ABSTRACT

This chapter begins with an examination of the educational, social, and political events that led to a focus on parental involvement as a strategy to improve academic performance. The parental involvement language of the Education Amendments Act of 1978 extended well beyond issues of informed consent in that it explicitly and prescriptively stated appropriate relations between the school and the home, while implying parental behaviors needed to support academic improvement among children and youth. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 was unprecedented because it allowed for direct federal intervention into the work of schools. According to A. Lareau, problematic issues associated with parental involvement as an educational policy are too often absent from parental involvement discourses. The most established parental involvement organization, the Parent–Teacher Association (PTA), was organized by parents. The chapter concludes with a brief overview of the purposes and goals of representative parental involvement programs that are currently operating in the nations school's and communities.