School districts explore ways to increase parent involvement

School officials know, through research and reasoning, that parent/family involvement is important in successfully educating students.

But finding ways to increase that involvement is difficult for school officials, who seek parents’ ever-narrowing windows of time, whether for on-site volunteer work or for assignment help at home.

“Parent involvement is both important and difficult to measure,” said Horry County Schools Superintendent Cindy Elsberry, who said that involvement sometimes is measured by visible participation, such as attendance at events and work in parent-teacher organizations.

“The more difficult aspect to measure is the quality of the involvement and what impact it has a on a child’s education,” she said.A parent group in Charleston County recently recommended that families there be required to volunteer eight hours a year, for which they would receive a Family Partnership Report. The report would give one of two grades: “highly engaged” for those who complete their hours, and “emerging” for those who don’t contribute.

The plan has its critics in Charleston, and some in Horry County don’t consider it a workable plan.

“I agree that there are some parents who don’t do anything and some who do everything, but everyone doesn’t have the time,” said Rhonda Todd, whose son attends Myrtle Beach Intermediate School. “I’ll go on some field trips and things like that, but I have some flexibility.”

Todd is self-employed as a nail technician and said she can arrange to do some things, but having a full-time job is what keeps her from volunteering more.

Elsberry agreed that many parents have employment commitments, but “we should not suggest they are not involved with their child.”

While she is not sure that mandatory volunteers are the right answer, she said the district wants its volunteers to enjoy being there, working with students, which thousands of parents already do in PTOs and booster clubs, on advisory boards and School Improvement Councils, and as “the backbones” of special events and charitable projects.

Elsberry cited the Covey Leadership Initiative and the work of Jamie Vollmer as recent touchstones that are producing interest in two Horry County attendance areas.

The Covey initiative, which is based on Stephen Covey’s book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” is in place in all five Myrtle Beach schools. It gives students tools for academic success and good citizenry, and involves everyone in the schools, from teachers to custodians, so they all use the same terms and messages.

Parents and community members also are getting on board with a community book study of Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families.” Diana Greene, whose 8-year-old daughter attends Myrtle Beach Elementary School, is leading the group of 23 families, who have signed up to participate in once-a-month meetings through April.

“We talked about this in PTO and the School Improvement Committee as a way to learn the language [of the Covey program], because they hear it from the children,” Greene said. “[The Myrtle Beach schools] give us so many ways to get involved, and this is just another way [in] for the parents.”

Janis Gatewood is a curriculum specialist at Ocean Bay Elementary School and is assisting Greene with the book study as part of a university class project. A mother of two boys, she said the seven habits work for all ages and studying them as a family can help make the family unit more cohesive.

“It develops the relationships, and with this, the kids are the experts helping the parents,” she said.

Parents and community members in the Conway attendance area also are being reinvigorated by a recent visit with Vollmer, a public schools advocate and author of “Schools Cannot Do It Alone.” Vollmer stresses that change in schools can only happen with the permission of the community. He met with Conway parents and community members in December, and they now are coming together to study his work and discuss how to build greater support for their schools.

Elsberry said these types of conversations are key to the district’s success.

“Schools must constantly think and rethink how to communicate and engage parents in ways that are positive and inviting,” she said, “and in doing so, provide a menu of opportunities that allow parents … a venue to share their child’s educational experience in a meaningful way.”