Parental Involvement in Inner-City Schools

Abstract

Research shows that parental involvement is beneficial for children’s academic success and positive results are seen when parents, teachers and schools work together to support children’s learning. Although parental involvement is important for children’s academic performance, many parents in inner-city schools still fail to be actively involved with their children’s education. Although some parents may not show high parental involvement, there are many strategies that teachers and schools can implement to increase parental involvement significantly. When parental involvement is increased in a school, there can be benefits for all stakeholders. This paper provides a review of literature relating to parental involvement in inner-city schools. It looks at definitions of parental involvement, positive results of parental involvement and barriers contributing to lack of parental involvement in inner-city schools. Lastly, this paper provides strategies that teachers, parents and schools can employ to increase parental involvement and to establish and develop effective home-school partnerships.