Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Parents feel more involved in children’s education.
The latest update of regular survey reveals parents feel more involved that ever before in their children's education.
Surveys can be a useful barometer of social and cultural attitudes, when repeated over a period of time they can show developments and changes in these attitudes.
In 2001, 29% of parents asked, said they felt very involved in their child's education, increasing to 38% in 2004 and 51% in 2007.
These are impressive results and if we take them as indicative of the parent population, we can see success for schools and government initiatives to improve partnerships and engagement with parents over the same years. Of the 49% who stated they did not feel very involved in their children's education, the main reason given was work commitments. A consistent feature of all three surveys was that parents who feel less involved would like to be more involved. Schools need to consider how to help enable this. Parents from socially disadvantaged backgrounds were more likely to want to become more involved.
The results are from the BMRB 2007 Parent Involvement in Children's Education Survey, previously carried out in 2004 and 2001. Over 5,000 parents with children aged 5-16 in state schools in England were interviewed for each survey.
45% of parents in 2007 saw education as an equal responsibility of parents and school which was a shift from feeling it was wholly the school's responsibility previously. High numbers also felt it was important to help children with their homework, 73% overall.
The parents interviewed were overwhelmingly positive about the information received from schools about their children and their progress. 86% said schools gave clear information and 92% said schools were welcoming to parents in 2007.
There was one area where parents reported feeling less satisfied in relation to their children's education than in previous surveys: in 2001, 43% of parents said Parents Evenings were the best way of finding out about their child's progress, reduced to 19% in 2007.
A corresponding study of learner's views on how consulted and engaged they feel in decisions and practice in their education would be fascinating.
To read the report click here.