School activities are usually focused on purposes the school feels are important – grades, student behavior, and so on. Parents need a reason to attend that they find beneficial and of interest. It's important not to focus too much on the overt facets of schooling itself. Open house nights and parent conference days are often sparsely attended because parents do not find them useful. A parent of a C student likely knows the cause is that much of the homework isn't being completed. Coming to a parent conference just to hear that Johnny needs to spend more time on homework won't be perceived as helpful.
Inviting Participation
Call all your parents personally and invite them. This takes time, but it will pay off. Only a personal contact will have the effect you desire, that is, increased attendance at school events.
The one sure-fire way to involve parents is to call them one-on-one. A flyer or mass-calling device will not work. Parents need to know they will find friendly adult faces that they actually know and with whom they can connect when they arrive at school. Remember that many parents who don't come to school with their kids also did not find many aspects of school appealing when they were kids. That's a powerful deterrent, and to change this, the school has to make the personal connections. Parents and teachers mutually care about the students, but parents will come when they know they are cared for, as well.
What Parents Need
Make sure parents' needs are met at the event (schools sometimes mistake their needs for those of parents). Focusing on grades and behavior that the school deems important probably won't attract most parents who otherwise would not attend anyway.
Ensure that the experience will be social and positive. If the school faculty wants to follow-up on grades and behavior, schedule a separate time for this. Make sure it's a community event and involve community partners. Can you add a car-show, craft fair, or other feature that reflects the community? Don't focus on prizes and incentives; you can include these, but think of these as adding to the event, not the reason for attending.
Connecting with Other Parents
Schools often like to provide food, and this can be an effective strategy. However, and this is the real secret, the food is not the reason parents usually come to school events. Food just provides a social context where parents, teachers, and students can visit, discuss ideas and concerns informally, and create a feeling of community. If you serve food, make sure there is plenty of time and space for conversation. Mingle with parents, and have plenty of student work available and posted.
In a recent study to be published in The Journal of Educational Administration in May 2009, Uline, Tschannen-Moran, and Wolsey found that schools with a very positive school climate displayed a great deal of student work. Every student knew where his or her work was displayed and could show researchers where that work was. The school made an effort to have every student represented on the walls somewhere. Like the students, the parents, too, knew where their children's work was. Displaying work can be a powerful tool.
In Conclusion
It may take time, a year or two, as your school creates a climate for parental involvement. Parents participate when they are contacted by someone they know at school and when they can connect with other parents while they are there.
The School Improvement Research Series includes a helpful definition of parental involvement and a review of studies on parent involvement.
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