The No Child Left Behind Act - 3374 Words

Parental Involvement has been a focus of education for decades. In the 1960’s, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) was introduced and focused on emphasizing the involvement of parents in their child’s education (Lunts 2003). Around the same time, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, advocated for the importance of family involvement in the education of children with disabilities (Lunts 2003). More recently, the Federally mandated government policy, Section 1118, Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was enacted, which specifically requires public school districts to work collaboratively with parents living in the community to author a family involvement policy in order to receive Title I funding from the†¦show more content†¦Parent involvement as defined by Kohl, Lengua, and McMahon (2000), encompasses three areas: (a) direct contact with teachers, (b) parent actions at school, and (c) parent actions at home. Others have looked at parental involvement under a more community based approach. According to Galligher, Bagin, and Kindred (1997) parent involvement is a systematic, continuous, two-way communication between an education organization and the public. The most widely accepted definition from Epstein (1995) defined parent involvement as â€Å"...communication between school personnel and parents about their children† (p. 703). The concept and definition of parental involvement has evolved just as the definition of parent in and of itself has. The definition of â€Å"parent† has changed from the traditional focus on a 2 parent biological family to include grandparents, guardians, step-parents, siblings, or anyone who may have assumed the role (Peressini 1997). The present types of parental involvement in k-12. As discussed above, the extensive research conducted has demonstrated that parental involvement has positive effects on student achievement (Allen, 2005; Epstein et al., 2002; Mapp Henderson, 2002). A large portion of the research conducted has been influenced by Dr. Joyce Epstein. Dr. Epstein is the director of the Center for School, Family, and Community