Boosting Parental Involvement in Public Schools: Effective Strategies and Tips
- Maggie Domanowski
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
By: Maggie Litz Domanowski
At the School Boards of Academic Excellence 2026 Summer Conference, I came away from Travis Thorne’s session with a clearer understanding that parent empowerment isn’t a “nice-to-have” add-on to school improvement—it’s a foundational strategy. Travis Thorne serves as the Vice President of Family at the Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO), where he leads family-focused initiatives that strengthen parents, support children, and help families build pathways toward lasting opportunity. His work is grounded in the conviction that strong families are essential to human flourishing and long-term community transformation, and he challenged us to treat families as the primary drivers of long-term outcomes—not as an afterthought once systems are already struggling.
Travis’s expertise in parent empowerment, family formation, and relational program development showed up in the way he framed the work: real change happens through relationships. He emphasized building relationships with people and organizations so parents can uncover new pathways for growth, while also developing practical, scalable initiatives that equip parents as the primary leaders in their children’s lives. What stood out to me most was the balance—high expectations for parents paired with real support, tools, and community connections that make those expectations achievable.
I also learned how much Travis’s approach is shaped by his professional background. He brings more than 20 years of experience in consultative sales, leadership, and relationship management through roles at First Data/Fiserv, IBM, and HSBC. Throughout his corporate career, Travis built trusted partnerships, led complex initiatives, and delivered results in highly regulated, performance-driven environments—and those experiences now inform his strategic and operational approach to family-centered work. In other words, this isn’t just inspiration; it’s disciplined execution, measurable goals, and systems that can scale without losing the human element.
Travis’s perspective is also deeply relational because of his years of ministry service, with a focus on family and men’s small groups. His ministry work emphasizes relational leadership and equipping individuals to strengthen their households and build foundations that endure across generations. That intergenerational lens helped me think beyond short-term academic gains and toward the kind of stability that supports attendance, behavior, and long-run achievement.
The research and program evidence shared reinforced why this matters. According to RMC Research Corporation—an independent third-party evaluator that scientifically assesses a program’s effectiveness, implementation, and overall impact—active parental participation is strongly correlated with improved reading and writing proficiency, higher grades, and increased high school graduation rates. Children with highly involved parents also show fewer behavioral problems, better social functioning, and reduced chronic absenteeism. Evaluators further find that direct parent-child learning interactions (like reading together) and ongoing teacher-family communication are more impactful than passive school-based involvement, which helped me rethink what schools should prioritize when they say they want “family engagement.” (Sources: The impact of parental involvement on the education outcomes of their children (2025), The Role of Parental Involvement in Students' Academic Achievement, and School Improvement Research Series: Close-Up #6)
Finally, I learned about Raising Highly Capable Kids (RHCK), an evidence-based, 13-week parenting curriculum developed by RezilientKidz in partnership with the Search Institute. RHCK teaches parents the “40 Developmental Assets” that build resilience, academic success, and strong character in children, and its impact surveys show striking results: 95% of parents say that because of RHCK, they have grown in their skills and effectiveness as a parent, with pre- and post-workshop evaluations showing nearly all surveyed parents learn new parenting skills and 96% showing major improvements in the “Positive Values” asset category. The structure is intentionally practical—each week focuses on a theme (from support networks and boundaries to motivating learning and building character), and every session includes discussion, a real-life exercise, and a next-step plan. My biggest takeaway is that when we invest in parents with proven tools and consistent support, we’re not just helping individual families—we’re strengthening the conditions that make student success sustainable.
Comments