Meet the Parents

Dana Newton has her hands full. She is the mother of three school-age children—11, 10 and 5—each with different needs. Four years ago she decided to take some parenting classes to learn strategies for better managing her kids and to help them succeed in school. Newton took the classes at San Diego Parent University, which offers them free to parents of children at certain city schools.

“First thing I learned was how to be more patient with my kids, and it’s really made a huge difference,” she says. “Then I learned how to get them to do their homework.” Newton installed homework stations for each child and created homework boxes, filled with supplies. “Now they know where to go to do their homework, and they have everything they need in their box, so there’s no running around.” In other words, no excuses.

Being consistent in her approach to at-home learning has made a huge difference for Newton and her children. Homework gets done, the children are excelling academically, and their behavior—both at home and in school—is generally exemplary. Thirty years of research supports what she now knows: Family involvement in a child’s education is critical to improving that child’s achievement and instilling positive attitudes toward learning.

“The benefits are undeniable,” says Jeana Preston, program manager for parent-involvement programs in the San Diego Unified School District. Parent University is just one of those programs, scattered throughout the county, designed to help parents coach and support their school-age children.

Parent University is held at Gompers Elementary School in southeastern San Diego, and it is free to any parent whose child is eligible for free or reduced-cost lunches. The district also provides free transportation to the classes, and childcare is offered on site at Gompers. The program is in its third academic year.

Tuesday-night classes teach parents how to put themselves in the role of learning coach, how to assist their children with homework and how to recognize when outside help is needed. Thursday-night classes focus on parenting skills and are geared for parents of preschool children.

The program has been hugely successful. In three years, participation has doubled. Preston says Parent University is the only program of its kind in the country; in fact; the federal Department of Education came to San Diego in December to make a short film about it.

Educators call curricula offered at Parent University “parent involvement programs,” though for most of us, the idea of parent involvement evokes images of cupcake-bearing mothers volunteering in the classroom or attending PTA meetings. But parent involvement does not equal parent volunteers.

“When parents give their attention to something, that’s also what kids pay attention to,” says Melissa Whipple, a resource teacher in the school district’s parent-involvement department. “Parents don’t need to be at the school; they need to do things at home that support their child as a learner.”

Whipple sees, firsthand, that when parents are involved, students are better achievers. “If you have a parent who understands what is going on at school and knows how to support it at home, it’s a huge boost,” she says. “Reading with the child at home, investigating a particular author or hobby—it creates literate people.”

Many city schools have “Family Fridays” when parents come to read with their child for the first hour of the day. At Encanto Elementary School, mothers and fathers are invited monthly to “Muffins for Moms” and “Donuts for Dads” days, where they read to the children.

“We give them strategies for reading aloud, and it becomes quality time the children spend with their parents,” says assistant principal Caroline King. “We know that children who are read to at home become our strongest readers.”

Programs like these, where children can see their parents reading, send a strong message, says Whipple. “You can say ‘Vegetables are good for you’ all you want, but if you never eat any, children get the message loud and clear,” she says.

One of the major barriers to parent involvement in San Diego is proficiency with English. To counter that, many city schools make a special effort to assist parents whose native language isn’t English through monthly English Language Advisory Committee meetings, where parents talk to administrators about problems they have working with children at home or navigating the school system.

“This isn’t outreach, it’s inreach,” stresses Encanto Elementary vice principal King. “We reach out to them; they don’t have to reach out to us. Everyone talks about issues that arise while working with students at home. Sometimes it’s trouble understanding the mathematics the children are studying, or how to get their kids to do more reading and writing at home.”

Assisting limited-English-speaking parents isn’t exclusive to the San Diego city school district. Oceanside Unified offers free and subsidized adult English classes, both day and evening, tailored to meet the needs of the parents at particular schools. “If a group of parents wants to learn writing, we teach that,” says Cindy Sabato, spokesperson for the district. “If they want conversational English, that’s what they get.”

The Parent Institute for Quality Education is a statewide program established 15 years ago to address underachievement in education among poor children, particularly Latinos. David Valladolid, president of the San Diego–based program, says the nine classes in the program address such topics as the rights of parents, what is on an SAT9 test, how to be certain children do their homework, how to keep kids stimulated at home and how to develop a plan to make sure students are ready for college. “Many Latino students don’t take the SAT [a standardized college entrance exam] simply because their parents don’t know the fee can be waived,” says Valladolid.

Melanie Nance is a teacher in the adult English Language Development program in Oceanside. She says the most profound change among the parents who come to the nine-week program is their self-confidence. “It’s not necessarily that they know very little English; they don’t have the confidence to try to use it,” she says. Nance encourages parents to bring in anything they are having trouble understanding—from school notices to difficult homework—and works through it with them.

She says once they can speak some English and learn to navigate the school system, these parents feel much more comfortable volunteering in the classroom and helping with homework. Nance also encourages them to bring school-age children with them, for family language activities.

“I find that when their kids are involved,” she says, “parents put their best foot forward.”

Attention, Parents: It’s Time, Not Money, That Counts

It may appear that most parent-involvement programs are aimed at low-income parents. Because of a lack of funding for education in general, this is largely true. Yet there are some programs and initiatives designed with middle-class and affluent parents in mind.

Dad’s Club, for example, was created by Solana Beach psychologist Jeff Jones, who wanted to get fathers more involved in their children’s educations. Fred Carson, now a co-director of the group, says the clubs began in North County in 1996 and have since spread statewide, as well as to other parts of the country. Carson, who also has an interest in helping underserved communities, brought Dad’s Club to underachieving schools, too.

Events such as “Breakfast with the Dads” and “Craft Night with the Dads” bring fathers and children together at school. “Fathers who come to read to the kids, do playground duty, that sort of thing, show the child that Dad values their education,” says Carson. “Statistics show overwhelmingly that when the father is involved in the child’s education, grades go up and behavior is better.”

Chris Burr, the father of two girls, was one of the fathers who initially showed interest in helping form a Dad’s Club. His youngest child attends Solana Highlands Elementary School in Carmel Valley, and Burr is an active part of her school life. “I didn’t have a feel for what was going on at the school before this,” says Burr. Now, “I think my daughters feel comfortable discussing school-related issues with me. They see me in the classroom, I know their classmates, and I know who they are talking about at the dinner table.”

At Poway Unified School District, the PTA—19,000 strong—organizes several classes for parents each year, covering such topics as helping with homework, handling sibling rivalry and drug awareness. PTA president Colleen Salzetti says she went to several classes herself and was given useful tips for handling the rivalry among her three children. “It gave me some new ideas about dealing with those situations at home and making life more peaceful,” she says. “I also got to hear from other parents about what worked for them and what didn’t.”

The Poway district’s PTA is also coordinating a Ready To Learn program for parents of children age 5 and under. Ready To Learn holds evening classes that teach parents how to read to young children and recommends books for that purpose. “We received a $10,000 grant for this and are now working to establish a lending library with books appropriate for this age group,” Salzetti says.

Also accessible to parents everywhere in San Diego is the cable television series on channel 16 (ITV), Partners in Learning or Usted Como Padre (You as a Father). The show, sponsored by the County Office of Education, is filmed before a live audience and teaches parents how to help their kids with reading, math and science. It also presents strategies for discipline, assisting with homework, building character at home, dealing with teen dating, violence and bullying, and paying for college.

Getting this information out is vital, say those involved with providing it. “Everyone thinks money equals parenting skills, and it’s just not true,” says Melissa Whipple, a resource teacher in San Diego Unified School District’s parent-involvement department. “It’s about paying attention to your kids.” —E.Z.

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