In the April 3, 2010 Boston Globe, opinion columnist Derrick Z. Jackson weighed in on the Obama administration’s Race to the Top grant program, and questioned why more emphasis was not placed on family engagement. Jackson spoke to HFRP director Heather Weiss to find out how parental involvement can spur student performance.
Excerpt from the article:
Last year, researchers at the Harvard School of Education said, “efforts to include family involvement in children’s learning and development at home have always been, at best, on the distant margins of educational policy.’’
This is true despite years of data—not to mention common sense—indicating that when parents reinforce high expectations, bug their kids about homework, take an interest in their school life and use family time for learning experiences, their children end up more engaged and more successful. “It’s no one big thing,” Heather Weiss, the director of the Harvard Family Research Project, told me. “It’s years of those little things from the parent that reinforce to the child that if you want to have a good life, this is what you must do.”
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Read the full article on The Boston Globe’s website, boston.com.
