Type 2
Issue No. 20
Spring 2006

Middle and High School Report

Family Involvement Provides Academic Support for Students in Middle Grades

The middle grades present students with increasing academic challenges. At the same time, students receive less outside help at home. As their schoolwork increases in difficulty, studies show that it often proves too challenging for their parents and others who might have provided assistance in the past.¹ Each year, the overwhelming majority of academic activities in the NNPS collection of Promising Partnership Practices involve the elementary grades only. But some middle grade schools have taken extra steps to ensure that students receive outside help and parents are guided to support their children's academic activities.

Book Clubs

At the Pfc. William J. Grabiarz School of Excellence in Buffalo, N.Y., sixth-grade students read five or six books each year through small book clubs, where they meet to discuss a book that one of the students in their club has chosen. As the students progress though the books, they discuss what they are reading with their families, and write chapter summaries, which a parent must sign. The book clubs culminate with the Annual Book Buffet, where students, families, and friends gather at the school for a potluck dinner. Before the meal, students use displays, costumes, props, and book excerpts to present what they have read to everyone.

Science Exhibits

Fifth- and sixth-grade students at the Museum Magnet School in St. Paul, Minn., have two important opportunities each year to bring their families into the school and share what they are learning. At Family and Exhibit Nights, students host a series of exhibits with learning stations, generally related to science, but sometimes on topics such as poetry. At the learning stations, parents ask "key knowledge" questions written by the teachers, along with their own, to better understand what and how their children have learned from their projects, and how the school's curriculum is designed. The students, meanwhile, better appreciate the meaning of the work they have done.

Extra Help

SPARK PLUG (Support Parents And Reach Kids: Play, Learn, Unite, Grow) provides at-risk students at Park Junior High School in LaGrange Park, Ill., with an opportunity for after-school tutoring, followed by dinner and basketball with their mentors and parents. Once each month, community members, local police officers, and a few teachers meet one-on-one with 25 students for an hour and a half in the school library to help them with homework. This is followed by a game of basketball. Afterwards, families have the opportunity to meet their children's mentors when they all eat together at a community-partner-sponsored dinner. Parents and students attend workshops together after the meal.

Because of the increasing difficulty of homework, parents often find themselves unable to help their students with assignments effectively once they reach the middle grades. The students, meanwhile, must struggle alone with the increased workload. By running workshops to help parents understand the curriculum and by finding creative ways to engage parents in their children's academics in the middle grades, these schools have increased parents' attention to the school curriculum and students' ability to succeed in class.

For more information about these promising practices, visit the 2005 collection of Promising Partnership Practices.

References

¹ Epstein, J. L. (2005). School, family, and community partnerships in the middle grades. Pp. 77-96 in T. O. Erb, (ed.), This we believe in action: Implementing successful middle level schools. Westerville, OH: National Middle School Association.