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A child is a student at any age, whether studying a bug on the sidewalk or writing a term paper. While teachers at school change every year, the most important teacher is a student’s first and most constant resource—the parent.

Now, more than ever, parents are a necessary tool to guarantee a student’s academic success and entrance into higher education.

But many parents believe they don’t have time to actively participate in the educational system, and others don’t know they can or how to do it.

Through various interactive outreach programs, ASU is striving to increase this involvement earlier on—ultimately creating more students who feel motivated to immerse themselves in academic life.

Leaps and Bounds
Parents can be their child’s first teacher, says Marilyn LaCount, executive director of the Office of Youth Preparation. They have to be. Facilitating human development in the first three years is critical, and LaCount says this parental responsibility is sometimes not realized.

“Parents feel they don’t have enough time to do everything that is required in a day,” she says. “They don’t feel they have the resources to even be a teacher or a participant in the education of their children.” Consequently, many leave this to the experts—the schools, the teachers, the administrators.

“Parents can be the first person interacting with their child with academics, skills and ability building,” she says. “They just have to learn how to do it.”

The Leaps and Bounds program targets the growth of pre-kindergarten children through early parental interaction.

Since 2004, Leaps and Bounds has taught more than 500 families easy and inexpensive ways to advance early childhood development. The program offers a four-week course for parents and kids alike — the 75 minute sessions include activities aimed at the whole family.

In “How Many Hands,” kids measure various objects by hand lengths. After, they transition to standard measurement by using a conventional ruler. LaCount says children often ask parents to do the activity again when they return home.

Basic interaction like this, LaCount says, boosts brain development in a fun and important way. “A simple thing like verbal communication and interaction can heighten the success of your child later on,” she says.

American Dream Academy
ASU’s American Dream Academy also focuses on educating parents of younger children to teach the importance of learning early on.

The academy’s main curriculum targets kindergarten through fifth grade parents. This secures a successful foundation for their children’s’ future, says Leticia de la Vara, program officer in ASU’s Center for Community Development and Civil Rights.

“The sooner you start instilling that basis in education, the easier it is,” she says. “If students are hearing about college from kindergarten, they know there’s an expectation they need to meet.”

The ADA began in 2006 with a goal to encourage Latinos to pursue higher education. Nationally, Hispanics have a lower performance rate and are more likely to drop out of high school, de la Vara says.

The curriculum targets disenfranchised communities—“primarily immigrants and low-income families,” she says. Each semester, 20 schools facilitate the program. Between 10 and 15 percent of the schools’ populations attends the meetings.

In nine-week workshops, parents learn why education matters and how and why they should become more involved in it. ADA teaches about basic tools for academic success, including what a GPA is, how to calculate it and what classes students need to take to ensure university admittance.

De la Vara says parents often think school is “that place where they drop off their child and pick them up.” But more needs to happen in between. Parents must be an active participant in the schooling of their child, she says, both for their own knowledge and their child’s success.

“Once students feel that what they do at school matters in the home, they are more likely to engage more at school,” she says.

Having a constant resource at home to “reflect and reinforce” higher learning expectations helps create a more enjoyable classroom experience, de la Vara says. With this involvement, parents can be a true advocate for their child’s achievement.

“The parents are really they only ones who are going to be with their child from birth through their college completion. Teachers will be in and out,” she says. “Now, parents are understanding that connection between home life and school life and preparing for college.”

Hispanic Mother-Daughter Program
One ASU program is targeting a specific family member to anchor college-preparedness in middle school- and high school-aged girls.

The Hispanic Mother-Daughter Program guides college-bound Latinas and their mothers through the process of higher academic achievement.

Every year, the program receives around 500 applicants. Last year, they accepted 140 mother-daughter teams. Participants make a 10-year commitment, spanning from eighth grade until college graduation. During this time, they go to monthly educational workshops with their mothers.

Program director Maria Moreno says the 25-year-old program is focused equally on both the mother’s and the daughter’s education. Including the mother is a crucial element, because of her matriarchal role in the Hispanic family, Moreno says.

“By educating the mother, she then educates the entire family,” she says. “The importance of being involved is getting through to the Hispanic community.”

In the spring, 60 HMDP high school students graduated from the program. All of them pursued higher education; 35 are attending ASU. This number is huge for Latina girls, who, Moreno says, experience higher rates of pregnancy and dropping out.

“When you have 200 girls in one room, they’re all there for their education,” she says. “And they don’t fall into that statistic.”

Moreno says the program provides a much needed stability to the girls entering a new and sometimes daunting environment.“Once they get to the university, they feel completely comfortable because they’ve had this program with them the past five years of their lives,” she says.

This consistency proved crucial to program participant Liana MacNeill, an ASU Spanish senior. She says the program helped keep on track to graduate, while motivating her through all of college’s tough times.

“I don’t even know if I would’ve stayed in college if it wasn’t for HDMP,” MacNeill says. “They definitely kept me here.” MacNeill’s father urged her to apply for HMDP. And, even in seventh grade, she says she knew it would be a good idea to think about her educational future.

“Neither of my parents went to college, my mom lived on the other side of the country and none of my friends were university-bound,” she says.

She says students of all ages are eager to gain independence, but most don’t know how to obtain it healthily. For MacNeill, having an encouraging support system — both in her father and in the program’s advisers — helped keep her educational goals in sight.

“Even if you do have the drive, motivation and confidence to achieve your dreams, there are so many obstacles that get put in front of you from all sources,” she says. “It’s really helpful to have someone around you that understands what you’re trying to do and believes in you to help you achieve that.”

ASU helps parents help students
Though children strive to gain independence at all ages, it is up to those around them to encourage hopes and dreams, and to build positive behavioral patterns that include homework and independent learning. As a constant resource in their child’s life, parents have a major role to play in educating their child.

ASU fosters programs like Leaps and Bounds, the American Dream Academy, and the Hispanic Mother Daughter Program that all address these issues at different points along the educational continuum. By reinforcing positive educational aspirations, parents create a parallel learning environment in the home and at school. With the help of ASU, parents across the Valley are becoming more active participants in the educational system, obtaining the tools they need to boost their children’s future academic success.