Transforming our Roles as Co-Educators; A parents guide to meaningful engagement.

Abstract

When schools and families support each other, students of all backgrounds and various abilities achieve at higher levels. Research indicates levels of parental engagement tends to decline as children progress through the educational system. Parents need to understand and transform their roles to become collaborative co-educators as their children transition from elementary to middle school in order to improve academic outcomes. This intervention, a summer workshop series for parents of children in or approaching middle school, aims to increase home-based and school-based activities and strategies which foster parental engagement. Participants will attend four workshops and be provided interactive workbook to guide and encourage engagement efforts throughout the academic year. This intervention assists parents in transforming their roles in order to remain engaged as their children progress through education system and their needs change. Parents will be able to create and customize new strategies and activities that can be implemented at home to foster learning environments and become aware of existing strategies and activities currently available through their child's school. The overall goal is to increase active participation, communication, and collaboration to educate the whole child to ensure student academic achievement. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Toni Stallman, MSW. Email:Stallmantoni@gmail.ocm