Jan 10, 2018
Parents needs tutors as much as students need the academic support. Why? Because tutors can help parents navigate their children’s long-term path to success.
Making sense of how their children are doing academically, and what should be done, can make any parent feel like they’re in uncharted waters.
Education innovators in New Orleans came up with a novel solution to plug parents back into the learning process through “navigators” who meet parents where they spend a large part of life making ends meet to support their families: the workplace.
Non-profit EdNavigator, which launched in 2015 and now serves more than 2,000 families in New Orleans and, as of this January, Boston, cooperates with local employers to allow navigators to visit parents at work to discuss their children’s academic progress, future ambitions, and what remedies exist for students who need that leg up.
“There’s a huge misconception that … parents aren’t more involved in their children’s education because they don’t care,” says EdNavigator co-founder Timothy Daly. “It’s that they have to work for a living, often more than one job, or with inflexible hours to be at school for meeting during the day. Our goal is to find ways to empower parents amid those demands.”
Tutors play an active role in their students’ lives. Just as important is playing an active role in parents’ lives, too, which requires a positive and communicative tutor-parent relationship.
One parent in the EdNavigator program even called her navigator “a miracle worker” for all he’s done for her child. Hey, tutors, how’s that for a well-deserved compliment?
banner image from https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/01/10/how-to-solve-the-parent-engagement-problem.html
How to Solve the Parent-Engagement Problem https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/01/10/how-to-solve-the-parent-engagement-problem.html
