Linking parents, community and school

The purpose of this study was to develop ways to build and create partnerships between parents, community and School by providing a variety of opportunities for parent-community participation. These partnerships will be fostered through the use of effective communication methods, such as coffee club sessions, focus group discussions, and school newsletters. This action research was conducted via qualitative and quantitative methods to gather and analyze data. The participants for the study were the parents of the children at Parkside school, community members, and the faculty. A pre- and post-survey were sent to a randomly selected group of parents of students in first, third and fifth grades. The teachers and staff were also surveyed to measure their attitudes towards parent-community involvement. The surveys were tabulated and then calculated in percentages. The results of the study indicate that parent-community involvement is possible when parents, community and the school family worked together as partners. As intended by this study, partnerships were established between parent-community and school as a result of identifying and providing meaningful, informative and enjoyable opportunities for participation in school activities, and in the school decision-making process. In addition, the school to home communication also increased due to the spectrum of communication methods used