What can parents do to help their kids succeed at school? What kind of parent involvement really makes a difference? Watch and listen to this webinar featuring expert Carl Corter ~ accompanied by the People for Education team. The webinar was recorded on April 3rd, 2012 Download the Parent Involvement Toolkit free on our website.

1. Beyond the school council:
Parent involvement that makes
a difference
Professor Carl Corter,
Ontario Institute for Studies in
Education / University of Toronto

2. About
Carl Corter
Professor Carl Corter is a leading expert on
parenting and parent involvement in schools.
During his time at the Ontario Institute for
Studies in Education, he has served as Dean and
as Director of the Institute for Child Study. He
has conducted highly influential research about
school-based, integrated children’s services,
including the Toronto First Duty project.

3. Agenda
Agenda:
• Parent involvement matters
• What matters most: high expectations, talking
about school, developing positive attitudes
and work habits, reading with children
• Schools can make a difference: outreach,
invitations and two-way communication
• Questions?

4. Parent involvement matters
Parent involvement matters
Thirty years of research show parents’
involvement in their children’s education has
significant impact on children’s academic and
developmental goals.
BUT
Not all parent involvement is equally useful,
and there is limited evidence for specific
programs of parent involvement.
So what do we know?

5. Two types of parent involvement
• Home-based
activities and attitudes
• School-based activities

6. Home-based activities
More important than limiting TV time, or
monitoring homework, four things parents do
make the biggest difference:
•Have high expectations
•Talk with their children about school
•Help develop positive attitudes
and work habits
•Reading to and with their children

7. High expectations
• When parents communicate that they expect
their children to succeed, children and youth
do better

8. Talk about school
• Levels of home discussion are consistent across
racial groups, family structure, and social class
• EQAO: only 38% of grade 6
students report they talk to
a parent or guardian every day
about school
• Teachers - give parents
something to talk about!

9. Positive attitudes and work habits
• Parents’ critical influence on school success is
found in how they shape their children’s
attitudes, sense of personal competence, and
work habits
• Not “teaching” children
• A major research review showed parents’
involvement in children’s homework had
“neglible to nonexistent” effects

10. Reading together
• Read for joy!
• Read in any language!
• EQAO: Only 21% of
Ontario children in grade 3
report that they read together with a parent
or guardian every day or almost every day

11. Schools can make a difference
Schools can make a difference
• Evidence clearly shows that school practices
can make a difference, but it’s less about
‘programs’ and more about outreach,
communication, collaboration and building
relationships.

12. Invitations
Parents are more likely to get involved with
school when they receive invitations to get
involved from teachers, or through students
•Send home questions to start conversations about
what happened at school today
•Consider assignments that require students to ask an
adult at home questions
•Ask parents to watch TV with their child and discuss

13. Two-way communication

14. Try to find out what
parents want and need
to help their child
succeed

15. Effective outreach
improves school-
wide achievement –
but teachers need a
menu of ways to
communicate

16. Take advantage of school
activities and events –
parent teacher interviews,
concerts, or celebrations -
to build connections and
trust

17. Questions from participants:
•Is there research on building school culture?
•How do we reach parents?
•Information re: surveying students to find out if they
feel they have someone to talk to at home – then
communicating results to parents
•Discussion about the variety of methods you can use
to reach parents
Get the free Parent Involvement Toolkit
www.peopleforeducation.ca

18. About P4E
People for Education is an independent
charitable organization working to support
public education in Ontario's English,
Catholic and French schools. We believe
that public education has the capacity to
transform and enrich children's lives, and
is the foundation of a civil society.