Fostering Latino Parent Involvement in the Schools: Practices and Partnerships (original) (raw)

Remember the days of class "room mother"? Long before there was research on parent involvement, I was convinced that learning was a family and school partnership. Both of my parents spoke limited English and neither had formal schooling in Mexico. But that didn't stop my mother from showing up with armloads of cupcakes for our classroom on Fridays when she was "room mother". Although she didn't speak much English when we immigrated, she was a strong and visible influence both in my school and home life. It mattered to me that my mother held high expectations for my sisters and me to succeed in school because I knew that I had to try my best. She got involved in whatever way she could and she wanted to hear good reports about me from my teachers. Later when I became a teacher, the notion of involving parents in the school made even more sense. I met my students in their homes with their families, two weeks before school began. I knew that if I enlisted parental support for the educational program and included them in the classroom as much as possible, the children would understand that the teacher and parents worked together for their benefit. As a school principal, I made the community coordinator a key person in the school's operation. Our effort was to make the school the center of the community. It was a difficult partnership to build, but as the graffiti and vandalism decreased significantly after only one year, we knew the effort was worth it. Parent involvement is a rich resource, a tool, much like a book that informs us and moves children forward in their schooling (Delgado-Gaitan, 2004: 15). Educators that work collaboratively with Latino parents find that students perform better academically. Regardless of family size, socioeconomic level, or parental level of education, parents are capable of learning how to participate in their children's education. It is important that schools reach out to Latino parents.