NCCP | Parent Engagement from Preschool through Grade 3

NCCP | Parent Engagement from Preschool through Grade 3

Parent engagement in children’s education is increasingly
viewed as an essential support to children’s learning in
early care and education programs and throughout the school years.
While there are many definitions of “parent
engagement,” the term is used here to describe parents’
efforts to promote their children’s healthy development and
learning through activities that can be encouraged by educators in
child care, preschool and school settings. (We also use the term
“parent involvement” in the same way.) This report
makes the case that effective parent engagement during the span
from preschool through the early grades is a key contributor to
children’s positive academic outcomes. During this period,
young children acquire foundational competencies – including
language, literacy, early math, and social-emotional skills –
that strongly affect their capacity for grade-level learning. When
young children fall behind in developing these skills, they often
face an uphill path for the rest of their school years. For
example, children who have weak language skills upon school entry
are more likely to struggle while learning to read, and weak
reading skills in third grade greatly hamper children’s
learning across the curriculum in later grades. While high-quality
teaching in preschool and the early grades is essential, parents
can also play a vital role in helping children acquire foundational
competencies that fuel school success.