How to Involve Latino Parents in the School-Going Culture

The key is to be cost-effective and specific in your efforts.
You know there is a big gap in the test scores of Latino children and their counterparts. And you know that you must involve parents to help close this gap. All of your parent involvement efforts must be very specific in your attempt to reach out to the Latino families in your school and involve them in the school-going culture in order to be cost effective and truly life changing. The bottom line is that we all want to see real changes in reading and vocabulary development and overall involvement at home and at school.

The Latino Family Literacy Project™ has the most remarkable track record in this key area and is very clear about its goals. Evaluations of its programs arrive each day and continues to tell us that our programs work! Let us help you reach your goals in parent involvement and improved language test scores. Make it possible for parents to become ambassadors and leaders in workshops.

When parents get involved in workshops with other parents and with teachers, it’s a win-win situation. In The Latino Family Literacy Project™ programs, parents become experts in establishing a reading routine with children, in discussing literature, in storytelling and in developing new vocabulary and language skills. The books and materials are culturally rich, familiar and truly engaging and help parents to develop confidence socially and academically.

Parents become more visible as volunteers and more comfortable in the school setting. They spend more time with their children and new dialogue occurs about goals, school and literature. Graduated parents reach out to more parents and their involvement continues to evolve and improve.

Consider the educational experiences of parents. Depending on the background of parents, the school-going culture might be unfamiliar, especially if they are from rural Latin America. For others–those from urban areas–their schooling experiences might be similar enough to transfer successfully into the school system here in the United States. Either way, the testing gaps with Latino children and their counterparts are significant
enough that you must provide the most meaningful and skill-based programs as possible to the parents in order to help them help their children in their schooling.

So the question is – Are you specific in your goals with parents and with what you are providing to the parents for outstanding results? If not, consider the following:

Cost-effective Teacher Preparation
To prepare your teachers, we provide a foundation for family literacy that honors Latino parents and helps teachers to understand the acculturation process, how socioeconomic influences affect education, how to start with what parents already know, and how to work within the diverse language and literacy skills in one classroom of parents. Teachers leave The Latino Family Literacy Project™ workshops with a renewed understanding of parent involvement, are more culturally competent, and armed with a specific step-by-step curriculum to use with parents. Plus, the teacher workshops have not increased in pricing in 14 years!

Well-Designed Curriculum with Specific Activities
Activities for parents must be well designed and deliberate. Ultimately, you want parents to learn new skills so that they can be part of the school-going culture and to help their children. Programs available for parents with children of all ages – Preschool, Elementary, Middle and High School.

Request a sample of our curriculum
Pick a program and request to get a free curriculum sample emailed directly to you.

Attend a workshop
The Latino Family Literacy Project provides workshops throughout the United States. The Cultural Competency portion of the training alone is worth attending, but, in addition, you receive easy-to-follow curriculum in English and Spanish with an ELD component. Don’t miss out!