Parent Leader

NYC parents want more say

2005-12-12T18:10:00.000-05:00

Parents Advisory Council in NY City is pushing Chancellor Klein to enforce parent involvement requirements, according to NY Times.

"Essentially, these requests boil down to asking people to do their jobs," said Tim Johnson, the chairman of the advisory council and a parent leader in District 2 in Manhattan, who noted that after the mayor won control, the administration hired a full-time parent coordinator for every school.

"They are spending probably 100 times what they used to spend on parent engagement," Mr. Johnson said. "We're just not getting any value out of that. How can you have a full-time, union person in the school as a parent coordinator and still not have a functioning P.T.A.?"

More on Million Fathers

2005-10-15T09:52:00.000-04:00

Great story from Christian Science Monitor on Million Father March, this one focused on fathers' impact on Amistad School in Connecticut.

Communicating the value of parent involvement

2005-09-06T14:21:00.000-04:00

New guide from the Learning First Alliance, a coalition of education organizations, encourages school leaders to proactively embrace the power of parent involvement as one of seven core values that drive educational improvement. Guide focuses on how school leaders can promote their schools and offers advice on how to talk about parent involvement...along with specific steps that administrators can take to make it happen in their schools.

Other six topics that school leaders should stress, says LFA: values such as hard work, school discipline, academics, accountability, benefits of public ed, and accurate public information (both successes and shortcomings).

Excerpts:

What to Say
• When it comes to their children, parents are often more powerful than they believe. Parents can use this power to shape their children’s behavior so they can succeed in school—by teaching them respect and responsibility, by encouraging them to work hard to learn, by showing a consistent interest in their schoolwork, and by celebrating their accomplishments.
• We need parents as our partners to ensure that every child can succeed in our schools.

What to Do
• Describe how you support parents’ efforts to help their children succeed. Assist parents in understanding the curriculum and homework assignments. See that messages are returned promptly, teachers are available to talk with parents, and school meetings and events are scheduled at times that permit parents to attend. Then publicize these efforts with parents and the community.

Inspired in Indianapolis

2005-09-06T14:03:00.000-04:00

Interesting interview with dynamic, new, no-excuses superintendent of Indianapolis schools, who pledges to "grow our own parent involvement."

Excerpt from the Indianapolis Star story: "He envisions a more challenging curriculum, while understanding the need to support struggling kids. He is planning a program to connect with new IPS parents from the day their children are born.

"That's particularly crucial in a district where so many kindergartners arrive already trailing children in suburban districts.

"When the children reach 4 or 5, not only do we want them connected to the school district, we also want the parent connected," he said. "We're going to grow and raise our own involved parents."'

Million Father March

2005-09-04T07:02:00.000-04:00

Chicago-based group, the Black Star Project, has organized back-to-school events in 79 communities, encouraging fathers to get involved in their children's education. Nonprofit offers multiple programs for parents and educators, designed to improve achievement for low-income and minority students.

Education Week reports: "The event is taking different forms in different places. In Kansas City, Mo., a radio station has offered to drive fathers and their children to school in limousines. In one Illinois town, the mayor planned to greet men as they brought their children to school. One Hawaii town organized an effort to get men in prison to write to friends and relatives and ask them to take their children to school in their stead.

"Here in Prince George’s County, Md., a predominantly African-American, largely middle-class community east of Washington, civic leaders asked parents to bring their children to school on the first day. They dubbed the event “Embracing Our Village,” in an attempt to revitalize the sense of communal responsibility for children in the oft-cited African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.'"

Maryland's leadership

2005-09-02T10:30:00.000-04:00

Maryland state school board acccepts landmark report from a 125-person parent advisory council, calling for much greater efforts by the state and local districts to promote parent and family involvement. It represents the strongest set of state-level recommendations anywhere to support increased parent involvement--including mandatory parent membership on the state board, a huge emphasis on training for parents and educators alike, regular satisfaction surveys, and a call for local districts to factor parent satisfaction into staff reviews. State Supt. Nancy Grasmick is very supportive and I'm confident she'll push for implementation; some of the recommendations will require legislative changes. (Note: We served as the national adviser to this effort.) Washington Post story here. Report and related materials here.

Parents: "A Big Idea"

2005-08-29T13:23:00.000-04:00

Parent involvement is one of 10 Big Ideas for Better Schools being promoted by the George Lucas Foundation. Excerpt below from the latest issue of its magazine, Edutopia. The Sept. 2005 also includes an excellent article about how to rethink how we use school time more effectively. Did you know, for instance, that in 42 states only 41% of postsecondary school time must be spent on academics?

Involve: Parents
When schoolwork involves parents, students learn more. Parents and other caregivers are a child's first teachers and can instill values that encourage school learning. Schools should build strong alliances with parents and welcome their active participation in the classroom. Educators should inform parents of the school's educational goals, the importance of high expectations for each child, and ways of assisting with homework and classroom lessons.

Reality Check: In the Sacramento Unified School District, teachers make home visits to students' families. Teachers gain a better understanding of their students' home environment, and parents see that teachers are committed to forging closer home-school bonds. If English is not spoken in the home, translators accompany the teachers.

Did your district make the list?

2005-08-26T16:57:00.000-04:00

Standard & Poor's has identified 203 school districts in 13 states for significantly narrowing the gaps in achievement between black, Hispanic or economically disadvantaged students and their higher-performing classmates while simultaneously raising the average proficiency rates of the student groups being compared, such as black students and white students. Gaps were closed by at least 5% in the districts. States studied: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia and Washington. Read more.

Train the teachers

2005-08-26T09:53:00.000-04:00

New report from a group of progressive organizations recommends that "training on techniques for communicating and engaging parents should be part of teacher training and professional development programs." Parent involvement rates only a paragraph in the 85-page report, but something is better than nothing. Majpor recommendations call for greatly expanding funding, adopting voluntary national standards, and extending and reorganizing the school day and school year. The report, "Getting Smarter, Becoming Fairer: A Progressive Education Agenda for a Stronger Nation," is available from the Center for American Progress.

Writing parents about teachers

2005-06-28T11:13:00.001-04:00

Alabama school districts once again will be notifying parents if their child is not being taught by a "highly qualified teacher," as defined by NCLB. According to news report, letter will say: "As of the date of this letter, your child's teacher (name) has yet to complete every requirement of the new federal definition of 'highly qualified.' He/She is, however, currently working to meet the new requirement, and we have full confidence in his/her ability to teach effectively in the current assignment."

Undercounting dropouts

2005-06-23T16:07:00.000-04:00

Tough new report from Ed Trust criticizes most states for continuing to seriously inflate their graduation rates and goes after US Department of Education for allowing them to get away with it. Lots of charts that compare official state graduation rates with more accurate (and lower) tallies from groups like the Urban Institute. The conclusion:

"If we want high schools that
truly serve all students and
prepare them for work, college,
and life, we first need to know how
many students are leaving school
altogether. And we need to know
who these students are. With
that information in hand, we can
begin to craft targeted, responsive
improvement strategies.
Some states know this and,
like Washington, have taken it to
heart. They’ve been thoughtful
and creative in calculating good
graduation rate estimates, even in
the absence of ideal data systems.
Others, under cover of a
negligent U.S. Department of
Education, have skirted the issue.
Some have allowed their work to
build future data systems, while
important and necessary, to eclipse
the very urgent needs of schools
and students. These states, and
the nation as a whole, cannot
afford to wait any longer for good
information, because as we wait,
doors are closing on hundreds of
thousands of young people.
Getting an honest picture
of who is graduating from high
school should be the priority
of everyone—educators,
policymakers, parents, business
and community leaders—who is
invested in improving our high
schools. As The Indianapolis Star
declared: “The first step is to tell
the truth.”

Helping with math

2005-06-23T14:54:00.000-04:00

Good advice from District Admimnistrator magazine on how parents can help their kids with math.

Extracurriculars for homeschoolers?

2005-06-22T17:22:00.000-04:00

Good front-page story in today's New York Times about the growing push to force districts to allow home schooled children the oppportunity to participate in sports and others extracurriculars.

New guidance on tutoring

2005-06-18T08:57:00.000-04:00

New guidance document from US Department of Education on what states and districts must do to provide quality supplemental services to students in low-performing schools. The 57-page report answers questions such as: what must the notice to parents contain, can the district set a deadline for parents to apply, who is monitoring vendor quality, what resources are available to help parents make a good choice? And scores of others.

New Metlife survey

2005-06-18T08:40:00.000-04:00

This year's MetLife survey includes an important chapter on parent involvement in middle and high school. I need to look more closely at it, but this finding jumped out at me: "According to two-thirds of secondary school principals (66%) and half (47%) of new teachers at the secondary school level, involving parents is a priority at their school. Students’ perspectives on this issue are slightly different. Parental involvement tends to be more focused on after-school activities. Nearly half
(45%) say that their school does a good job of encouraging parental involvement in after-school activities. But this is almost twice as many as say that their school does a good job of encouraging parental involvement in the classroom (27%). And for every student who says that their school does a good job of encouraging parental involvement in the classroom, there is a student who says that their school does not give parents the opportunity for any meaningful roles (24%). The predominant opinion among secondary school students is that their school only contacts parents when there is a problem with their child (68%)."

Engaging in finance lawsuits

2005-06-18T08:18:00.000-04:00

Useful new guide from the Public Education Network makes the case for why parent leaders and community-based organizations need to get involved in school finance lawsuits...with advice on how to do so. This guide answers questions such as: What does finance litigation mean? How does it come about? Whom does it affect? What options and outcomes does it make available to communities?

Word-of-mouth choices

2005-06-14T18:44:00.000-04:00

Interesting article about how parents choose schools in Milwaukee, which has one of the largest choice programs in the country: gut instinct and word of mouth typically trump extensive research. Part of a 7-part series by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on choice.

San Diego inspiration

2005-06-13T18:12:00.000-04:00

Inspiring story of parents in San Diego who took charge of their children's education and created a charter school. From a column in the Sacramento Bee: "More than 700 parents representing about 70 percent of children in the Gompers Secondary School attendance area, signed petitions demanding that the San Diego Unified School District relinquish control of the campus and hand it over to a board of parents, teachers, academics and community activists. After initially resisting, the district's trustees approved the request.

"This fall, the site will reopen as Gompers Middle Charter School under a partnership with University of California, San Diego. It will have a longer school day, many new teachers and high expectations. The school will combine intense instruction in basic subjects with strong discipline and close attention to the problems many children from this area deal with outside of school.

Three other San Diego neighborhood groups took control of their schools the same day Gompers did. And what is happening here increasingly is happening throughout California. Parents, it seems, are less willing to accept a public school system that cannot or will not help their children succeed. This has always been the case in affluent neighborhoods, where families could turn to private schools if they were dissatisfied with what the government offered them. But now parents in poorer communities are finding the tools that allow them to do much the same thing within the public school system."

NCLB: Where are the parents?

2005-06-12T08:21:00.000-04:00

Wendy Puriefoy of the Public Education Network, writing in Ed Week, says NCLB hasn't come close to living up to its promise of involving parents in their child's education. She's right. Excerpt: "By and large, the public has been assigned a perfunctory role in school improvement. Districts send out report cards that people cannot understand, agendas for reform parents had no hand in developing, and invitations to meetings at which they are expected to play no active part. Parents see the names of their children’s schools on watch lists, but they don’t know what those lists mean. They hear politicians talk about school choice, but they don’t see any real choices in their own neighborhoods. They know they need to speak up in order to get the services their kids deserve, but they don’t know how to voice their concerns or who will listen to them."

Getting tough with parents

2005-06-12T08:15:00.000-04:00

New Georgia truancy law could have real consequences for parents of truant students: fines and jail time. Read more here.

Too reliant on mom and dad?

2005-06-03T08:53:00.000-04:00

Middle and high school students may be relying too much on their parents for advice on what to do after high school, according to a new survey of 3,000 students conducted by ACT, the college testing company. The ACT report, "College Readiness Begins in Middle School," says students are not planning properly. One reason may be that students are relying more on parents and friends than on trained school personnel for help in selecting their high school classes. Fewer than two-thirds (63%) of respondents said they received help from a guidance counselor in selecting their classes, and around one-fourth (27%) said they were helped by a principal. In comparison, the overwhelming majority named their mother (92%), father (84%), or friends (85%) as sources who provided help in selecting high school courses.

"Trained school personnel know what classes students should take to be prepared for college and careers," said an ACT spokesman. "Parents and friends certainly have the student's best interests at heart and are strong sources of support, but unless the school district has a formal parent information program that focuses on educational and career planning, parents may not always be well enough informed to provide accurate advice."

The ACT report recommends that school districts set up a formal program to help students develop a college readiness plan starting in middle school. It urges schools to work with all students and their parents, explaining to them the importance of taking a challenging curriculum and the effect it can have on their future educational, career and income options. It also recommends that schools work with families to calculate college costs and develop a plan to meet those costs.

"Schools can help students by helping their parents," said ACT. "Information is vital. If parents understand what their children need to meet their goals, then they can properly advise and encourage them to make the right decisions on course planning."

Good advice.

Helicopter parents--again

2005-05-31T18:28:00.000-04:00

Ever since Time went after overly involved parents a few months ago, the media has a new hook for writing about parent involvement gone bad. The latest from the Cincinnatti Enquirer, which starts:

"Almost every school has them.

"Parents who hound their child's teacher. Parents who do their kid's homework. Parents who argue with teachers for grade changes, lenient punishment or preferential treatment.

"Parents who hover too much.

"Some educators call them "helicopter parents," saying they can be over-involved, pushy, even an impediment to their children's education. Parents say they mean well and often don't realize when they've crossed the line. " And so on.

Best quote is the last one: "I could use a couple more helicopters," said Jennifer Moody, principal of Greener Elementary in Mount Healthy. "I've got some who won't even get into the aircraft." See for yourself here.

Overcoming poor college counseling

2005-05-31T18:09:00.000-04:00

What do you do if you think your child's college guidance counselor has aimed too low? The Christian Science Monitor offers a few examples here.

When principals try to take over

2005-05-31T18:04:00.000-04:00

Good advice from PTO Today's Tim Sullivan on how parent groups should respond when principals try to coopt or close down their groups. Excerpt: "When parent groups are micro-managed by their school administrations, a very predictable outcome takes place. The most enthusiastic, talented leaders slowly move away from the group. Those folks will find other outlets for their volunteer efforts—perhaps the cancer society or the Girl Scouts or the like—places that will value and use their skills. While the parent group will not go away, it will instead be led more by followers, with predictable results. Parent involvement is almost always lower in schools with highly governed parent groups than in schools with empowered groups. You’ve got to nicely and persistently make that case to the powers that be. " More here.

Parents as political force

2005-05-31T17:59:00.000-04:00

Short piece in USA Today on efforts to mobilize parents to address isuses ranging from school funding to obesity.