When Francisco Vargas takes his child out for ice cream, he drives by the University of the Pacific in El Monte. "This is your next school," he says. "Even though he's only five, he understands," says Vargas. "He says, 'Wow, it looks good!'"

Vargas's driving route was a "homework" assignment from Esther Romo, his instructor at a class conducted by the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE) for parents of children at Longfellow Elementary School in El Monte. PIQE is a community-based organization that works with school districts throughout California, helping parents get more involved in their children's education.

PIQE instructors emphasize they are not teaching parents how to raise their children, but rather how to access the keys to success. "It's also about informing them of their rights as parents," says Romo. Instructors give parents examples of when and how to approach teachers and principals and how to get phone numbers, request translators, and advocate for their children.

The Training

• The curriculum: Topics include: home-school collaboration; the home, motivation and self-esteem; communication and discipline; drugs, gangs, school and community; how the school system functions; and college and career choices. In the eighth week, parents hold an open forum with the principal.
• The philosophy: "My motto is: Show your child respect and your child will respect you," says Romo. PIQE classes emphasize small-group discussion. "Working in groups motivates them; they get excited. We like to validate what they say," says Romo.
• Self-esteem: Romo shows parents how simple acts like sitting with a child during homework time or listening with direct eye contact can enhance self-esteem. In one class she places chairs back to back and asks parents to try talking to each other. When they turn their chairs around and talk, they realize the importance of face-to-face communication. She also asks parents to brainstorm a list of their good qualities. "When they focus on the negative with their children, it's because that's how they have lived," she says. By role-playing different types of students, "They realize that teachers give lower grades to kids with low self-esteem, those who don't participate and don't do homework."
• Academic focus: Parents learn startling statistics showing the importance of academic improvement: 80 percent of Latino students are behind grade-level by fifth grade; only eight in 100 Latino and African American students graduate from college. And trainers work to show parents that they and their children can succeed. They give practical tips—for example, Romo tells parents to place a book in every room, including bathrooms.
• Real-life homework: Instructors often give parents "homework" assignments like meeting with teachers to find out about their child's reading level, finding tutoring, and figuring out how to obtain and understand a child's school records.

Ongoing Support
Some schools offer a "follow-up coaches program"—parents from former PIQE classes call recent graduates to answer questions and to support their new ways of working for their children. Sometimes parents in a class form an ongoing group for support and advocacy.

Keys to Success

• Personal contact: According to Carmen Russian, PIQE executive director, personal contact before, during, and after the course is key. Before a course starts, PIQE graduates call parents and tell them in their native language of the impact the course had on them. Then every week the instructors call their students the night before class.
• "Climate of comfort": Classes are always informal and interactive; instructors avoid lecturing and even pass out candy during the breaks. A "climate of comfort" is important, says Russian: "If parents sense the course is another conference from the school, they won't attend."
• Administration buy-in: PIQE won't come to a school unless invited by the school administration, so parents' efforts to become more active will be welcomed.

The Results
By the eighth week, parents tell Romo that their kids are asking for more books. Parents also report that they are sitting with their children during homework time and communicating more with their children's teachers.

A study by the Rand Corporation found that "fewer children of PIQE graduates than of non-graduates have been involved in disciplinary action and have been absent from school without permission. More PIQE graduates? have been in recent contact with their children's teachers and spent a fixed amount of time on homework."

"I've learned how to help my kids with their homework, how to listen and pay attention," says Olga Lainfiesda, another of Romo's students. Vargas concludes, "I feel better about my relationship with my child and the school."

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This article originally appeared in the January 2002 edition of the Children's Advocate, published by the Action Alliance for Children.