PARENT ENGAGEMENT IN A PLC

Kyle Palmer

History has shown us that oftentimes parent communities and school communities are at odds or disconnected. This was true prior to the COVID pandemic and even truer now. After two years of slamming the door to our parents and not allowing them into our schools, the need to reengage with our parent community is more important than ever!

Instead of parent enragement , we need more parent engagement!

I had the wonderful opportunity to serve as principal of Lewis and Clark Elementary in Liberty, Missouri, for 10 years, and for most of those years, I had at least one of my children attending school with me. What an amazing experience that was. In addition to being able to see their smiling faces throughout the day, I also felt a heightened sense of responsibility to do all I could to lead a school that was providing them with the best opportunities to learn and grow. is was true not only for my children but for everyone’s children. It was during this experience of wearing both parent and educator hats that I discovered how crucial it was to unite our parent and school communities to serve our students as one. It was the parents’ school too!

Higher Ed Dive (2019) reports that of the 1,000 primary teachers across the United States who participated in the 2019 State of Parental Engagement survey, 55 percent stated they did not understand the importance of parental involvement in the classroom. In addition, 54 percent believed that education was the teacher’s job, not a collaboration between parents and teachers. It may seem noble that these teachers are owning their professional obligations to ensure students learn, but they are doing so at the expense of understanding the need to involve parents in the journey. In fact, parents can and need to be used as a prized and plentiful resource.

As an educator, I see daily how important it is for schools and families to work together. Whether it was during my time as a teacher, as a principal, or as a human resources director, the lack of connection between teachers and educators was evident. All students deserve what I call a strong parentship.

Parentship Defined

If you are thinking that parentship is a made-up word, you are correct! I de ne parentship as the state of having a trusting and robust collaboration between parents and educators, with an intentional focus on student growth. In a PLC, a parentship better leverages parents’ in uence on their children’s learning in the collaborative culture by equipping parents with the tools necessary for them to make a positive impact. A parentship is a more speci c way to focus on the dynamic, powerful partnership between parents and educators that is critical to student success. Parentships include a student’s parent, guardian or caregiver, or another adult who is working to help improve the student’s success in school and life.

In 2017, I left Lewis and Clark to serve in a new role as a human resources director. About this time, our youngest child, Kau man, was set to start his journey at Lewis and Clark. Kau man was unlike our older three children. From an early age, Kau man struggled with his language and speech. My wife saw this early on. I was in denial; I refused to see how much Kau man was struggling. My wife helped me see our current reality with Kau man, and we started to take the proper steps to try to get him help. As a teacher and principal for many years, I had sat through a few hundred IEP meetings. It wasn’t until I sat there, at a table with several educators, talking about my son and not someone else’s, that I truly understood the need for a strong parentship at Lewis and Clark Elementary. I had to ask myself, Did I do a good enough job creating a strong parentship in my years as principal?

Parentship Strategies

I truly feel like most schools want to have a strong parentship with their parent community. e challenge is to know exactly how to create a relationship so strong that parents and educators feel like they are on the same page with respect to how best to support students. Following are a few strategies that are sure to help you create your own parentship.

In an e ort to support students and families in making postsecondary decisions and to help ensure your high school graduates are looking at college options, you can organize student panels to provide more vital information to families. As we all know, many students and families struggle with these types of decisions. While the school counseling team can handle nancial aid and admissions questions, with this strategy, families can seek feedback from former students who have recently graduated and had similar experiences. Another strategy to build your parentship is to establish schoolwide norms. Just as those in collaborative teacher teams should establish behavioral norms for interactions within and outside the group, schools should determine norms for parent meetings and schoolwide events. It is always best to be explicit about your expectations of others.

You’ll need to lay out norms for:

• Meetings between teachers and parents or guardians

• Meetings between the principal and parents or guardians

• Interactions between front-o ce sta and parents or guardians

• Phone conversations between teachers and parents or guardians

• Phone conversations between the principal and parents or guardians

Another great strategy that I nd highly e ective is “Heroes in the Home.” e heroes-in-the-home strategy has two purposes. e rst is to celebrate diversity among students and families, which can lead to further conversations about racial equity. e second is to draw the connection between students and their parents so the former see the latter as positive role models, which will strengthen relationships within the family. Note that grandparents, aunts and uncles, and adult mentors close to the family can be heroes in the home as well. To implement this strategy, teachers will need to designate a wall in the classroom as a parent wall. Students then bring in pictures of their heroes to display on the wall. is strategy will work at any level— elementary, middle, or high school. In their lesson planning, teachers should include time for students to share throughout the week or month. Do not feel the need to have all students share at one time. It is best to spread out the heroesin-the-home discussions so that they can lead to conversations about racial equity throughout the whole year. To enhance learning for all the students, parents can also visit the classroom during these times.

First impressions are important to making sure each parent feels welcome whenever they enter the school. Parents rst come in contact with the front-o ce sta . To make sure this is a positive rst encounter, develop a front-o ce creed.

It is imperative that the front o ce be a warm, caring, and highly functioning area of your school. One way that parents judge the e ectiveness and impact of your school is by their experiences in the front o ce or on the phone with front-o ce sta . In K12 Insight’s 2019 State of K–12 Customer Experience Report, researchers nd that building trust is the most important foundation for a successful community relationship. In addition, the report states that an ongoing and systemic approach to building a customerservice culture is what generates trust and, in turn, public con dence. e building administration team, or those in charge of districtwide professional development, should carry out the training for front-o ce sta . Don’t forget, treating your front-o ce sta with care allows them to better care for others. is strategy involves front-o ce sta working together to create their own front-o ce creed, which will guide them in their daily work with the school and parent communities. Try to schedule two or three meetings with front-ofce sta , before school starts if possible, to collaboratively work together to create the creed. e rst step is to make sure everyone knows what the purpose of the creed is and how to create it. e next step is to brainstorm ideas. After you brainstorm ideas, put words to paper and create a rough draft of your o ce creed. Take a week or two to re ect and think about your creed. en meet one nal time to nalize the creed. Finally, create copies of the creed and a product to hang on your wall for all to see.

Because of the critical need for a warm, inviting atmosphere in the front o ce, sta must meet certain standards. Front-o ce sta primarily include administrative assistants, though sometimes other sta work from the front o ce, and behavioral expectations apply across the board. ere is no doubt that operating in this area can be di cult, but the front o ce sets the tone for the building, contributing signi cantly to the culture and climate. Do not underestimate the need for positive, e ective customer service in the front o ce.

If you would like to learn about more amazing strategies to help you and your school build your very own parentship, check out my book Parentships in a PLC

References

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T. W., & Mattos, M. (2016). Learning by doing: A handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (3rd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Higher Ed Dive. (2019). Majority of primary school teachers say parents don’t understand the importance of classroom, teacher engagement. Retrieved from https://www.highereddive.com /press-release/20190624-majority-of-primary-school-teachers -say-parents-dont-understand-the-import/.

K12 Insight. (2019). K–12 leaders believe customer service is key to establishing trust, even though schools lack vital training and resources to meet community needs. Retrieved from https://www.k12insight.com/k12-insight-releases-full-2019 -state-of-customer-experience-report/.

Palmer, K. (2022). Parentships in a PLC: Forming and sustaining school-home relationships with families. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Discussion Questions

1. What is a parentship, and why is it important?

2. What are the di erences between parental involvement and parental engagement?

3. What strategies can your PLC employ to create a successful parentship?