Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Do parents volunteer too much at kids' schools?

I have no opinion about her intelligence, but I did check out the research she cites. The OECD Working Paper is 165 pages long, so I didn't review the entire thing but I did notice that the authors' conclusions and interpretation of the findings are completely different from hers. They actually state 4 types of involvement that matter most: reading books to young children, discussing complex issues with children, parents reading for enjoyment themselves and meeting with teachers, volunteering at school, helping with homework.
They suggest that parents volunteering at school is sometimes associated with lower achievement because it is a reactive response to the kid's struggles. They suggest getting parents involved before the kids have problems as a prevention approach. They also point out that it is quite possible that the kids might be doing even worse if their parents were not becoming involved at this point.

The recommendations of the authors include encouraging MORE parental involvement in schools, rather than suggesting it is a waste of time. They also point out, though, that even if you aren't able to volunteer, there are effective ways to support your child's education at home that don't require a lot of skill or experience.

Also, the United States is NOT one of the countries surveyed. Thus, all of the article's discussion of parent involvement in the U.S. is anecdotal.

In my own experience in my kids' school and my observations of my friends' kids' schools, there is so much variation in types of participation that gross generalizations like the ones made in this article hold no water with me. And, I would also suggest that while of course the children's educational outcomes are important, there are other things in life. For example, after school activities sponsored by the PTA may give kids who would otherwise be home alone after school somewhere to be with friends and adult role models. Will it make them better readers? Probably not. Organizing charity events (within reason) can teach children that we, as a family, value civic participation. Also a lesson I want to instill. Also not going to make them better readers.

I think Dude's question to their PTA is reasonable. What do you do? My school's PTA can answer that question to my satisfaction. They provide educational after school opportunities. They fund field trips. They fund and organize a writer's workshop, monthly fine art presentations in the classrooms, and much more. They also provide an annual report showing how much PTA money goes to which program. So clearly there is a lot of variation between our school and Dude's (I don't even get a t-shirt!).

The above article does not take this into account or provide any actual data on the relationship between American parental involvement and student performance. I don't even really see the point of it except to try and make parents who are involved in their children's school feel stupid and irrelevant. Good for her.

Thanks for your research. I think the paper is

http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/oeceduaab/73-en.htm
Parental Involvement in Selected PISA Countries and Economies
by Francesca Borgonovi and Guillermo Montt
No 73, OECD Education Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: Studies have highlighted the beneficial effects of parental involvement in children’s educational lives. Few studies, however, analyse parental involvement in a cross-national perspective and few evaluate a wide array of forms of involvement. In 2009, 14 countries and economies implemented the parental questionnaire option in the PISA 2009 cycle. This working paper evaluates the levels of parental involvement across countries and sub-groups within countries, as well as the relationship of involvement with both cognitive (reading performance) and non-cognitive outcomes (enjoyment of reading and awareness of effective summarising strategies). Findings suggest that some forms of parental involvement are more strongly related to cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes than others. These include reading to children when they are young, engaging in discussions that promote critical thinking and setting a good example. Findings also show that levels of parental involvement vary across countries and economies. Inequalities in parental involvement exist in practically all countries and economies. Policy implications signal the possibility that promoting higher levels of parental involvement may increase students’ both cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes, and that high-quality parental involvement may help reduce performance differences across socio-economic groups.

As far as parents volunteering, I have no opinion. It was helpful to me when my son was in preschool to see how the program was taught, but I don't volunteer much now except the occasional field trip.

Tangent, but where I live, it seems that priorities are skewed. It is not unusual to hear of kids in three competitive sports in one season, during the school year. Doing the math, it shows that the child literally has hours of practice or games six, even seven days a week. For families with two or more children there are after-school activities scheduled every blessed day-- with kids attending their own and their sibling's activities. Where is the study time, play time, and academic emphasis? It's maddening not to give in to the pressure of feeling like my DS has to play several sports to fit in and make friends.

I have another hypothesis here-- SOME parents (especially in that higher SES group) are volunteering because it is about their own egos.

These are the "class parents" who basically play Martha Stewart all year long any time the teacher allows it.

It's not a surprise to me in the least that such activity doesn't do a darned thing to elevate their child's performance. For most of that group (and I've seen a few) it's not about their kids. I mean-- parenting isn't. For them, parenting (like everything else) is about fulfilling their own personal agenda.

Their kids are-- to make a generalization-- often simply objects, stage props in their drama of Perfect Parenting.

I think that people volunteer in the schools for a variety of reasons, definitely some of them are doing this. I have a friend who's kid's school is very high SES and their PTA raises thousands of dollars every year with fancy silent auction formals and things like that. My kids' school PTA is nothing like this and raises nowhere near as much money.

Another hypothesis is that middle class neighborhoods have a lot of well educated stay at home moms who once held jobs and careers. Trading that for full time parenting can leave some feeling empty and PTA involvement can fill that void. Also not about the child's performance (but imo, also not necessarily harmful or irrelevant).

Unfortunately, the Slate article provides no real data on American parents. Just makes a lot of generalizations about them instead.

Our public school PTA last year raised $120,000, 2/3 through an auction, etc. We have a lot of highly educated stay-at-home moms who sit around and volunteer a lot at the school. I think volunteering in school does help, partly since your child sees you there and understands that school is important.
I finally this year stopped volunteering in the class since I work full-time and can't do it, but hubby still does. It's definitely a lot of fun, and it gives you a birds-eye view of what is going on in the classroom.

I'm a regular classroom volunteer. (DH comes home early so I can go in, so it takes a bit of effort on both our parts.) Last year I helped in K every week, doing messy projects with the kiddos. Like Jack's Mom, I found it fun.

Before kids I was a regular literacy volunteer on my lunch hour, so I'd started out volunteering simply because I know how much volunteers can help, bringing the adult:child ratio down and helping to facilitate some different types of activities in the early elem classrooms.

An unexpected outcome was that I was able to see firsthand what was happening in the classroom academically, which was helpful when it came time to consider a skip. Didn't expect it, but it ended up making our decision clearer.

Our PTA is hyperactive. I voluteered too much in my son's K class last year - thinking that it might help bring down the teacher - student ratio. I was hoping that it would allow the teacher to be more effective if someone took some of their workload off their plate. There were parents 3 days of the week in the classroom. And in my area, most families have 2 working parents and hence the volunteers were all trying to accomodate those hours they spent at school into their schedules and none of them to my knowledge were there for purposes other than helping the school out.
I was able to observe first hand what the "top notch" school was like and since my son was in a mixed grade 1st grade/K class, what the next year was going to look like. Long story short, I pulled my son out of our top rated school and have put him in a private school for 1st grade.

Good things about volunteering:
My child knows that his mom was showing up regularly to help the teacher because his welfare and his education were a high priority in his family. He even says that he would like to volunteer in a classroom when he finishes college!
I got to know what the levels of giftedness were with all the kids in my son's grade and what the levels of motivation were of the teachers in that school.
I also saw first hand how bored my Kindergartener was even when he attended 1st grade math and LA and how he was singing to himself, reading books and playing with Legos and blocks to entertain himself.
I also know exactly what little they do when they use the words "differentiated instruction".
All factors that helped me decide to afterschool more intensely for the K year and make an informed decision on what to do for the future schooling of my child.

Cons of volunteering:
Any layperson who is a parent could volunteer for a job which could be done so much more effectively by a person who is qualified for it (a real teacher's aide).
I know too much about the kids, their personal lives and any learning issues they have which I am not supposed to know (privacy issues? a lot of them are our neighbors, so we meet them outside of school).
I am still surprised that while my son's Little League did a background check on me before letting me volunteer the PS just let me walk in and work with kids (just a TB test was required)! Though teachers are supposed to be vigilant and nothing bad could happen to the kids on their watch, it still struck me as odd.

Cons of volunteering:
Any layperson who is a parent could volunteer for a job which could be done so much more effectively by a person who is qualified for it (a real teacher's aide).
I know too much about the kids, their personal lives and any learning issues they have which I am not supposed to know (privacy issues? a lot of them are our neighbors, so we meet them outside of school).
I am still surprised that while my son's Little League did a background check on me before letting me volunteer the PS just let me walk in and work with kids (just a TB test was required)! Though teachers are supposed to be vigilant and nothing bad could happen to the kids on their watch, it still struck me as odd.

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These reasons, particularly the privacy issue, are why parent volunteers are very limited in what they can do in our district. As far as I know, parents are never in a role where they directly teach or do work with students- one can shelve books, help out spotting in gymnastics during gym, etc, but they do not want parents to have intimate knowledge of the other kids' abilities or problems. Also, I consider the PTA to be very different from parent volunteering in the schools; they are separate here. The PTA here is primarily involved in fundraising (and socializing) as far as I can see, and seem to have no interest in academics at all.

This will be my first year not volunteering in the classroom; DD is very sad about this, as am I. Both kids really liked me being in their classrooms, even if I wasn't interacting with them at all. And I agree, it's a great way to see what is going on in class, what the teacher is like, etc. Now I have to rely on DD to tell me what's going on, which is sometimes like pulling teeth!

I am still pretty involved in PTA, although I have cut my time down from the last two years. I loved being on campus to volunteer, since I got to know the staff and principal, plus the fun of helping the school. I'm sure the dozens of impromptu meetings I had with the principal (because I was on campus) helped DS's case.