Parental Involvement in Childs Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Parental Involvement in Childs Education - Essay Example The key findings on the effects of parental involvement are likewise summarized based on a compilation of recent research findings. The quality of education is one of the major social issues all over the world, from developing countries in Africa to highly developed ones like America and Europe. The reason is rather easy to see in a world where natural resources are dwindling and the competition for economic power and a high quality of life is intensifying. Ultimately, the continued economic progress of nations would be determined by the quality of their human resources, which in turn depends on the quality of a nation's educational system (Glatthorn, 1999). In America, for example, a government-led initiative that came to be known as the "No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001" was meant "to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achievement standards and state academic assessment" (NCLB, 2002, Section 1001). As the law's main aim was to improve the quality of education, educators have been asking uncomfortable but important questions as to how such a goal could be attained. Among the many proposed measures that could have a lasting and positive effect on improving education quality is one that is based on the hypothesis that a lack of parental involvement is detrimental to a child's education. This paper aims to prove the above hypothesis by using research findings to show that the following proposition is true: that increased parental involvement provides beneficial effects on the child's education. Also discussed would be several findings on the ways parents get involved in the education of their children; which type of involvement works best; the effects of parental involvement on student attitudes, self-concept, classroom behavior, and attendance; and at what levels of the child's education would parental involvement be useful. These findings are then summarized into seven major insights on the effects of parental involvement on their children's learning process and ways to encourage and sustain these based on experiences in the U.S. Parental involvement can be characterized in many ways, but all the literature on the topic agree that it includes various forms by which parents participate in their children's education and with the way education is carried out in schools. The range of parental involvement activities is wide: active tutoring of children at home, helping them with homework, becoming role models of positive behavior by showing eagerness to learn and study, or encouraging their children to learn, providing an appropriate place and time for serious study, and supporting their children's schooling by attending school functions and participating in school obligations (PTA, student plays, parent-child excursions, etc.). Parents can also extend their involvement outside the home-school environment by political lobbying, volunteering for community-based school projects, or getting public or corporate