Preface
"Head Start has not only given my child a head start in life, but one for me as well." - Head Start Parent, Massachusetts
The concept of "parent involvement" is so ingrained in the operations of Head Start that there is the risk of taking it for granted. Certainly you and your staff members share the belief that parents should be involved in the program that helps their children gain the skills they need to succeed in school. Everyone agrees that the children benefit from such involvement, and that the parents do, too.
Even so, your staff needs to consider, at regular intervals, some key questions. What do you mean by "parent"? What do you mean by "involved"? Whose job is it to involve the parents?
Such questions are especially critical now, with both the structure of the family and the makeup of the U.S. population going through rapid changes.
Today, the person who "parents" a child in Head Start may be a teenager, a single father, a recent immigrant, a grandmother, a foster parent, an aunt or a great-aunt. Fewer parents are at home full-time with their children. More parents are working two or more jobs or are in school or training full-time themselves.
Families today are more mobile, as they search for better employment and housing. Many families served by Head Start have recently emigrated from Southeast Asia, Central America, Eastern Europe and other distant points on the globe. Families within a program may not share a common language and they may represent widely different cultural beliefs, attitudes and practices.
These and many other factors mean that there is no "typical" parent and no one best way to get them involved. Traditional strategies to involve parents in Head Start, such as classroom volunteering or membership on the Policy Council, may not meet the interests, needs or logistical requirements of all parents.
Recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Head Start Quality and Expansion call for a renewed effort to enhance family services and increase parent involvement. They have called for several action steps including:
To begin to put these action steps into practice, programs will need to step back and consider not just what they are doing to involve parents but whether or not the opportunities are meaningful and accessible to the parents currently in Head Start
- Reviewing and expanding current resources used for family services, parent education and family support;
- Increased efforts to involve parents in all aspects of the Head Start programs; and,
- Encouragement of male involvement in Head Start.
Because of the more complex nature of parenting today, "parent involvement" is too big a task to lay on any one employee. It takes creativity, teamwork and the skills of the entire staff. Engaging Parents is a training guide that can help all of your staff members identify the range of families they serve, examine how, successful your program is at involving all the parent members of those families and create an environment in which each staff member contributes, Individually and as a team, to more successful parent involvement.
The use of the word "enrage" in the title of this guide is deliberate. It has the same meaning as the word "involve," but it also suggests more. To "engage" means to pledge or to commit oneself. The word "engage" also is used. in reference to the gears of a motor coming together to successfully operate. In the same way, staff members need to make a commitment and to come together to involve all parents meaningfully.
That commitment must begin with the management team. By holding the expectation that everyone has "parent involvement" in his or her job description, by encouraging, recognizing and rewarding collaborative staff efforts for parent involvement, by setting aside the time and resources for staff to reflect on these issues, share ideas and receive training, you are showing that you are committed to meaningful involvement opportunities for all parents. Engaging Parents is a foundation guide, that is, it lays out a course of training that is appropriate for every staff person, from the members of your management team to the volunteers. Subsequent guides will focus on specific strategies for involving parents. Together these guides can strengthen your program's ability to build on the tradition of parent involvement that has so successfully guided Head Start in the past.