Despite the media putting a spotlight on some of these opposing views, the influence of parents on a child’s learning is dramatically positive. Even if the parents themselves are unsure of how to help out with homework, their presence can be felt in making sure the child actually finishes it before class. Even this small step can demonstrate large dividends later on. If a child is struggling with their studies, parents can help them learn or find ways to get additional resources involved to ensure their child’s success. The changes in this involvement can be seen in the ways that parents choose to engage with their children. More of them are getting actively involved in helping with homework and incorporating education into family leisure activities, such as going to a museum or theatre to expose children to culture and history. Technology has also become more prevalent in the methods of education, such as mobile devices, software, and online resources that are readily available. Parents often times give their children access to these items and even use them alongside the child to help them learn.

Lectura books provides award-winning multicultural books. These books are a great tool for students and parents of diverse backgrounds. Multicultural stories allow both students and parents to be able to relate to the story and be more inclined to read and retain the information. This encourages more reading and speaking of English at home. Visit Lectura Books Youtube Page to see some of their most popular book titles.

The Latino Family Literacy Project are experts in working with Spanish speaking parents and can train your staff to work specifically with parents of diverse backgrounds at your school. The company offers both online webinar training and in person workshops.

Stay updated with the latest information about parental involvement and follow our Facebook and Twitter pages. We post new information every day.

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Parental involvement is one of the core components that have been shown to provide a healthy and positive effect on the academic achievement levels of children in grades K-12. The results have been almost unanimous among a variety of studies demonstrating improved grades and exam scores, high attendance and graduation rates, and advanced behavioral skills among students whose parents play a proactive role in their child’s study habits. It’s a simple fact that the more a parent is involved in the academic progress of a student, the better that student will perform in school.

Unfortunately, not every child is equipped with this helpful support system to ensure their success. This is why it’s critical that schools enact some form of involvement program to get parents engaged in their child’s education and promote active participation in any capacity. Encouragement can come in many forms and leading experts in the field of education have defined the most common and effective methods of involvement can take place both outside of the classroom and within the confines of campus.

Parenting at home has proven to show some of the most significant impacts on a child’s achievement as reading to the child and assisting with homework have both shown to be impactful and productive. Parents who maintain routine communication with teachers and administrators have also proven influential in the performance of their children along with parents who volunteer in and around the school. However, school meetings and parent-teacher conferences are still the most popular and best attended method for parental involvement. A 2007 study found that 78% of parents surveyed participated in a parent-teacher conference and 74% showed up to a class or school function. The same survey determined that parental involvement was greater with children in grades K-8 than it was with students in high school.

The Latino Family Literacy Project provides training for award-winning parent involvement programs. The focus is for both students and parents to engage in family reading to increase bilingual literacy skills. The program uses multicultural bilingual books written in both English and Spanish from award-winning publisher Lectura Books. Here is a testimonial video a school that has implemented this program and talk about the success they’ve had.

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Univision Contigo – Clave al Exito – “Key to Success” is media company Univision’s educational online resource designed to help Spanish-speaking parents get involved in their child’s education. The platform serves an access point for helping parents communicate with educators and learn how to help their children read and excel with their studies.

Be a Learning Hero – Another valuable source for vital information and tips for parents on how to stay up to date with all of the growing changes happening in the education system in the United States. With so many new shifts in the current paradigm, it can be tough to navigate so many developments and this website is dedicated to helping parents stay on top of every new change to become more effectively involved in schooling.

The ENLACE Initiative – A program under management by the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA), the ENLACE initiative was created with the sole purpose of helping Hispanic families find the resources they need in order for children to complete high school and pursue college. It serves students in grades K-12 as well as students enrolled in college and universities both public and private.

Lectura Books – Publishes bilingual books to meet the language needs of Spanish speaking parents and their children.

Family Phonics – A program to use with parents who need to learn basic phonics and phonemic awareness, so that they can help their children with English phonics.

Family Stories Curriculum – published by The Latino Family Literacy Project. Requires staff development for effective implementation of a Parent Involvement and family reading program.

The post Parental Engagement Resources for Hispanic Parents appeared first on The Latino Family Literacy Project.

What Can Title III Funds be Used for in Parent Involvement Efforts?

Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is the funding component that gives states the necessary financial resources to develop standards-based learning initiatives and programs for English Language Learners (ELLs) in the form of subgrants. These funds are designed to improve the academic outcomes toward English language proficiency and the school districts that benefit from these subgrants must demonstrate positive results on an annual basis.

Required Use of Funds

Support of High-Quality ELD programs

-Improve the instruction of ELs;
-Enhance the ability of teachers to understand and use curricula, assessment measures, and instructional strategies for ELs;
-Be scientifically research-based and of sufficient duration and intensity (Section 3115 (c) (2)).

Title III Immigrant Funds

Title III Immigrant funds can be spent on:

Other Allowable Use of Funds

Funds may be used to support additional, supplemental staff (counselor, paraprofessional, etc.) Upgrading program objectives and effective instruction strategies:

• Improving the instruction program for EL students by identifying, acquiring and upgrading supplemental curricula, instruction materials, and educational software;
• Tutorials and academic or vocational education for EL children;
• Developing and implementing and improving elementary school or secondary school language instruction educational programs (may be coordinated with other relevant programs and services);
• Activities that improve the English proficiency and academic achievement of EL children;
• Community participation programs, family literacy services and parent outreach and training activities to EL children and their families;
• Evaluation of ELD programs.

These efforts can be established either exclusively or in concert with parental resource centers that are created to better serve the needs of parents who are eager to become further involved in the education of their children but aren’t sure how to participate effectively.

The Latino Family Literacy Project specializes in training staff to work with Hispanic families. If you’re interested in setting up a webinar for your staff so that they can implement a parent program with strong proven outcomes, please contact us at 1-877-LECTURA.

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The over 5 million ELLs in the U.S. live in every state. The Migration Policy Institute also states that one out of four children in California is an ELL student, and that California holds the highest number of ELL students out of any state, at 1.5 million. Other states with high ELL concentrations include Texas, New York, Arizona, Florida, and Illinois. States in the Midwest and Southeast have seen exponential growth in their ELL populations in the past ten years, including Indiana, South Carolina, Delaware, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, Georgia, and Kentucky. While it has been and continues to be most common for ELLs to attend urban school systems, rural and suburban areas are serving more and more ELL students. According to Colorín Colorado, “Growth of immigrant populations can be tied to any number of factors. In the Midwest, for example, industries such as meat-processing plants have served as a catalyst for rapid increases in local communities.”

The ELL population growth trends are easily viewable in this Education Week Report, which shows a helpful map of where ELLs live with percentages for each state. It also shows that ELLs who speak Spanish as their native or home language make up 76.5 percent of the U.S. ELL population, with Arabic and Chinese next, both at 2.2 percent. It can take a student, on average, five to seven years to learn academic English. This rapidly growing ELL population calls for researched, creative, compassionate, and thorough responses from our nations’ educational curriculum and culture.

The Latino Family Literacy Project provides proven, cost-effective parent involvement programs and Webinar training for teachers to provide meaningful programs for English Learners.

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There is little debate that a parent’s engagement in a child’s learning is highly beneficial. A number of studies have shown the extent of the positive impacts that healthy parental involvement can provide with marked improvements in attendance, behavioral patterns, and social skills, as well as better grades and test scores, resulting in higher graduation rates. But distinguishing the type of relationship that provides the most benefit can be a bit more difficult to fully ascertain, as the term “parental involvement” can have many different meanings and applications for a student’s progress. For most parents, attending parent/teacher meetings is the most common method of demonstrating some form of involvement in their child’s learning, but there must be a nurturing alliance between parents and educators as both parties work in concert for the positive outcomes of the child. This can be found in a number of collaborative strategies that include volunteering, routine avenues of communication, and a shared effort for decision-making so that all stakeholders have equal input in school policy and educational content. This helps to foster stronger bonds with the child at both school and home between all concerned parties to help improve learning. Teachers work with students during the day to impart curriculum and parents continue the successful achievement of students by taking an interest in their studies, assisting them with homework and ensuring that all such work is finished and ready for the next day’s classes.

Lectura Books offers award-winning bilingual books that are a great tool for English Language Learners. The books are written in both English and Spanish and focus on important vocabulary. This will help ELL students succeed with language acquisition no matter what grade level.

If you liked this blog post, check out our Facebook and Twitter page to stay updated. We frequently post relevant information related to ELLs.

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