WILMINGTON, MA – Wilmington School Superintendent Mary DeLai published her weekly blog post yesterday, encouraging parents to get more involved in their children’s education. She also asks parents who the district can improve parent and family engagement. Read her post, in its entirety, below:
The vision of Wilmington Public Schools is to become a high-performing school district. In so doing, we ensure that our students receive a world class education that best prepares them for their college and career experiences. High performing districts are clear about what students are expected to learn, provide the instructional tools and resources necessary for students to master those standards, and are responsive to students’ academic and non-academic needs. They also support staff by providing high quality opportunities for professional learning and growth. However, one often overlooked component of high performing districts is a high level of parent and family engagement.
A vast amount of research shows that one of the keys to the success of students is the engagement of parents and families in the education of their children. Parental involvement in school correlates with higher student achievement. Family and parent engagement is so important to the success of students and schools that federal and state regulations often mandate actions designed to increase this engagement. While engagement tends to wane as students get older, family engagement is just as important at the secondary level as it is in the early grades.
So what exactly does strong parent and family engagement look like? Essentially, there are three layers of engagement – what you do at home to help your child be successful at school, what you do to help at your child’s school be successful, and what you do to ensure that all schools in your community are successful.
There are many things that parents can do at home to support their child’s education. Research shows that reading to your child, encouraging your child to read, and discussing with your child what they are reading are the most important things you can do at home to help your child be successful. Study after study show that students whose parents read to them every day when they were young performed better than those whose parents did not read to them regularly.
Parental involvement in schools is also indicative of strong family engagement. From volunteering to assist in schools and classrooms to becoming a member of your school’s Advisory Council, getting involved is being engaged. True engagement is about creating relationships with your child’s teacher, principal, other parents and families, and your child’s peers. Engagement involves learning about the standards being taught in your child’s classroom, attending open houses and parent conferences, and asking questions about expectations for student learning. Engagement means partnering with school staff to support both the academic and the social emotional needs of your child.
Strong engagement also entails understanding and supporting the vision and mission of the district, modelling our core values at home and in the community, and being familiar with the strategic objectives and priorities of the district – knowing the challenges that our schools and our district face and working to support us in addressing those challenges.
In the months ahead, we will work hard to strengthen parent and family engagement in our schools as we continue our journey to excellence. We invite you to partner with us. We offer many opportunities for involvement and engagement. From fundraisers and parent conferences to Advisory Council meetings and parent education nights, our hope is that our parents and families will find a way to increase their engagement with their child’s education, school, and district. At this time of the year, when administrators and educators are setting their professional goals and school and district improvement goals, we invite our parents and families to set a goal to become more involved and engaged. Be sure to read those Blackboard notification emails as well as our school and district newsletters and weblogs. Follow us on social media or just check out our website on a regular basis. If you have suggestions as to how we can improve parent and family engagement, let us know – send us an email, post a comment here or on our other social media sites, or just give us a call.
Thank you for all you do to help us help your children learn and grow. We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you in our schools this year!
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