EDUA 5727 Building Parent Engagement
BUILDING PARENT ENGAGEMENT
Parents play an integral role in their child’s education, and one of the biggest challenges – and opportunities – for teachers is reaching and building positive relationships with all parents. This course helps teachers learn the skills for establishing positive rapport and communicating successfully with parents, as well as addressing parental barriers to engagement. These barriers include parents with negative attitudes toward school, those who are overworked or have limited time, those who have children with special needs, and those with limited English language proficiency.
After finishing the course, teachers will be equipped with a comprehensive set of tools for engaging and empowering all students’ parents to become active partners in their child’s school success. Teachers will gain practical strategies and concrete, actionable tools to foster parental involvement, including planning Parent Information Nights, using technology to maintain regular contact with parents, collaborating with parents to meet curriculum standards (such as CCSS and ESSA), and creating a strong home-to-school connection. Finally, the course prepares teachers to successfully reach parents who have children with special needs and those who have children who are gifted and talented, English language learners, or have varied cultural backgrounds, that may need extra support in the classroom.