Parental involvement called key to learning

BYLINE: Paul Thissen AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF  
DATE: May 14, 2006
PUBLICATION: Austin American-Statesman (TX)

Most Wednesdays, nearly a hundred students swarm Erika Brown minutes after the final bell at Bryker Woods Elementary School.

She doesn't work at the school, but she said she knows the names of 99 percent of the members of a chess club she started.

Brown is one of a slew of active parents at Bryker Woods, where the PTA has about one leadership position for every six students, and parents are on the campus every day to help monitor the lunchroom, read to students and help teachers, Principal Artie Arce said.

Research has shown that parental involvement in education, both at school and home, helps students learn better and develop socially and intellectually.

Although Bryker Woods, in Central Austin, teems with parent volunteers, other Austin schools struggle to lure parents who are busy with jobs and other demands.

Arce said Bryker Woods is lucky.

"In other parts of the district, you don't have that luxury," he said. "Parents work. They're just trying to make ends meet."

Across town at Norman Elementary School in far East Austin, Principal Cornel Jones must work with parents to solve problems with city services - road paving, trash removal and street light installation - before he can think about the educational issues.

"I'm pleased with the level of involvement our parents have in their children's lives," Jones said. "You just have to work harder to get the services your students need."

Parents get involved in after-school activities at Norman Elementary, too. Parents work with teachers to run groups like the Girl Scouts, sewing club, choir and tutoring programs.

But in Bryker Woods, 11 percent of students are economically disadvantaged. At Norman, 92 percent are poor.

Though researchers say more study needs to be done to determine which types of involvement are most beneficial, a study published in 2003 by the Harvard Family Research Project, founded in 1983 at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, concluded that parents' involvement at school could offset certain barriers to academic success.

Particularly, the Harvard study found that the involvement of parents of children from socially or economically disadvantaged families might be related to higher literacy skills at the end of the kindergarten year.

Such research offers hope for Norman Elementary, where 57 percent of third-graders passed the reading portion of the state's achievement test on their first try this year, compared with 88 percent districtwide. About 98 percent of Bryker Woods third-graders passed on their first try this year.

Brown started the chess club at Bryker Woods in November because she wanted her son to have people to play against. She expected a few dozen students. She got more than a hundred.

To keep the kids organized on Wednesday afternoons, she recruited a legion of parent volunteers. About a dozen showed up each week.

"Even the working parents will get off early," she said. "So many parents passionately believe in this chess club."

She also had no trouble collecting $3,000 in donations from parents, allowing students to participate in the club for free. Brown, who with her husband owns two Austin restaurants, spent more than 10 hours each week on the project.

The Austin school district loves parents such as Brown. The primary aim of the district's Family Resource Center is to keep parents involved in their children's education.

"If parents are involved, kids do better," said Fred Estrello, the center's director, citing research done at Johns Hopkins University.

In the resource center, at Allan Elementary School in East Austin, Estrello keeps myriad pamphlets and newsletters about the benefits of active parents. Some are sent to every family in the district; others he pulls out at the request of parents or administrators.

All schools can get their parents involved, he said, some just need to take a different approach. Some principals have gone to apartment complexes to talk to working parents.

"Every school has its own different populations," Estrello said. "Parents are working two or three jobs; they're not going to have that big chunk of time that they can volunteer."

At the beginning of Jones' 16-year tenure at Norman Elementary, he said he just wanted parents to come in and volunteer. Now he sees that he needs to make the school the "hub of the community," he said, based on surveys he distributed to parents.

"Many of the issues (families) face are not school-related, but school can be instrumental," Jones said.

Last year, Norman Elementary brought 35 city departments to the school to meet with parents and solve problems, and the city has responded, he said. It's more work, he said, but more effective than more money.

"It's worth that to me to expend that effort," Jones said.

pthissen@statesman.com; 445-3629