Family involvement in school and classroom settings can aid in creating a better learning environment for children and is crucial for academic achievement. Family involvement within a classroom is often the first step at bridging the gap between home and school life for most students. Children’s attitudes, personalities, and identities are formed through and connected to their families. When students enter the classroom, they bring their family and their background, through their identity, with them. By including families into the classroom, students have a better understanding of where their learning and their home lives intersect. This allows students to make connections and enhance their learning in the classroom.
More importantly, family presence within the classroom gives children a sense of safety and security. When children can recognize their families within the classroom, they are able to accept the classroom as a safe space, allowing learning to occur. Family involvement is not strictly parent volunteers or classroom parents. Family presence can be as simple as a family gallery of pictures of students and their families. Allowing students to recognize not only themselves, but their families and loved ones, in the classroom creates a sense of familiarity within the space. It is important that the classroom is a nurturing space for children to feel accepted, welcomed, and at home in.
Teachers can also foster parental and family involvement outside of the classroom. Families can be invested in the classroom both physically in the school setting, and at home through their interactions and engagement with their child. In connecting home and school, one way to ensure parents are involved in their student’s academic and personal growth and progress is through monitoring of school achievement and actively seeking opportunities for growth and success in students. When teachers and parents work together to communicate student progress and achievement, students are given greater opportunities to succeed. Parents and families are the number one advocate for students. When parents and teachers can actively communicate and foster learning together, student achievement is higher. Parental involvement at home plays a significant role in student success and progress in school.
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