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PPS chapters are often the only local organization actively recruiting for the public schools. PPS members are volunteer ambassadors and may lead media campaigns to highlight achievements and successes in the public schools.
No Child Left Behind requires parent participation in school improvement plans because of the body of research that supports the correlation between parent participation and student achievement. In a research synthesis of fifty-one studies entitled “A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement” for the Southwest Educational Laboratory, Anne Henderson and Karen Mapp write:
Taken as a whole, these studies found a positive and convincing relationship between family involvement and benefits for students, including improved academic achievement.
This relationship, the authors suggest, remains consistent for families of all economic, racial/ethnic, and educational backgrounds and for students of all ages. (Find more information at SEDL.org.)
PPS is committed to raising public awareness about the importance of engaging parents in schools since it is a proven and effective strategy for improving academic achievement of students. We know that parents are essential to challenging local school districts to do more and to do things differently. Parents can help solve complex social and academic problems facing schools. They have a unique perspective and a sense of urgency when it comes to the education of their child(ren)—and we know that this interest carries over into a strong concern for the education of all children.
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