Schools look to boost parent involvement

To boost academic achievement, many Highlands County schools are looking to parents to get them involved in the education of their children.

Most school improvement plans outline a need to increase parent participation with some linking it to a goal of improved scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

Lake Placid Elementary noted that only one in four parents attended one or more of the school's parent nights in the 2008-09 school year. The school hopes to increase participation this year to two out of five parents attending at least one parent night.

"I don't think you could ever have too many parents involved in a school setting," said parent Monique Oxer, who is on the School Advisory Council (SAC) at Lake Placid Elementary.

"I would love to see more parents attend SAC, PTO (Parent/Teacher Organization) and just any other school function," she said.

The school has an upcoming parent night, at 6 p.m., Nov. 19, that will be for FCAT preparation for third-, fourth and fifth-graders.

Oxer said she has a third- and a fifth-grader so she plans on attending that parent night.

After picking up her children from school, Oxer said, they discuss what they have learned, what their homework assignments are for that night and when they will be having upcoming tests.

"It's my personal opinion that children tend to do better the more their parents are involved, whether it's actually in school or just at home," she said.

Parent involvement has been improving the last two years at Sebring Middle School, according to Principal Sandi Whidden.

The school's improvement plan notes that meetings for parent involvement, which were directly related to academic performance, were not well attended, but activities such as athletic events, student performances and concerts were well attended.

Parents come out when their child is performing, Whidden noted. With everyone being so busy, a school event has to have some type of enticement for the parents to attend.

Sebring Middle School held its first parent involvement Tuesday night, which included a math activity for parents and students to do together, information about middle school credits and advanced academics and drawings for prizes.

"I was pleasantly surprised about the turnout because I was thinking we may get a dozen parents, but we had over 50," Whidden said. "It was mostly sixth-grade parents, which was great because we wanted to introduce them to some of the things about our school and it was really a fun evening."

Parents who want to be actively involved in their child's school can join the Parent/Teacher Organization (PTO) or the School Advisory Council (SAC).

The PTO focuses on student activities and fund raising while the SAC is involved with the School Improvement Plan and academic and safety issue.

"We have a great turnout for SAC," Whidden said. Some principals say only one or two parents come, but Sebring Middle has 20 SAC members who consistently attend the monthly meetings.

Whidden said she and her secretary provide dinner for the 5:30 p.m. meetings, which might help the turnout.

Joe Jenkins said he and his wife, Sondra, have a very high interest their children's education. They have a daughter in second-grade at Memorial Elementary and a son in seventh-grade at Hill-Gustat Middle School.

Sondra is a SAC member at Memorial Elementary.

Jenkins said he checks the homework assignments and reviews the report cards with his children.

"My kids are doing pretty good; thankfully we are blessed that way," he said.

Avon Elementary Principal Pam Burnham said during the first few weeks of the school year, each grade level has a parent night.

Parents are informed about the expectations in their child's grade level and what they can do to help in their child's education.

Each grade level has another parent night program sometime during the rest of the year.

"As a whole we do have good participation and support with the parents wanting to be involved and wanting to know what they can do to help," Burnham said.

During that first grade-level parent night, she said, it's stressed that "we are a team here for your child; it's not just the teacher; it's the teacher and the parent; we are in this together."

November has been proclaimed Parental Involvement in Education Month by Governor Charlie Crist.

Research shows that family and parental involvement in a child's learning is vital for student academic success, according to Florida Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith.