Supporting Latino Parents In Navigating Their Childrens School Culture

Parent involvement has shown to have a positive effect on student's academics and has a strong role in the healthy growth of student's social emotional development. There is an assumption that Latino families do not engage with their children. The reality is that Latino parents do care and are deeply interested in their child's education. The purpose of this project was to create a respectful and safe place where Latino families could come to learn about the education system and work together to create resources for their children. This project used Classroom Action Research to conduct two workshops that focused on engaging Latino parents in a discussion about language arts, math, and social emotional development. Parents created materials using every day items to work with their children at home. Resources focused on standards that were specific to Transitional Kindergarten and Kindergarten. This project clunded that parent workshops were an effective way to engage Latino parents in collaborative with the teacher and child. Parent workshops should be encouraged within districts and be culturally respectful.