Effective Parent & Teacher Partnerships

an article from
The Contemporary Classroom's
professional journal

Effective parent & teacher partnerships

What are caregiver/parent and teacher partnerships?

Positive parent/teacher partnerships occur when both parties share knowledge and experience to understand a child’s situation. These partnerships can lead to developing plans together to support the child.

involvement + Engagement = partnerships

Before we dive into how communication plays a role in fostering effective partnerships, let’s look at the 2 steps that come before partnerships.

First, caregiver’s must be involved. This involvement occurs when caregivers participate in school events or activities. In this situation, teachers provide learning resources and/or information about a student’s grades. Teachers hold the primary responsibility of setting educational goals. Teachers relate toe caregivers as an advisor who guides them through the academic support for their child.

When the Every Student Succeeds Act replaced No Child Left Behind, the focus shifted from involvement to engagement. Caregiver involvement is the first step to caregiver engagement.

Caregiver engagement is when caregivers and teachers share a responsibility to help a child learn and meet educational goals.

When teachers involve caregivers in school meetings or events and caregivers engage by volunteering their support at home and at school, they make a commitment. Caregivers commit to prioritizing their child’s educational goals. Teachers commit to listening and providing a space for collaboration with caregivers. This forms a partnership.

Research based benefits of positive caregiver/teacher partnerships

Research shows that the best predictor of student success is the extent to which families encourage learning at home and involve themselves in their child’s education. Caregiver engagement can help students engage with their learning by adding another level of accountability. When caregivers are engaged in their children’s school lives, students have the home support and knowledge they need to not only finish their assignments, but also develop a lifelong love for learning.

While teachers provide advisement to caregivers, caregivers have important information about their child that teachers might not know. Both bring perspectives to the table that enrich a student’s learning experience. Neither is complete without the other.

Research also shows that caregiver involvement can free teachers to focus on the task of teaching children. For example, having caregivers involved in volunteering by making copies for the week can allow the teacher to focus more on planning and instruction.

Dearling, Kreider, Simpkins, & Weiss showed that the earlier an educator establishes caregiver engagement, the more effective the teacher is in raising student performance.

Caregiver partnerships formed during elementary school years build a strong foundation for student success and future engagement opportunities.

ways to foster positive caregiver-teacher partnerships

– host school wide parent information meetings where parents are invited to come and learn about school norms, school philosophies,

– host classroom parent information meetings where parents are invited to meet you, learn about your teaching philosophy, your classroom norms, your grading systems, and information about the curriculum that you use. If possible, host these informational meetings before school starts. That way, if their child ever has questions or is worried about something, especially on the 1st day of school, their parent can be a resource and help them feel confident.

– send out monthly newsletters that detail upcoming important dates, units of study, special at home skills they can practice, and other announcements

– ensure all of your communication with caregivers is done effectively

– involve parents in volunteer opportunities such as work room parent helper, homeroom parent, classroom events, sending supplies for classroom activities

– involve parents in classroom lessons where applicable such as special cumulative projects where extra hands in the classroom are helpful

– send pictures to caregivers with a few guided discussion questions so they can ask their child specific questions (e.g. during your math lesson today, what number did you skip count by? OR do you know what number is 9 tens & 2 ones?) rather than opened ended questions (e.g. what did you do at school today?), which can be challenging for kids to answer.

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an article from
The Contemporary Classroom's
professional journal