Friday morning in second grade started off with parents and other family members staying for a Parent Breakfast.  These parent gatherings are a large part of the PNA culture, as each class has 4 of these events each school year.  Parents come in and enjoy a breakfast, lunch or snack with their students and other families and participate in an activity with them, allowing parents to experience a bit of what their PNA student experiences every day.

PNA’s social emotional program Responsive Classroom firmly believes in the power of family involvement in their child’s education.  Their website states, “Students do better academically and socially when schools build positive relationships with their families.”

They have looked at several studies that explore the relationship between student success and family involvement.  Two of the more telling results they’ve found are:

“The most accurate predictors of student achievement in school are not family income or social status, but the extent to which the family creates a home environment that encourages learning, communicates high yet reasonable expectations for the child’s achievement, and becomes involved in the child’s education at school.” (Building Successful Partnerships: A Guide for Developing Parent and Family Involvement Programs)

“When parents are involved at school, the performance of all the children at school, not just their own, tends to improve. The more comprehensive and well planned the partnership between school and home, the higher the student achievement.” (A New Generation of Evidence: The Family is Critical to Student Achievement).

PNA’s Parent Gatherings are just one way our school fosters this critical role of families into the education of our students.  Opportunities such as these are vital to building and maintaining those amazing and important relationships.  Thank you for supporting your kids and our school!

National PTA. 2000. Building Successful Partnerships: A Guide for Developing Parent and Family Involvement Programs. Bloomington, Indiana: National Education Service, 11–12.

​Henderson, A.T., and Nancy Berla. 1995. A New Generation of Evidence: The Family Is Critical to Student Achievement. Washington, DC: Center for Law and Education, 14–16.

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