Improving Parent-Teacher Relationships within Latino School Populations

1. TriniLewis Ed.D & Ruth Alfaro Piker, Ph.D California State University, Long Beach Department of Teacher Education Improving Parent-Teacher Relationships withinLatino School Populations California Association for Bilingual Education-CABE Para-professional and Parent Conference Pasadena, California April 24, 2008 Download slides at: http://www.csulb.edu/~tlewis2

2. Ice Breaker(5 minutes) In small groups, please share some of your personal experiences. Parents: • Share how you participate in your child’s education. • How do you communicate with teachers? Para-Professionals: • Share how you communicate with parents. • How do you involve parents in their child’s education? In the school and in the classroom?

3. Historical ShiftsChanges in Expectations of Parental Involvement • Parental Involvement prior to NCLB • Separation between parent and teacher responsibilities. • Research found parental involvement increased children’s overall educational success. • NCLB • Parental involvement is mandated. • Parental Involvement after NCLB • Increased expectations of parental involvement

4. Today’s Realities • Teachers’ Expectations of Parent’s responsibility • Children begin the school day with: • Breakfast • Sufficient rest • Appropriate school attire • Homework is monitored and completed. • Attendance of school and classroom events (i.e., volunteer in the classroom/school, open house, school plays, parent-teacher conferences, etc.) • Participation in school governance. • Increase parental awareness about best practices for improving children’s educational success.

5. Today’s Realities • Parents’ expectations of the teacher’s and their own responsibility. • Teachers are responsible for instructing children in the classroom—the teacher is more knowledgeable! • Parents are responsible for children’s social emotional needs/skills (being bien educado, i.e., well-mannered, respectful, etc.). • Parents are mindful not to intrude or question classroom practices. • Parents view their role as limited: • Helping with fundraising, • Providing classroom materials • Communicating with the teacher about the child’s behavior • Communicating with the school personnel and the classroom teacher only when necessary, which is typically not initiated by the parent.

6. What Happens When there is a Disconnect between the Home and the School? • Misconceptions • Parents perceive teachers as ‘picking’ on their child. • Teachers perceive parents as not caring about their child’s education. • The Blaming Game! • Confusion and conflict emerge about respective roles for improving children’s educational outcomes (i.e., homework, low attendance at open house, parent-teacher conferences, etc.)

7. The Benefits of Parental Involvement • Contribute to their child’s education • Better parental attitudes, understanding and behaviors • Offset adverse effects of certain neighborhood contexts • Gain greater respect • Access to more support and services • Viewed more positively • Considered an equal partner • Meet other parents

8. Parental Involvement at Home and School • At Home • Reading • Talking • Bedtime routines • In the Classroom • Volunteer • Work on things at home • Share your special skills • Read materials sent home • Communicate with the teacher (notes, conferences, oral messages, etc.)

9. Parent-Teacher ConferencesWindows into Home-School Relationships & Parental Involvement

10. Parent-Teacher Conferences Communication that Promotes Mutual Understanding, Accountability and Shared Responsibilities for Improving Children’s Educational Outcomes

11. Parent-Teacher Conferences: The Most Common Form of Parental Involvement! • Provide opportunities for parents and teachers to establish collaborative relationships and work toward common goals for improving children’s education (Epstein,2001,2002; Lightfoot, 2003; Rotter, Robinson, and Fey, 1987, Swap, 1993).

12. Vignette OneLearning about High Stakes Testing (74) T: The exam begins in May. (75) P: May? (76) T: Yes, and it’s going to be difficult. The exam is difficult for the fourth graders who speak English as their native language. But we’re trying to prepare our students so that they will do well. (77) P: And what will happen if he doesn’t pass the exam? (78) T: Nothing. (79) P: I thought he wouldn’t pass fourth grade. (80) T: No. He is going to pass. That’s not it…it’s something the state requires. (81) P: To see how they are doing? (82) T: Yes, okay in this state every student in fourth, eighth, and tenth grade has to take the exam. (83) P: They won’t be able to graduate? (84) T: Yes, in tenth grade if they don’t pass they won’t graduate.

13. Vignette TwoBehavioral Issues-A Lesson in Character Education (1) T: Well…Well, I wanted to say this is a good report card, and I didn’t know he copied. (2) P: I’m sorry for not telling the parents because that happened close to Christmas (3) T: Ah ha, and I told Miguel he has to tell Mommy when things happen. (4) P: It was an activity with a book. A booklet called Finding the Main Idea of a Story. The answers are in the back. (5) T: Oh. (6) P. Okay, they are here. And the children had to work alone. (7) T: Um, what they understood, they had to more or less… (8) P. And I was correcting the papers. I think I was comfortable with the children coming to my desk, so I could correct their sentences. So, I wasn’t paying attention to some of them—not only Miguel. Six or seven were checking— copying the answers. So, you know, I explained that. I told them that was not good. That you can’t learn that way. And what will happen when you have to prove that. (9) T: And I told them that they are not going to learn anything. (10) P: Yes, if he doesn’t know it.

14. Vignette ThreeWork Habit Issues at Home and at School T: I wanted you to come in today to talk to you about Karla’s progress. I find her work is pretty careless. She rushes through things very quickly. She needs to slow down, take her time, and to think things through because I’m finding she’s giving half answers. She’s not answering the whole thing. She’s only answering the first part and she’s not going back to check her work to make sure that it’s the best that it can be so she’s not even going back to look to see if she’s missing anything. Over the past few weeks I’ve had her redo some of her homework because its been extremely messy and lots of carelessness. P: Karla is having some problems because now she’s out of the bilingual program and in an English only class. She reads a lot and does her homework. She reads at home. T: What do you think we can do to help solve this problem? P: What can I do? I don’t know enough English. I help her and my other children with their homework. Sometimes my husband helps her when I can’t help her and I tell her that she was in class and should know how to do it.

15. Collaborative Talk for Mutual Understanding and Accountability-Shared Roles and Responsibilities • What the Teachers Did to Promote Communication Effective Strategies • Reported on specific information about the children’s classroom-based literacy progress and English language acquisition. • Relied on personal experiences to shareparental insights by discussing similar interests, experiences, or beliefs. • Inserted questions about the children’s home and community literacy and English language usesto increase parents’ participation during the conference discussions and to learn more about the children’s literacy and English language acquisition in home and community contexts.

16. Collaborative Talk for Mutual Understanding and Accountability—Shared Roles and Responsibilities • What the Parents Did to Promote Communication: Effective Strategies • Consistently communicated with the teacher prior to the conference through notes, phone calls, informal encounters, and/or messages conveyed by the child. Attended classroom and school-wide events. • Questioned informationabout school and the classroom • Shifted the teacher’s topics to discuss other topics of personal interest. Discussed the monitoring of homework assignments and their extension into other types of activities for reinforcement at home. • Requested clarification of information. Inquired about homework and classroom assignments. • Informed the teacher’s knowledge about the children’s home and community literacy practices. Communicate with the teacher (notes, conferences, oral messages, etc.).

17. Parent-teacher ConferencesCommunication Lacking Mutual Understanding, Accountability & Shared Responsibility

18. Vignette FourBreakdown in Mutual Understanding & Accountability (1) T: Okay, ah Monica is working in a fourth grade book and she is being instructed at a fourth grade level. They do work at a slower pace. They work in more detail um(…). Monica is on grade level in reading which is good news. She has a C through which is not very good and I would like her to have a strong C or even a B. But there’s a couple of things she needs to do to improve her grade. One of them is she needs (…) the first one is she needs to read more at home. (Um (…) she needs to improve her ability to sound out words that she doesn’t know. She knows the sounds and sometimes she doesn’t use what she knows to learn a new word by sounding it out. (2) P: Ah ha (3) T: She also needs to work on improving overall her effort. She doesn’t always try as hard as she should. Sometimes she does, but sometimes she doesn’t. So that’s a weakness that she needs to improve. Along with her decoding skills— sounding out words, she needs to also try to remember vocabulary words. And, Monica forgets them sometimes. Inaudible (announcement over loud speaker) (4) C: I try to remember. (5) T: You need to work a little hard. (6) P: She can’t understand the language maybe sometimes. That’s why. The language is hard. (7) T: Okay, but what she needs to do when she doesn’t understand something she needs to ask for help. You don’t do that a lot. Instead you sit there and you’d rather do nothing and wait for someone to notice that your not doing your work…

19. Separate Roles and Responsibilities: Lack of Mutual Understanding and Accountability • Diagnosed the child’s literacy progress solely on classroom information, providing directives, and summarizing information without considering parent’s input. • Majority of topics were confined to classroom-based literacy and English language acquisition and initiated by teacher. • Discourse actions were limited to reporting or reiterating information about classroom learning. • Rarely asked the parent questions about the child’s literacy and English language usage at home and/or in the community. • Provided few follow-up comments and/or little elaboration after the parent’s statements or topics. • What the Teacher Did that Hindered Communication:

20. Separate Roles and Responsibilities: Lack of Mutual Understanding and Accountability What the Parent Did that Hindered Communication: • Deferred to the teacher’s knowledge about the child’s literacy progress and English language acquisition. • Relied on the teacher’s topics for anchoring the conference discussion. • Relied on the teacher’s directives for improving the child’s progress. • Low incidence of home/community literacy/language discussions about the child’s usage and experiences. • Relied on school contacts to be initiated by school personnel, i.e., the classroom teacher.

21. Role Play for a Parent-Teacher Conference Mrs. Thompson (Teacher) and Mrs. Rocha (Parent) • First parent-teacher conference of the year, occurring in November within a traditional school year that began in September. Parents meet with teachers for a 15 minute period. • Mrs. Rocha, the parent, speaks English but her first language is Spanish. Her daughter Rosalba is in kindergarten and Mrs. Rocha has never attended a parent-teacher conference in the United States. The family arrived in the United States from Mexico, three years ago. Mrs. Rocha thinks that Rosalba is doing well in school because she hasn’t heard from Rosalba’s teacher, Mrs.Thompson. • Mrs. Thompson has taught kindergarten for 10 years. Her classroom is a general education kindergarten class. • Rosalba’s homework is sometimes incomplete and messy. She also forgets to turn it in and Mrs. Thompson doesn’t think that Mrs. Rocha is helping Rosalba with her homework. Mrs. Thompson hasn’t had time to contact Mrs. Rocha about Rosalba’s homework problem and was waiting for the first conference to let Mrs. Rocha know about the problem. Rosalba’s literacy progress is starting slow down and if it doesn’t improve she will be at-risk for retention. What do you think will happen during the conference between Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Rocha? Demonstrate the best and worse case scenarios, drawing upon the information from this presentation.

22. Final Thoughts