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EdaVULA & Teuta DANUZAnothing motivates a child more than a climate in which learning is valued by apartnership of school, family, and community.Participation in school councils gives parents ways to work with schools to solveproblems and achieve common goals. School councils are used to institutionalizethe participation of the parent in school life and ensure their input in enhancingsupportive learning environments at school and home. Parent and communityinvolvement in decision making is widely seen as an essential component ofsuccessful school improvement (Leithwood&Menzies, 1998).The principals have a crucial role in promoting parental involvement. There arevarious opportunities for the principal to communicate effectively with the parentsand community. Except the regular meetings with teachers, principals can use schoolnewsletters, online communication through email, posted vision/mission statementsabout the school, and delivering booklets to inform parents on school expectationsand the progress of the students. Strong community outreach also focuses on adesire to increase involvement from parents, development of school councils, andan enhancement of resource allocation. By involving parents, leadership capacity isgrowing stronger and the school builds a larger support base (Lambert, 2003).In order to strengthen parent-school partnership in Kosovo, following the Lawon Primary and Secondary Education, Kosovo Parents’ Committee for Education(KPCE) was established. The functions of the KPCE are to represent the interestsof parents, inform the MEST on any aspect of primary or secondary educationin Kosovo and be the main channel of communication and consultation betweenthe Ministry and parents. One of the first recommendations of the KPCE was toestablish parent councils in all primary and secondary schools in Kosovo. Theseongoing efforts for the involvement of parents in school life are supporting parentalinvolvement in school governance as well.In order to address this issue, the Open Society Institute (OSI) has focusedon research of parental participation in school life as a crucial aspect of effectiveschool functioning. The 2008 Cross-National Survey of School Principals inSouth East Europe (SEE) countries has documented the need to improve factorsthat affect communication with parents and the possibility of the participationof parents in decision-making processes. According to the results of the surveyconducted in Kosovo (OSI,2009), this communication is mainly established as oneway,“school-parent” direction, where parent is more likely to listen than to expresshis position. The present study builds on current survey 3 on the communicationwith parents’, parents’ beliefs about the relationship with their children’s schoolsand activities related to the school’s governance.3. OSI 2009, http://www.see-educoop.net/aeiq/reports/kosovo_report.pdfAlbanian Journal of Educational Studies 76