Individuals who are actively engaged in the life of the student play a crucial role in many aspects of their development and can defined as a student's biological parents, extended family, legal guardians or older siblings. Research has shown that an increase in parent involvement correlates with an increase in student achievement (Ballen & Moles, 1994; Benjet, 1995; Center on Families, Communities, Schools, and Children's Learning, 1995a; Epstein, 1991). It has been found that communication is the key to successful parent involvement (Burbules 1993; Center on Families 1995; Epstein 1995). Both teachers and parents agree that communication is pivotal to foster and maintain a positive school-home partnership, but, the reality is that each feels that the other party is responsible for initiating communication (Ramirez, 2001). Although both parties agree that this partnership is important, teachers do not generally follow this school of thought. Attributing "blame" to each other creates a communication barrier between school and home, as such, creating an adversarial atmosphere. When teachers take the initiative to communicate with home, it is usually for negative reasons such as behavioral problems. Even then, teachers contact only 50% of families (Lee, 1994; Ramirez 1999).
