In a study conducted by researchers at Harvard and Brown University found that regular, personalized communications from teachers to parents can in fact have a significant impact on struggling students' chances for success in their classes.
The researchers studied students enrolled in summer-school credit recovery classes. The 435 students were randomly divided in three groups. The parents in one group received a short weekly message (by phone, email, or text) from their child's teachers on what the students were doing well. Those in another group received weekly messages about what their students needed to improve. Finally, parents in a control group received no messages from the teachers.
The study found those teachers who called with a weekly message from their teachers were 41 percent less likely to fail their course than those in the control group. Also, researchers say these higher success rates were helped when parents had received specific information about how the students could make improvements in their class.
So, the solution just more phone calls to parents? I agree parent contact is critical to students success. But, the study took place during summer school, credit recovery. I have taught summer school. Typical students take one or two classes. This being the case, parents would only have one or two teachers calling home with reports. So, can this information translate into a typical school year?
After all, how much, or what kind of impact would a school have if ALL of the student's teachers called the parents explaining how their son/daughter is not doing at school? One might think positive, but other times there were unintended consequences. I taught at a school where all seven teachers were mandated to call all their students. And some parents became angry, or simply did not return the phone calls. Especially if their students was performing poorly across many of the classes.
A SOLUTION
However, at another school I taught at the core teachers were divided into teams. We met daily to discuss different student issues including grades and behavior. If a phone call was needed, one teacher made the call for the entire team, instead of all five teachers calling home. The one teacher would report to the parent for all the classes to the parent. Then we logged the call, and the teacher would report back to the team. This method was very successful.
In short, this study drives home the point that teachers can make a positive impact upon students and parents. But, used in a thoughtful and meaningful way can be very successful. But, repeated phone calls by multiple teachers might have negative impact.
Link to the article: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2015/05/study_teacher_outreach_to_parents_boosts_student_performance.html
