Parents can either be a great asset for students or they can be the biggest distraction. In the ideal world parents would want to be involved in their childrens education and support the teachers in helping them reach their full potential. Unfortunately, we have all encountered situations where parents are less than supportive, and/or home issues distract our students.

Difficult parents can be good or bad. The best case, parents are really championing for their student and sometimes the school does have it wrong, and parents are truly advocating for what they believe is in the best interest of the child. The worst case parents are absent from the childs life. They may be physically present but fail to nurture the student, and genuinely not care about what's in the best of their child. But this is a whole different discussion.

Getting back to the main question, of keeping parents involved. I think forming relationships and keeping an open communication is key. Parent teacher conferences are great, but take a lot of time. I think technology can really help. I think emails are the easiest and most convenient way of communicating. Having an online portfolio would be great. Ask that parents check this regularly.  Something similar to blackboard that has the assignments, rubrics and syllabi for parents to know exactly the targets of instruction. Then posting the completed assignments would allow the parents to see their child's progress, and if they are meeting the unit goals. Transparency is key, because when a student brings home a less than average grade, parents could feel blindsided and then turn angry on the teacher. By having everything online and easily accessible the responsibility is on the parent.