Family involvement in education can mean:

• Reading a bedtime story to your preschool child
• Checking homework every night
• Getting involved in PTA
• Discussing your children's progress with teachers
• Voting in school board elections
• Helping your school to set challenging academic standards
• Limiting TV viewing to no more than two hours on school nights
• Getting personally involved in governing your school
• Becoming an advocate for better education in your community
• Insisting on high standards of behavior for your children

Family involvement can be as simple as asking your children, "How was school today?" But ask every day. That will send your children the clear message that their schoolwork is important to you and you expect them to learn.

Many children and parents are yearning for this kind of togetherness these days. Among student aged 10 to 13, for example, 72 percent say they would like to talk to their parents more about their homework. Forty percent of parents across the country believe that they are not devoting enough time to their children's education. And teachers say that increasing parental involvement in education should be the number one priority for public education in the next few years.

• Let your children see you read
• Take them on trips to the library
• Get them a library card as young as possible
• Let your children read to you
• Talk about the books they read and ask questions

When parents and families get personally involved in education, their children do better in school and grow up to be more successful in life. Sounds like common sense, doesn't it?

Yet parental involvement is one of the most overlooked aspects of American education today. The fact is, many parents don't realize how important it is to get involved in their children's learning. As one dad said when he began to read to his daughter every day and discovered that it improved her learning, "I never realized how much it would mean to her to hear me read." 

And have expectations of your school. Your school should have clear, challenging standards for what students should know. For example, what reading, writing and math skills is your child expected to have by fourth grade? By eighth and twelfth grades? What about history, science, the arts, geography, and other languages? Are responsibility and hard work recognized? If your school doesn't have high standards, join with teachers, principals, and other parents to set these standards.

Keep in touch with your child's school. Parents cannot afford to wait for schools to tell them how children are doing. Families who stay informed about their children's progress at school have higher-achieving children. To keep informed, parents can visit the school or talk with teachers on the telephone. Get to know the names of your children's teachers, principals, and counselors.

Parents can also work with schools to develop new ways to get more involved. Families can establish a homework hotline, volunteer on school planning and decision-making committees, help create family resource centers, serve as mentors, and even help patrol school grounds.