The Home School Link Between Home And School

Noel, A., Stark, P., Redford, J. (2013). Parent and Family Involvement in Education, From the National Household Education Surveys Program of 2012 (NCES 2013-028), National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch.

An obstacle I have witnessed in my school is the lack of parental involvement. Throughout this year, I believe the parents' investment in their children education has been disheartening. I can say in my own classroom, nearly one-third of student’s parents have no idea how they are doing in school academically. About one-sixth of student’s parents don’t sign daily agendas or notes that are sent home. Only about one-fifth of parents consistently attend school programs. My biggest concern is that too many parents are disengaged. Parent involvement can indeed make a difference in a child’s education. Students would perform better academically and behaviorally if their

Lack of money, health insurance, and other poverty related issues have also led to lower academic performance among children in poverty. In David Berliner’s Letter to The President, he explains how “medical problems are harming student learning in our schools” (252). Since poor children may not have health insurance, or their families may not have the funds to see a doctor, poorer children miss more school due to illness. Also, more children in poverty come from single parent homes, which leaves numerous children on their own after school. In fact, “three fourths of all single mothers are in the labor force” which means there happens to be usually nobody at home to assist poor children with their homework, or help them study for tests

1.) What roles do you believe the teacher, the parent, and the child play in a child’s education? A. The teacher should be the one to provide an outline of what the child should be learning in school and help to reinforce the tools the child uses to learn. Teachers need to introduce the topics, including different ways to help the student understand the concept being taught.

Median-incomes have decreased over time, leaving the majority of families living in the middle to low-income class (Stiglitz, 2014). These families face more than financial challenges. Parents in lower-income households, like the families at Sweetser, must work longer hours to earn enough money for a living. This affects the level of care they can provide, such as preparing food and spending quality time with their children . This has a negative impact on children’s behavior, ability to learn, and emotional development (Warner, 2014).

Children from low-income homes tend to fall academically behind more advantaged peers from the upper and middle classes. Once this gap has formed, it is difficult to recover, so it is important to address the issue as early as when children are in preschools (Gorski, P. C., 2007). Parent involvement is a major indicator for child success. Parent involvement in a child’s education conveys the message that school is a valued institution and learning is important to their family. Research shows that children who have actively involved parents in their education demonstrated positive learning outcomes in literacy. Additionally, when parents are actively involved, they may establish a trusting and understanding relationship with teachers in which home culture and values can be shared and expanded upon at school (Sawyer, M., 2015). A partnership school is focused on building relationships with families, building connections with families and the community, addressing differences between families home lives and viewpoints, supporting parents advocating for their children, and sharing the control over the children’s learning. Some examples of how to create a partnership school are through honoring families contributions, creating a family center that has learning materials for families, creating projects for families to do with their children, and having opportunities for parents and teachers to look at student work together. This may also include sharing information about the

Overall, the lack of parental involvement due to a low economic status reduces high expectations for children due to the lack of financial and relationship stability. According to Osborne and Ankrum (2015), low-income families reduce material hardship significantly by creating parental stress, alter positive parenting, decreasing parental involvement, which lower cognitive ability and social skills. In addition, financial support from parents is needed to provide the highest level for cognitive development and social skills. The lack of financial support decreases parental involvement in the child’s development, such as shared activities, helping and guiding homework sessions. In conclusion, the more time a parent invests in their children rather than being at work, increases their child’s academic success, reduce levels of delinquency, and promote social and emotional well being (Osborne & Ankrum, 2015).

In accordance with the article, children who attend to early childhood programs and parents who are involved in their children 's activities have more possibilities for success at school than others who do not attend to these programs. According to Taylor, Gibbs, and Slate “disadvantaged children who attended preschool experienced greater subsequent success in early elementary grades than students who did not attend preschool”. In addition, parents working together with teachers reinforce at home children’s education. Therefore, children who parents are interested in their academic results make children feel secure and happy to attend school. Parents intervening at their children’s education help teachers to create children more responsible and interesting to learn more.

It was said that poverty decreases a child's readiness for school through health, home style and education. Children from low-income families do not get the good stimulation and do not learn the social requirements to prepare them for school. Children from low-income families face increased risk factors in their educational life. Poverty can affect children’s brain development and the ability to complete a good education and to develop a relationship with peers. In 2010, a limit on income $22,314 for a family of four, there was a fifteen percent of families that fell below the poverty line. For a single-parent household the rate was 42.2 percent of poverty. Poverty affects children’s interest in schools and their overall happiness. If a parent doesn’t show up to their child’s conference about how well they are doing school that can have a lot of effect because the parent needs to know how their child is doing in school,

Summary: Michael Romanowski wrote an article called "Common Arguments about the Strengths and Limitations of Home schooling." Home schooling is continuing to grow rapidly in many places. He explains that home schooling serves children equally well as public schools. Romanowski supports the main idea by giving claims that home schooling helps a child improve their social skills, children who are homeschooled are more likely to become academically successful, a student is not put on time limit and they are not told to put everything up and focus on a new topic. Home schooling allows children to learn to socialize with older people and stills allows them to socialize outside of their home with community activities. When the parents are closely involved in the student's academic work

Homeschooling disproves all the arguments above. Jeub affirms that parents are not their child 's main educator, but their child learns independently because of his desire to learn. No matter how qualified parents are, homeschooled children have proven to excel academically. Also, homeschooling allows children to learn at their own pace. Every curriculum is designed for a specific child. Individualized learning allows all children 's needs to be met. Homeschooling gives freedom to learn at their own level unlike public schools, where every child must learn a set curriculum in order to keep up with the class. In response to the argument that homeschooled children spend too much time with their parents, they actually have positive relationships with their parents and other adults in the community. Instead of looking at adults as disciplinarians, many view adults as their mentors as their jobs, other home school parents, or family friends. Lisa Revero adds that homeschooling provides an environment for the family to learn and live together harmoniously and frequently unlike a traditionally schooled family where spending family time is often rare. Life revolves around jobs, endless carpools, sports games, and play practice, leaving little time for the family to

Collective research focusing on family-school partnerships provide an extensive examination of parent involvement. Smith et al., (2011) referred to parent involvement as school, family, and community partnerships for the purpose of shared expectations, responsibilities, interests, and correlating influences of family, school, and community. Epstein’s (2008) framework of parent involvement approached parent involvement typologies from an institutional perspective; the framework for this literature review was conducted with a parental perspective that may positively affect academic achievement among students in 6th – 12th grades attending high poverty, rural schools. An explanation of Epstein’s six categories of parent involvement follows:

Henderson and Mapp (2002) suggests that research strongly supports the notion that parent involvement has a positive and lasting effect on student performance and academic success. Yet, an increasing number of parents have developed a mindset that they are incompetent and unable to assist their child when it comes to academics and school related activities (Forman, 2006). Unfortunately, parents of disadvantaged students attending high poverty schools are more likely to believe they cannot assist their child academically and are less involved as compared to their counterparts attending low poverty schools (Cotton & Wikelund, 2001).

Poverty affects a family in a number of ways, and a large portion of a child’s life that is directly affected by poverty is the child’s education. Education starts at home, and it is heavily researched and proven that poverty decreases a child’s preparation for school. Poverty increases risk factors and decreases opportunities. Low-income households often have problems with parental consistency, supervision, and support both within their family microsystem and the child’s mesosystem and exosystem. Children from low-income families often have issues with poor health, attentiveness, motivation, and insecurities. All of these impact the child’s social skills and readiness to attend school and

Although some research shows that home schooled children have higher levels of self esteem and are friendlier than those who attend public schools, I honestly believe that the outcome of home schooled children falls on the parent’s decisions throughout the child’s home schooling career. If the parent chooses proper extracurricular activities and has their children attend social events, then it can affect the child in positive ways. Whereas if the parent chooses not to have their child participate in social activities, then it can negatively affect the child’s social levels and self esteem levels.