Family and Community Engagement
Family engagement is the apple pie of children’s education: everybody is for it, but not many people experience it every day. If they did, it would light up their children’s lives, and their own. It would deepen family relationships, deepen children’s commitment to learning, increase adult’s interest in improving their own literacy, and increase children’s academic outcomes.
Family engagement in education requires direct parental involvement in the learning process itself. Children are extremely sensitive to where their parents spend their time. If Mom invites her daughter to play catch or kick a soccer ball, then that sport rises in importance for her child. If Dad invites his son to play cards, then card shuffling and math skills rise in importance for his child.
That’s where parental engagement can have the biggest impact: in providing motivational support for the instruction, and direct involvement in the practice that children need to master their reading and writing skills. It takes years to learn to read and write properly. Most children simply do not have the self-motivation to stick with the task in the face of attractive alternatives like TV and video games. When parents get involved, children follow.
Case Study
James is a 6th-grade student at a middle school in an urban school in Georgia. Despite being a bright and curious child, he has struggled with reading from an early age. At the beginning of the school year, his teacher noticed that James was reading at a second-grade level. He stumbled over basic words, had difficulty understanding texts, and often seemed frustrated and disengaged during reading lessons. His mother, Lisa, who works long hours at a local factory, was concerned about his academic progress but didn’t know how to help him.
The school's reading specialist suggested that Lisa and James try a family learning software program designed to improve literacy skills. This software uses a range of engaging, interactive tools to make reading enjoyable for children, including animated stories, phonics games, and activities that are tailored to each child's reading level. The program also encourages parental involvement by providing tips and activities for parents to use with their children.
Lisa decided to commit to using the software with James for 30 minutes every evening after dinner. Initially, James was reluctant. He found reading challenging and often became discouraged when he struggled with words. However, the software's interactive features quickly captured his attention. The program started with simple, engaging stories filled with colorful illustrations, followed by short quizzes that reinforced comprehension. As James correctly answered questions or read sentences fluently, he earned rewards like digital stickers and badges, which motivated him to keep going.
The program also included phonics exercises and word games that helped James recognize common patterns in words and improve his decoding skills. With Lisa’s encouragement and support, James gradually began to enjoy the sessions. The family learning software also provided Lisa with guided prompts and discussion questions to ask James, allowing her to actively participate in the learning process, even though she wasn’t a reading expert.
Over the next few months, James began to make noticeable progress. His teacher observed that he was more willing to read aloud in class and seemed more confident in his reading abilities. His decoding skills improved significantly, and he began to understand and enjoy stories more deeply. The software's progress tracking showed that he was steadily advancing through the reading levels.
By the end of the school year, James had improved his reading to a fourth-grade level. While still not at grade level, he was much closer and more motivated than before. Lisa felt empowered, too, knowing she had been able to support her son’s learning. The family learning software had not only improved James’s reading skills but also fostered a positive attitude towards reading and learning, turning a challenging experience into an opportunity for growth and connection.
The Research
The research shows a wide range of measured benefits for all participants in family learning programs. Children's achievement in school and general knowledge improves, their oral language development accelerates, their math achievement improves, and their social skills, self-esteem, and attitudes toward school improve. Parents' attitudes about education improve, their knowledge about parenting options and child development increases, they enhance their employment status or job satisfaction, and they become more involved in schools. Families become emotionally closer, which creates a more supportive home environment, and they read more and engage in more literate behaviors at home.
A meta-analysis in 2015 examined the relationship between learning outcomes of children and educational involvement of parents during a unique period of early childhood education and early elementary education based on 100 independent effect sizes from 46 studies. Learning outcomes are academic achievement, and frameworks of parental involvement measure family involvement and partnership development. The relationship (with adjustment over frameworks and study features) indicated a strong and positive correlation (.509) between learning outcomes and parental involvement. The role of parents (family involvement) was more important than the role of schools and communities.
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