrease student behaviors. Research Results
In my theoretical investigation I found that parents are more likely to be involved when they feel welcomed at a school, and lately this has not been happening. Many parents have said they would be more involved in schools first off if they could afford to and secondly if they felt welcomed to do so. One parent even went on to say “I wish that my son’s teachers would meet me at the very beginning of the year and engage me in a conversation that continues all year long. I wish that they would invite me to look at the curriculum and share my perspective. I wish that I had chances to offer my insights about the rules and values that are practiced at my child’s school.” (CHOI, Why I am not involved: Parental involvement from a parent's perspective 2023). These parents as well as many others expressed their concern for not being listened to or communicated with properly by their child’s teacher as well as other staff from the school. If we involved the parents more or invited them to be involved, they would be more willing to participate with their child at school. The results of my examination from week three gave me a lot of topics and subtopics to write about. However, the most important thing I learned was that some if not most posts on this topic
are from blogs and are very opinionated. So, this is where my awareness of bias from this class came in handy. I was able to find articles that used facts more than opinion and if they did use opinion, it was clearly stated or proved that it was an opinion rather than facts. My results included solutions suggested by parents, parent views on schools’ communication and the school’s staff point of view on communication. So, I received both sides of the information. When making this examination it was important to consider both sides of this issue because not only do you want to keep your job and stay professional, but you also want to make sure the parents feel as if they are being invited in to their child’s learning and not kept out of it. One source I found studied Mexican American students' parents and how they are involved with them. Mexican American parents are typically involved much more with their children than any other culture. However, language, parents' education, and cultural influences tend to be their barriers. Understanding these factors and including all cultures when discussing parent involvement would solve many problems. Understanding and communication are what parents want to hear from their child's teacher. Interviews with school officials say that although all of the concerns were addressed by school staff, the staff still needed to realize the influence these implications had on parental involvement between diverse cultures.
Potential Solutions
The two workable solutions I proposed in week four were for teachers to communicate their open communication with parents by using a third-party app such as class dojo or remind, and by
making sure the staff, everyone in the building etc. is welcoming to parents when they do decide to be involved. With the first solution, Many parents would feel safer about where their child is attending school at because they would have constant access to message the teacher if anything were needed. This option does, however, bring up some concerns. Many parents are less
fortunate and do not have access to the same materials we all think that they do. Although most parents and students for that matter do now a days there are still some that do not have this privilege. There are also still some risks with this option, the main one being if it is chosen, we will still have parents that are unable to participate and will then still feel unwelcome in our school. With my second solution, Many parents would feel a lot more welcome in schools if staff were professionally trained on the dos and don’ts when they need to be. Basically, when to be professional and when to be unprofessional (which should be never at work). This option has less
concerns with parents because the staff would be trained in the proper etiquette when speaking with or collaborating closely with parents and this alone would change the amount of participation we have between everyone. Overall, the best potential solution here to go with would be the second solution which is training staff in their professionalism with parents and community workers. I say this because professionally training staff the first time before the students return to class at the beginning of the year would be easier and more beneficial for everyone involved. Often times we as staff members get too wrapped up in other things during the school year that we unfortunately forget what proper etiquette looks like when speaking with our students’ parents or guardians. Recommendation
A recommendation to address this issue is to have administration train their staff at each school on proper etiquette when talking to coworkers as well as parents of students. This is a huge complaint; parents feel as if they are not welcome, so they do not attend activities or family nights with students due to this. Another recommendation would be to have teachers at the school communicate their open communication with parents by using a third-party app such as
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class dojo or remind. These apps allow them to track how their child is doing in class as well as communicate with the teacher when needed without exchanging phone numbers. For an action plan I propose we give the school staff training on how to properly speak with parents of students and other adults around campus because we have all forgotten how to do this.
I propose an action plan that will first conduct interviews with employees to determine how they feel about working in the district and ask for recommendations to make them happier. This will gauge the admin to know why the happiness of the campus is down and how they can help; following this interview with the employees, implement what the district can of the recommendations to make them happier. This makes employees and parents much happier because of the morale raised due to feeling listened to. This training will also help the adults learn how to cope with their emotions around hard parents because we all know there is always one parent. Additionally, interview parents, consider their feelings, and ask for recommendations. This will help us to see how they think and why they feel this way a little more so we can explain it to the staff of the school in a better way than an angry parent can. Having clear expectations and guidelines that are updated now and then so you have something you know you can go back to if something fails is always lovely. Furthermore, this would help the community foster more inclusivity and make them feel better about participating in school children’s activities. By implementing these measures, we aim to create a workplace where all employees are adequately trained to deal with their emotions and parents who are parents. This also allows the community to grow and succeed regardless of whether they are a parent or staff member.
References
CHOI, J.-A. (2023, April 7). Why I am not involved: Parental involvement from a parent’s perspective. kappanonline.org. https://kappanonline.org/choi-why-im-not-involved-
parental-involvement-parents-perspective/
Messinetti, A. (Ed.). (2023, April). Cultural considerations for parent participation in Education. MultiCSD. https://sites.google.com/pdx.edu/multicsd/multilingualism-
multiculturalism/working-with-cld-clients/pediatrics/cultural-considerations-for-parent-
participation-in-education
Pena, D. C. (2000). Parent involvement: Influencing factors and implications. The Journal of Educational Research, 94(1), 42-54.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2022, December 16). Parental involvement in your
child’s education. https://www.aecf.org/blog/parental-involvement-is-key-to-student-success-
research-shows
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