by Mark Urycki
Thursday is National Parent Involvement Day – an effort to get families engaged with the schools that their children attend. It’s pretty much a rule for families in the Cleveland Municipal School District.
Cleveland schools take parental involvement seriously enough that they have a Director of Family and Community Engagement. Tracy Hill says 30 years of research has shown that involved parents have a positive outcome on student success. For the last 4 years Cleveland schools have required parental involvement has and hill says it’s improved each year since.
That doesn’t mean volunteering at school but staying engaged with kids school work, including the older kids.
“We know, I have one teenager now and a 23 year old and, sometimes they don’t make the best choices. So we really encourage our families to be more engaged in the high school years in terms of understanding what the graduation requirements are, the ACT, the SAT."
Not to mention student loan applications. Tracy Hill says last year 91% of their parents visited their children’s schools.