Exploring the Educational Involvement of Parents of English Learners

The population of children from immigrant families is growing faster than any other group of children in the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Education, over five million school-age children are categorized as English Learners.   ELs are more likely to have parents with lower formal education levels than their non-EL counterparts and to come from low-income families (Vera et al., 2012). 

Parent educational involvement has been one of the most important predictors of school success.  Most research suggests that it has a great impact on the academic success of children of all ages.  When parents are involved, children tend to have higher attendance, higher achievement levels and more positive attitudes toward school.  This is true not only in the United States, but also internationally (Vera et al., 2012). 

Different types of parental involvement have different relationships to achievement.  In this study, the most common type of educational involvement among families of EL students involved monitoring homework and asking children about their school day. Helping their children to utilize community resources, such as tutoring at a public library, was found to be the least common type.  Also depending on some demographic factors such as English language fluency, educational background, ethnicity, some parents were more likely to be involved than others.  Overall school climate and parents’ perceptions of barriers were other predictors.  

Other barriers exist, such as a negative climate toward immigrant parents, individual barriers – lack of dominant language proficiency, logistical barriers – work responsibilities.  Furthermore, in other cultures and countries parental involvement may be very minimal depending on the country.  In some cultures it is disrespectful to probe about the teacher’s methods.  In some countries parents do not question the schools.  It is the schools job to educate children. 

Another barrier parents of ELs encounter, according to this study, is not understanding the U.S. school system.  They also feel they shouldn’t interfere with how teachers do their jobs. This barrier significantly correlated with parents reading less with their children.  One suggestion for an intervention is providing education for parents about how schools work in the U.S. and expectations about the involvement of parents in the United States (Vera et al., 2012).

 

It is less educated, Latino parents who may be at higher risk for not participating in certain types of parental involvement.  parents’ educational level was a significant predictor with respect to parental involvement in reading to their children. In other words, parents who are more literate, even in their native language, are more likely to participate in family literacy experiences than those who lack literacy skills.

Even though there is a plethora of research that supports the findings that parents who have high expectations for their children are also those with the most investment in their child’s educational achievement.  This includes have structure and routines in the home such as having a regular bedtime, restricting media, enforcing a regular homework routine etc. This may be an intervention to help educate parents about the benefits of having such routines. 

It is important to tailor interventions designed to increase parental involvement based on educational background and linguistic fluency.

The article mentions possible courses of action for engaging parents, one of them being a community building forum, but schools should not have the mind-set that they are going to “train” the parents.  It should not be a gathering in which teachers speak to the parents and then everyone goes home, rather parents tell their stories while teachers listen.  Families and teachers work together.

Vera, E. M., Israel, M. S., Coyle, L., Cross, J., Knight-Lynn, L., Moallem, I. & Goldberger, N., 

          (2012) Exploring the Educational Involvement of Parents of English Learners, School 

          Community Journal, 22(2), 183-202