An unlikely catalyst inspired Milton Lopez to go back to school to earn a GED diploma.
Mr. Lopez, now 40, of Coraopolis dropped out of high school in the 11th grade and has worked full time ever since. His young son inspired him to finish his diploma more than a decade after leaving school.
“Every day of my life, I regret the dumb mistakes I made back then,” he said, recalling his childhood growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y. “Education and school should’ve been my No. 1 interest, but I got caught up in the streets instead. How can I ask something of my son that I myself didn’t do? You’ve got to be a better person and set an example for your kids.”
He wants his son, Milton Andrew Lopez II, who is now 12 and attends Cornell Junior High School, to not only graduate high school with honors but also go on to the college of his choice.
The not-so-secret weapon educators agree can make every difference in a student’s academic achievement is not printed in a textbook or written on a whiteboard. An actively involved parent can be a tutor, cheerleader, enforcer and advocate wrapped into one.
Some public schools are encouraging parents to participate in their children’s learning and trying to remove long-standing barriers to involvement. Schools and agencies are seeking stronger relationships with families — some that have one parent in the household, others with parents working multiple jobs and some with little or no parental figures in the students’ lives at all.
The profile of an effective parent isn’t limited to the one who chaperones field trips or attends PTA meetings, said Lori Delale-O’Connor, associate professor of research and development at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Urban Education. That model can exclude parents who don’t have time or resources to spend in their children’s schools, she said.
External factors such as language and cultural barriers, or even a parent’s own negative academic experiences, could affect a parent’s comfort in participating in school activities, Ms. Delale-O’Connor said.
“Making sure your child comes to school prepared with a good night’s sleep, helping your children with their homework, all of these are critical things, too,” she said.
“Just because you aren’t spending a certain amount of time in the actual school building doesn’t mean you aren’t doing everything you can at home to ensure your child’s success, and schools need to find a way to recognize that and emphasize it to parents,” she said.
Even incarceration doesn’t have to prevent parental involvement. At State Correctional Institution Graterford near Philadelphia, a handful of long-term offenders founded a program to strengthen relationships between inmates and their children, enabling one inmate to video conference with his child’s teacher and guidance counselor, and another to correspond directly with his son’s principal and receive progress notes from his son’s teachers.
In Pittsburgh Public Schools, David May-Stein, assistant superintendent in the office of school performance, said the district is “making a more deliberate effort to partner with parents” and remove financial barriers for parents to volunteer and participate.
The district uses federal funds to reimburse parents to help with transportation and childcare costs for each day parents volunteer in schools for academic reasons or attend academic-focused meetings and training sessions. Last year, eight parents were reimbursed from three of the district’s schools for a total of almost $500.
“We want to open up our doors to all parents to where income does not exclude who can participate and who does not,” Mr. May-Stein said.
For Dionne Forney, working full time as a single mother with two young children leaves her with limited time to volunteer at her 9-year-old son Darrell’s charter school, Propel McKeesport.
Yet, during the day, she logs onto Darrell’s ClassDojo, a classroom management app that tracks his behavior. At night, she sings and reads to her 9-month-old daughter, Alexis, while Darrell completes his homework and reads for at least 30 minutes.
“We work on his homework and independent reading every night, regardless of how tired I am,” she said. “It’s really important to me to reinforce those habits and practices he learns at school.”
The type of structured, school-focused environment in Ms. Forney’s home can heavily impact student success, even at the secondary level, according to research by Ming Te Wang, an assistant professor of psychology in education at Pitt, and colleagues.
Most secondary students no longer consistently require hands-on assistance with their schoolwork. However, the researchers emphasized the importance of proactive, quality communication with teachers, home structure, encouraging academic independence and linking education to future success in helping to prevent declines in GPA and behavioral issues.
Martin Richter, a gifted education instructor at West View Elementary in the North Hills School District, said parents understanding their children’s learning style and habits can be beneficial in supporting children through academically competitive curricula. He helps organize sessions for parents of the district’s gifted students.
“We want parents to be more conscious when these issues arise and deal with it effectively. It's like a triangle, with the child at the top and the two major support systems are the parents and the school,” Mr. Richter said.
While some schools are forging and strengthening partnerships with parents, some agencies are working to step in and fill the gap when parents aren’t present.
JoAnn Hannah, program manager for transition-age youth at the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, said many youth in foster care don’t make it to postsecondary education, and the agency is focusing its efforts on increasing the number who do.
Ramond Nelson, 20, of Brighton Heights, is among those helped by one of the county’s six educational liaisons for 951 youth in independent living.
There were days when, as a child, Mr. Nelson would play and hang out with his friends after school until 2 or 3 a.m. A key motivation for going to school would be the free meal he received at lunch, one of the only guaranteed meals of the day.
“I didn’t really know what it meant to have a parent,” he said. “I just didn’t want to be home.”
When his mother sought help for an ongoing health condition, Mr. Nelson was placed with his foster father, Brian Foltz. The transition to a new home and a new school was difficult. He was often late to school and, by the end of his sophomore year, had a GPA of 0.9. His county educational liaison, William Battles, finally persuaded him to turn his grades around.
By the time he graduated high school, Mr. Nelson’s grades were high enough to qualify for the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship’s extension program. Now completing his final year at Community College of Allegheny County with a B average, he’s beginning his applications for nursing school.
“When I have kids in the future, I want them to be appreciative of things,” he said. “I went through a lot, but I’m always thinking there are others who are going through more. I know where I came from, but I also know where I want to go.”
Clarece Polke: cpolke@post-gazette.com. Twitter: @clarepolke.
First Published: September 8, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
