Necessary Skills for Working Effectively with Parents and Families

Nathan and Radcliffe (1994) interviewed 1,823 educators in 29 states. More than half of the educators ranked the following skills as important to working with families:

• Conducting effective conferences.
• Working with parents when the student has a problem.
• Communicating with parents about student progress.
• Helping parents understand class goals, strategies, and methods of assessment.

Scholars who were interviewed also agreed with this list, but they added that it was extremely important for educators to know how to involve parents in the curriculum. In an economics or business class, for example, the teacher might ask students to learn more about how their family decided on a major purchase. Parents can discuss such assignments with their children, making the class discussion much richer and the academic material more relevant to the students.

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