Fact Sheet: Title I: How Parents Must be Involved Parent Involvement Pays Off What's the most important thing you can do to make sure your child is successful? Be actively involved in his education, at home and at school. When schools involve families, their children do better not just in school but through life. Here are some of the good effects. Your student will: Earn higher grades and test scores. Go to school more often and get more homework done. Be less likely to need special education or fall behind. Like school and stay out of trouble. Be more likely to finish high school. Tend to go on to college or technical school.   How Well Does Your School Involve Families? When parents are involved at school, the school gets better. This is true all through high school. Your school is doing a good job of involving families if you can answer "yes" to these questions: Does your school: Encourage you to come into the school? Let you know how your kids are doing in their subjects: math, science, reading, writing and social studies? Give you lots of chances to talk with your kids' teachers? Have high standards and explain to you what they are? Tell you what kind of program your child is in and give you information about it? Involve you and other parents in key decisions about how to improve the school? Help you get to know other parents and teachers? Work with you if your child has a problem? What Can You Do if your Answer is NO? Good schools welcome parents and help them become involved. Maybe your school doesn't seem to want parents around. Or won't tell you about how the students are doing. If so, it won't be as effective in helping children learn. Not only is it your right to be involved, it's the right thing to do. Does your school have a parent group? If not, pull some parents together and start one. If yes, go to the meetings and speak out. Talk to the group and to other parents about how you'd like to be involved. from Supporting Our Kids: A Family-School-Community Campaign, copyrt. Center for Law and Education, 1996. Meet with the principal and teachers to share your ideas. Say that parents need to learn more about the school and be more involved. Show them the fact sheet "Ways Families are Involved in Children's Learning." Offer to help develop a policy on parent involvement that covers how parents and teachers will work together. (If your school gets federal Title I funds, such a policy is required by law. See the fact sheet on Title I.) Use the Supporting Our Kids notebooks to find out about good programs. Then do a school-community review to improve your school.   Helping Your Student At Home Children spend most of their waking hours outside school. How they spend that time makes a big difference. Kids should spend 20 hours a week doing things that help them learn. Things like sports, reading, lessons, hobbies, and chores. If you want to help your children learn, here are some things you can do: Tell your kids that you expect them to do well. Set high standards for your children. Encourage special talents. Help them think about and plan for their future. And tell your friends and family about your children's successes. Encourage your children's progress in school. Look at your kids' homework. Listen to what they say. Talk about the value of a good education. Stay in touch with teachers and school staff. Visit colleges and technical schools. Keep track of out-of-school activities. Limit TV to an hour a day. Check up on the kids when you're not home. Help your kids to pursue their interests. Get to know your children's friends and their families. Set up a daily family routine. Set aside a quiet place to study. Give everyone in the house chores to do. Be firm about bedtime and getting enough sleep. Build in time to talk together, especially at meals. Show that you value learning and hard work. Ask questions and encourage your kids to ask questions. Talk about the news together. Show that doing well comes from working hard. Praise success and tell your kids they can do even better. Use reference books, like an almanac or the dictionary. Read, write and talk among family members. Listen to your children read. Tell them stories. Talk about what you are reading. Write letters together. Plan out the family's schedule once a week. Use the community: Take lessons. Join a sports team. Make sure your kids spend time with adults who are good role models. Use the library and local community centers. Join the neighborhood association.   National Title I and School Reform Advocacy Project