A message aimed at parents has been airing in TV and radio commercials: You are your child's first teacher.

The slogan's goal is to encourage parents to be more involved in their children's early education.

"Preschool can absolutely occur in the home with mom or grandma," said Wilma Hashimoto, associate director of early care and education with the Fresno County Office of Education.

Studies have shown that students attending preschool are more likely to go to college, have fewer special education needs later, cost less to educate and contribute more to the economy later in their lives.

Research also shows that kids who come from low-income backgrounds often lag behind their peers in kindergarten if they get little parental help and don't attend preschool, said Larry Powell, Fresno County's superintendent of schools.

Powell's office has gotten about $600,000 in grants in the past two years from the Packard Foundation to improve preschool programs and parent involvement in teaching young children.

For Pacific Union Elementary School District, parent involvement was seen as crucial to improving student performance.

In the 370-student rural elementary school near the tiny Fresno County town of Bowles, school officials have partnered with Fresno State on a program to increase parent awareness and involvement in early childhood education.

The district's goal is to improve student readiness and preparation for school, said Walt Buster, co-director of the Central Valley Educational Leadership Institute and its Rural Schools Network at Fresno State. Buster oversees the work of Fresno State's doctoral students.

Each year, students were arriving at Pacific Union less prepared for kindergarten, said Superintendent Warren Jennings.

Jennings said the district wanted to focus on preschool-age children "so the parents know what's expected and we know what parents need from us."

Surveys were mailed in English and Spanish. Doctoral students called families for follow-up and even visited homes if surveys were not returned.

One of the first challenges was to meet with parents to talk about how they could help kids learn. The district knew it wouldn't be easy to set a meeting for parents dealing with work schedules and child-care and transportation problems.

But the parents were motivated. "For the first session, about 50 [parents] showed up," Jennings said. "We would have been happy with 12 to 15."

At last month's meeting, Diana Decker, a child development teacher at Fresno City College and former longtime preschool teacher, gave parents pointers. She advised them to speak in English as well as continuing to speak in their native language at home.

Lorena Gutierrez, who attended Pacific Union as a child and is vice president of the school's parent club, said Decker talked in a way that parents could easily grasp.

"She told us how the mind of a child works and explained it at our level," Gutierrez said. "This year, it's more of a partnership between the school and the families."

Rachelle Mendez, who has a daughter in kindergarten and a son in sixth grade, said the materials she received from Decker gave her new insight on child development.

"She gave us a packet about how teaching begins in the crib, how a child's skills are developing and how parents can teach them different types of tools even before they know how to talk," Mendez said.

Now Mendez feels more aware of how her daughter sees things.

Mendez said expectations are higher for younger students than even a few years ago.

"They are expected to do more reading, know their numbers ... and words," she said. "I don't remember my son reading out of preschool and into kindergarten."