NYC private school tuition now higher than HARVARD

Teach2005
Thu, 16 Mar 2006 10:40:10 +0000

The reason ALL kids struggle is definitely not because of a lack of parent involvement, but in some areas it is a factor. I teach in a school with a LOT of parent involvement currently and we still have kids that struggle for various reasons which shows that it’s not necessarily always a connection.

However, when I taught in a really poor area we had very poor results and non-existent parent involvement. If we got ten parents to a PTA meeting it was an accomplishment. There were always more teachers there than parents. I taught several students whose parents I never met once, but not for a lack of trying. When you call the only numbers you can find and the service is disconnected your only option is a home visit which is what occurred a lot at that school. I would try to schedule parent conferences and would have one or two parents come total (and those were the parents of the kids making A’s usually who I didn’t need to see as badly). While this isn’t the whole reason that the kids were struggling, it contributed in some cases because the parents did not have education as a priority. We had parents come pick their kids up at that school who didn’t know who their kid’s teacher was…or sometimes even what grade they were in. When the involvement is that low, it is a contributing factor. We tried everything we knew to do to increase attendance but when I left that school it was still a huge problem.