Given the importance of families for
children’s development and learning,
parental involvement in education is
essential. To increase parent involvement
and foster relationships, schools must create
frequent opportunities to communicate
with parents. Activities must enable the
school to respond to parents’ suggestions
and concerns. Thus involved, parents
feel more comfortable, confident and
empowered in their significant role in their
child’s development. Strong family-school
partnerships are especially important
for those families most alienated by
traditional schooling practices. Because
of their social and cultural backgrounds,
these parents’ expectations of what is
educationally helpful to their children may
differ from those of school personnel.