By Earl Grier, School Director of Commonwealth Connections Academy Educators are always complaining about the lack of parental involvement. It seems that as children get older, there is less involvement of parents in schools. Parents seem to cut the apron strings at an earlier age now and expect others to be the role models and teachers of their children. Decades of research have shown that parent participation in education is very closely related to student achievement. The more parents are involved in the educational process, the higher the grades and test scores. Parent involvement is also a way to have more control of the educational experience of your child and have more of an impact on your child’s development. Parent involvement is a centerpiece of the Commonwealth Connections Academy teaching model. Parents need to be intimately familiar with their child’s progress on a daily basis. The school offers ongoing training and support to help them carry on this important role while making optimum use of the available technology tools and professional teacher support to do so. We call this a learning triad; three supports for the child; the parent, the teacher and the curriculum specialists all working together to help the child be as successful as possible. The cyber school experience brings parents back to a day when learning to read and write were perfected with the parent as an active participant and reinforcer.
