Welcome to your ultimate homeschooling resource


Parental Involvement During The High School Years: Just What Is It And Why Is It So Important?

It seems that when our children are into their success.
the elementary grades, parentalBut the one common characteristic that I
involvement in their day to day schoolobserved among most successful high
activities is easy. Attending PTAschool students was that of continued
meetings and school plays, serving asparental involvement during the high
homeroom mom, and even helping withschool years. In doing some extensive
homework assignments keep us connectedresearch on the subject, I discovered
to school life and help us keep a closestudy after study that overwhelmingly
watch on our children's progress.indicates that parental involvement in
But for most parents, as their studentsteen education is directly related to
progress through school the monitoringincreased achievement.
of their schoolwork and activities getsSo, what exactly do we mean by parental
a bit more complicated. When the kidsinvolvement? What form does it take
reach junior high and high school, theyduring the high school years? Actually,
have several different teachers and theit can take many forms. Attending school
academic demands become more advanced.functions, frequent communication with
There are also fewer activities thatteachers, monitoring of schoolwork,
draw parents into school life at thisresponding to requests from the school
level.for interaction, and taking an active
Teens become seemingly more independent,part in your teen's preparation for the
translated they don't need (or want) ustransition to life after high school are
as much, they become mobile, and all ofintegral components of what parental
a sudden it becomes more and moreinvolvement should include at the high
difficult to keep up with what is goingschool level.
on in their lives, both academically andThe structure of most education systems
socially.seems to be constantly changing,
In my 29 years of teaching high schoolsometimes with good results and
mathematics I, like most educators do,sometimes not so good. This instability
witnessed varying degrees of successfuldeems it almost necessary that parents
parenting of high school students. Oftake charge of their children's
course, there are many variableseducation. Even the best of schools may
involved in each individual case. Teenshave overloaded teachers and too few
are very unique creatures; what worksresources.
for one may not work for another. OneParents must take a pro-active role if
teen may be a very successful studentthey want their child to be a successful
despite having little, if any, parentalstudent. Not surprisingly, this is just
guidance. Another might have parentsas important during the high school
doing "all the right things" and stillyears as it is at the elementary level.
venture into areas that are detrimental



1 A B C D E F 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137