PTA: The Power of Parents

by FamilyEducation Staff

Brought to FEN by National PTA®

More than just the latest education buzz-phrase, parent involvement is the century-old foundation of the National PTA.

The word is out about parent involvement. Educators, administrators, academics, parents-even the mass media-all have been awakened to the overwhelming positive effect parent involvement can have on students' academic performance. Beyond its value in the school setting, parent involvement can yield benefits to children and families that affect every aspect of their lives, today and into the future. By strengthening their involvement in their children's education, parents not only are helping their kids succeed in the classroom, they're also solidifying the bonds that keep their families and schools strong.

The PTA: Parents at Work
In the effort to promote the power of parents in improving children's performance in school, the National PTA produced its National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs in 1997. This effort crystallized the significance of parent involvement in a form that ties it directly into the standards movement in education reform. But the National PTA's commitment to parent involvement is something that far predates the explosion of public awareness over the past few years. The name "Parent-Teacher Association" spells out the essential home-school partnership that has been the basis of the PTA's work for over 100 years. Parent involvement is key to the PTA's very existence, its fundamental purpose.

Parent Involvement Today
Today the term "parent involvement" encompasses the many different ways parents and families can be involved in their children's learning. In the broadest terms, this ranges from parents' reading and reviewing homework with their children to their taking an active role in reform efforts at their local schools. When parents are more involved in their children's learning and their schools, their children experience a broad variety of benefits in terms of academic performance, confidence, and self-esteem. And in the school environment, everyone-administrators and teachers as well as parents and children-benefits from the improved communication and clearer understanding of shared goals that comes when parents are more involved.

This may seem like an obvious conclusion; after all, the PTA has built a nationwide organization of more than six million members based on their shared belief in the importance of parents' involvement in their children's education. This commonsense assumption has now been borne out by the work of education researchers studying schools and children's learning. In more than 85 studies performed over a period of 30 years, researchers have documented the profound and comprehensive benefits for students, families, and schools when parents and family members become active participants in their children's education.

Setting the Standard
Built upon this research and the six types of parent involvement identified by Joyce L. Epstein of the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University, the National PTA developed the National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs. These program standards are to be used in conjunction with other national standards and reform initiatives to maximize children's potential in school and in life.

In the short period of time since the National Standards were introduced, they have already been making an impact on schools around the country. As of this writing, at least eight states are pursuing standards-related efforts to promote parent involvement. The entire Chicago Public School system -- the third largest in the United States -- has adopted the standards and passed a resolution requiring parent involvement policies and programs at each of its 559 schools.

As more people become aware of the power of parent involvement to help students, the National PTA will be working to help them maximize its benefits for children. By linking parents and teachers, families and schools, the PTA itself is a monument to the enduring achievements that can result from parent involvement. Its unique history and character, and the sweep of its involvement in helping to improve the lives of children, make the PTA our greatest national resource for tapping the power of parents.

Source: The December 1998-January 1999 issue of Our Children, the official magazine of the National PTA.