A plan for more effective home and school cooperation in a rural community

51 Pages·02.358 MB·English

by  Hart, Lura L

A PLAN FOR MORE EFFECTIVE HOME AND SCHOOL
COOPERATION IN A RURAL COMMUNITY
A Project
Presented to
the Faculty of the Sch6ol of Education
The University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree'
Master of Science in Education
by
Lura L. Hart
August 1950
UMI Number: EP46805
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This project report, written under the direction
of the candidateJs adviser and approved by him,
has been presented to and accepted by the Faculty
of the School of Education in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Master of
Science in Education.
Adviser
(R.'&V
Dean■
TABLE OP CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE NATURE OP THE PROBLEM ................ 1
The local situation ........................... 1
Statement of the problem . . . 2
Review of the literature .................... 2
Importance of the problem .................... 4
Scope of this investigation.................. 7
Organization of the remainder of this,r eport. 7
II. METHOD OP PROCEDURE ............................. 9
Emergence of the problem .................... 9
Development of the bibliography ............. 10
How reliability and validity werea chieved. . 11
III. SECURING PARENT COOPERATION THROUGHC HILDREN
AND PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCE........... . . 12
Education a shared responsibility .......... 12
Teacher key to child's relationships in
s c h o o l ...................................... 13
Contacting p a r e n t s .......................... 16
Pupil progress reports *by teacher parent
conference................................. 17
The migratory problem ........................ 19
Summary........................................ 20
IV. HOME VISITATIONS BY CLASSROOM TEACHERS . . . . 22
Purpose of home visitation.................. 23
CHAPTER PAGE
Preparation for home visit.........................25
Summary of findings.......................... 28
V. PARENT TEACHER ASSOCIATION ........... 31
Aims and objectives of Parent Teacher
Association................................. 32
Effectiveness of P.T.A......................... 34
Summary of the findings...................... 37
VI. CONCLUSIONS.............................. 39
VII. THE PLAN FOR SECURING MORE EFFECTIVE HOME
SCHOOL COOPERATION ............................. 4l
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . ...................................... 43
CHAPTER I
THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM
This introductory chapter presents the problem of
securing better home-school cooperation through children
and teachers in the rural areas. A brief sampling of the
literature in the field assisted the writer in formulating
a statement of the problem and suggested its scope and
importance.
The local situation. The school that provided the
setting for this study is a six teacher elementary school
in a rural community. In the past three years the enroll­
ment has increased from forty to one hundred sixty pupils.
Approximately seventy-five per cent of the pupils are from
migratory families.
It is obvious that there would be many administrative
problems. The outstanding one is the indifference on the
part of the parents to the work of the school and the urgent
need of their cooperation and interest in the children and
school. Since these migratory parents are in the community
for short periods of time, they feel they are not wanted or
needed. Of course, it is difficult to contact these parents
because the mother as well as the father works.
This lack of cooperation on the part of the parents
2
makes it very difficult for the teacher to get a well
rounded picture of the child. The teacher and children will
be at a disadvantage until an effective plan of home school
cooperation has been worked out.
Statement of the problem. The problem of this study
was to develop a workable plan for effective home and school
cooperation through the means of (l) pupils and parent
teacher conferences, (2) home visitations, and (3) Parent
Teacher Associations.
Answers to the following questions were sought:
1. How may the school secure parent cooperation
through children and parent teacher conferences?
2. What are effective techniques for home visita­
tions?
3- How may the Parent Teacher Association be used
\
for the betterment of the school?
Review of the literature. A sampling of the authori­
tative literature on parent and school cooperation, home
school relationships, and Parent Teacher Associations stressed
the need for the school and home to be brought into a closer
and more understanding relationship if their mutual goal for
the child is to be reached.
3
i p p
Yeager, Reavis and Grinnell^ emphasize the need
for the home and parent to work together for the good of
the child. They also concluded the key figure in securing
this cooperation is the teacher.
There has been criticism of the schools for many years
but only in recent years have the parents and teachers really
tried to understand one another. An article in the Journal
of Experimental Education states:
The relationship between the school and community
while good in some instances, offers many opportunities
for improvement. Often citizens of the community do
not understand what the school is trying to accomplish
and are unaware of many of its needs in carrying out
its responsibility. The school is too much an isolated
institution without sufficient relationships to other
social institutions of the community.^
Houseman^ reminds us that teachers and administrators,
1 William A. Yeager, Home-School-Community Relations,
Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh, 1939).» P . 5243
P ft
W. C. Reavis, Parents Offer Suggestions for Im­
proving the Work of the Schools," School Review, 54:253-5.»
May, 1946.
R
J J. E. Grinnell, Interpreting the Public Schools,
(New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937)t P* 10.
4
Journal of Experimental Education. Vol. VII, June,
1944, No. 4, p. 25?.
5 Richard Houseman, "The People Speak." The National
Association of Secondary School Principals. February,
1948, p. 15.
4
on all school levels, should take into consideration the
wishes, desires, and suggestions which come from all the
constituents of the community in which they work. Under no
conditions can an educational system become truly adapted
to community needs and become functional in nature until
school people have made positive efforts to bring the
general public back into the folds. Education is still the
people's business.
There was a general consensus among authorities that
any plan for securing teacher-parent cooperation must vary
according to the local needs of the community. The rural
school of today should be the community center since it is
the only institution that is in a position to integrate the
life of the community.
The survey of the literature indicated that there
was sufficient authoritative data of means of securing home
school cooperation to provide an adequate solution to the
problem.
Importance of the problem. All of the authorities
surveyed indicated the need for a closer cooperation between
parent and school. There is a desire for a more thorough
understanding of the school by the parents according to The
National Elementary School Twenty-eighth Yearbook:
The people of this countrjr want an improved pro­
gram of education for their children. Gaps between
5
former school experiences and those of their
children, misinformation and doubt about distress
stories produce skepticism and negative reactions.
Because of these misunderstandings, citizens are
asking for a great deal more information about the
public schools, their deficiencies, their operations,
their success, and their goals for the future. Im-
. proved understanding is being sought by both parents
and the profession.o
Large numbers of the residents of a community do not
visit their schools; neither do they take interest in them
or even support them with their ballot. There is a great
need then for the school to seek means of making these dis­
interested people school conscious. This, of course, can be
done through the public relations program.
Houseman in referring to public relations says,
Public relations in its true form is the process
of maintaining a welcome working relationship between
the public and the schools, a relationship that pro­
vides the people with the.understanding of the philoso­
phy, purpose, and program of the school and invites
their suggestions, and criticisms, in making the school
program functional for the children of the community.7
These questions have long been considered and argued:
What can the parent expect from the teacher and what can the
teacher expect from the home? In answer Ojeman and Fatland
6 "The Public and the Elementary School Twenty-
eighth Yearbook," The National Elementary Principal, 1:10,
September, 1949.
7 Houseman, ojd. cit. , p. 21.