Parents and families are children’s first teachers. Throughout their lives, we are their primary guides and protectors, so it is crucial that we also become involved in their education while they are in school. Whether we are grandparents, foster parents, single parents or part of a two-parent household, we already know that we should be attending back-to-school nights, parent-teacher conferences, and making sure that our children are at school on time and in class.

Many of us do a little bit more, such as participating in fundraisers for our schools, volunteering at school events, and even spending time helping our students’ teachers in the classroom. We are more than willing to do as much as we can to help our children’s school. But too often, it is the case that the public school system is not really set up to transform family involvement into student success. I know of many parents, myself included, who have volunteered to stuff weekly folders with school newsletters and graded homework. But is this really the most that our public school system can do to involve us?

We can do better. Fortunately, there is a growing movement among parents to reform the systems within public schools to translate our involvement into higher achievement for all students, not just the few with super active daddies and mommies. The recent past focus on catering to the few parents who have access to the limited information and costly transportation to drive their kids to a “good” school across town is now being replaced by parents who are neighborhood public school advocates. In order for this change to grow and continue, we need to move beyond mere parent and family involvement and move toward substantive parent and family engagement.

Real parent engagement systems require and facilitate parental participation in the four areas of accountability and administration of a school district, in ways that raise the level of academic results. These four areas are information and training; curriculum; governance; and assessment and evaluation. This enables parents and families to partner with educators in order to have a significant impact on overall student achievement for all of the children in a school system.

Recognizing the power of parent and family engagement, I’ve used the knowledge and experiences I gained during my time at the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition to help bring this movement to Denver Public Schools. In the last year, I have pushed to establish the DPS Office of Family Engagement to advance the issue of systemic reform toward parent engagement. I’m also proud to note that one of my colleagues from the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition, Patsy Roybal, is directing this new office.

Lately, the issue of parent and family engagement has gained more attention as school leaders are beginning to recognize the high returns to be enjoyed as a result of investing in the parents in their schools. Training parents on child development, communication, and leadership is one strategy that changes the dynamic of parental participation and affects student achievement. Training parents on the objectives and goals of the classroom is another effective strategy. Teachers have often said to their principals that parent volunteers who don’t understand the content or the curriculum are often cumbersome, because the teacher then has to take time to direct and train the parent while also trying to teach 25 or 30 children. By contrast, having a parent who understands the objectives and goals of the classroom becomes an asset instead of a hindrance.

Utilizing training programs that train parents to train other parents provides a return on investment that sustains itself economically beyond the initial investment as well. I can personally attest to the value of high-quality parent training programs. I was fortunate enough to experience the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition’s “Los Padres/ Las Madres” program, which empowers parents to be more actively involved in our children’s learning and development. My wife Angelina has also participated in this kind of training, and is currently coordinating the “School Readiness: Three Step Process” training program at Academia Ana Maria Sandoval, where our daughters attend school.

In addition to training parents and families on how to be effective school volunteers, we must also make sure that we are helping parents and families to help students with their academic work. Curriculum design and content must be accessible to parents in order to allow them to help with homework, assist students in understanding the schools’ academic goals and hold students accountable. Merely asking families to provide a time and place in the home for the student to complete homework is not enough. Our school system must also take responsibility for empowering parent engagement in academics when we make choices about curriculum design and selection. If parents are not a part of this process, even the most educated parents will struggle to help their kids inside or outside of the classroom.

It can be difficult for educational leaders to share decision-making power with families. But effective school and district leaders realize that in order for meaningful change to occur, we need the participation of parents, families and community members who live in and support the community around the school. To that end, I recently testified on behalf of State Representative Crisanta Duran’s (D- HD5) successful parent engagement bill, HB 1126. The bill, now a law, will facilitate information sharing and parental participation in decisions around school turnaround efforts. True engagement from parents, family and community– which includes holding true decision-making power– improves the quality of our decision-making process, and holds school systems accountable for fair and effective use of community resources.

Speaking of accountability, we must never overlook the need for meaningful parent and family input in the evaluation of our schools and school system. We have a lot of work to do to improve this process. Too often, parent satisfaction surveys have been badly administered, and poor handling of this survey process has actually hurt the overall success of schools as measured by our School Performance Framework. But there are promising new improvements, like teacher-parent visitation programs such as the model used in the Sacramento City School District, and the home visit program I recently recognized, at Denver’s own Fairview Elementary School. Programs like these are proving to be very cost effective and essential in providing information, building rapport and evaluating how well the school is accomplishing their overall goals by facilitating the parent-teacher partnership in education.

Overall, school leaders are beginning to understand the benefits of having parental engagement. When parents exhibit a high level of ownership, we are not only able to raise funds at the bake sale, but we can also assist educators in meaningful ways that help all students learn. As a school board member, I have supported and continue to support these efforts, and I look forward to helping Denver Public Schools create more opportunities for meaningful parent and family engagement in the future.

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