chools usually only occurs because of a problem or crisis.
However, in the earliest grades, urban schools appear to have developed
special strategies. A study of the transition from preschools to kindergartens
found that there was more opportunity for parents in high-poverty schools (Love,
Logue, Trudeau, & Thayer, 1992). This probably is because such schools are
involved in Federal or state programs that stress home visits. In schools with
preschool programs, the parent education workshops and home visits are more
prevalent before children reach kindergarten.
Among low-income and/or minority families, parent involvement is difficult to
encourage. Studies of early intervention programs for high-risk children found
parents reluctant to participate or high rates of dropping out of specially
designed programs (Iglesias, 1992). Only about one of ten low-income parents
belongs to a parent-teacher organization (Educational Testing Service, 1992).
Furthermore, adolescent parents are especially hard to reach.
School attitudes and practices regarding
parent involvement in inner-city elementary and middle schools directly
influence how much parents will support learning at home, according to Dauber
and Epstein (1989). Parents who feel the school is actively trying to involve
them have a more positive attitude about the school, and they give higher
ratings to teachers who try to involve them. Although teachers in the Chapter 1
schools involved in Epstein's research project felt most parents were not
involved and did not want to be, parents expressed different feelings. They
reported that they were involved with their children and wanted more advice from
teachers about how to help their children.
Despite the problems in drawing parents into schools, some programs and
schools have learned to involve parents and provide greater support for their
children. And it should be noted that family involvement is becoming an even
stronger element in national policies.
Parent involvement tends to be greater
in the early years, and Even Start, Head Start, and the early childhood focus of
the Education of Children With Disabilities Act provide opportunities to reach
urban, poor young parents early. Moreover, these programs are becoming more
family centered. For example, Head Start programs are phasing in literacy
training for parents, and the Even Start program helps families in their homes
with ways to prepare their children for school. In addition, the growing family
literacy movement emphasizes parents and young children learning together. In
particular, elementary schools are becoming sites for multi-services for
families. The New Beginnings project in San Diego, for example, registers
families for appropriate community services at the same time as the children
register for school, and collaborative arrangements among a number of service
agencies bring many of the services to the school site.
Sometimes, however, the best results of such interventions require very
intensive support. Two pioneer programs demonstrated the benefits of reaching
young children early who might otherwise not receive good cognitive stimulation
at home, setting the policy and practice frameworks for Federal programs, but
they required a major investment in time and personnel. The Milwaukee Project of
the mid-1960s and the Abecedarian Project of the early 1970s illustrated that
intensive stimulation of very young poor children can lead to higher IQ scores
and that it is possible to have good success from such interventions. Ramey and
Ramey (1992) noted that among a number of income, social, and educational
factors, the mother's level of intelligence is the single strongest predictor of
a child's intellectual development. In both of the above projects, the mothers
were mentally retarded.
With early intervention through full-week, full-year programs in the
Abecedarian Project, all of the children of low-income mothers with IQs below 70
points tested in the normal range of intelligence by the age of three. These
early interventions resulted in a 50 percent reduction in the