Parental involvement in three New Mexico pre-schools

The statement that all children will learn, grow, and develop to realize their full potential referenced continuously by educators seems to have little impact on schools in numerous school districts across the country. The Early Childhood Education programs continue to dwindle down and are the first to be cut from the budget, such as the pre-school/Early Childhood programs in each school. Administrators and policymakers tend to focus on the latter years instead of the early childhood years which are from pre-natal to eight. There have been few research studies on early childhood education in regard to family unit activities. Research does say that parents who are active in their child’s learning and school activities are positively associated with learning and school outcomes. Many parents take matters into their own hands and have started to prepare their children for school readiness and are not leaving it to the school system. This topic is the focus of this research: How parents get involved and what kinds of activities they do with their children to prepare them for school life. Twenty-five questions with sub questions were compiled in a survey that was administered to a sample of parents in three schools in the Gallup McKinley County School District located in Gallup, New Mexico, a small community with a population of 21,678 and over 100 diverse cultures.