Defining Community

Parent, family, and community involvement in education correlates with higher academic performance and school improvement. When schools, parents, families, and communities work together to support learning, students tend to earn higher grades, attend school more regularly, stay in school longer, and enroll in higher level programs. Researchers cite parent-family community involvement as a key to addressing the school dropout crisis and note that strong school-family-community partnerships foster higher educational aspirations and more motivated students. The evidence holds true for students at both the elementary and secondary level, regardless of the parent’s education, family income, or background.

Education reform efforts that focus solely on classrooms and schools are leaving out critical factors essential for long-term success. What happens before and after school can be as important as what happens during the school day. Even the most promising reforms can be “reversed by family, negated by neighborhoods, and might well be subverted or minimized by what happens to children outside of school.” While education is clearly an asset to the individual, it also benefits families and serves the common good. Education is a core value of our democratic society, and it is in everyone’s self-interest to insure that all children receive a quality education. Our democracy, as well as our economy, depends on an educated citizenry and skilled workforce.

Parent, Family, Community Involvement in Education

Coming together is a beginning;

keeping together is progress;

working together is success.

Edward Everett Hale