Parents at a Texas School District have been fighting to create a PTA in local schools, but the the District has been resisting. It sounds like a very weird situation. As one parent put it: “You go to the school, you sign up to do a job, they tell you what to do,” parent Jaim [...]
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Last September, I wrote a post titled Conditional Cash Transfers, Parents, And Schools. It talked about a new program that was becoming fashionable called conditional cash transfers. These are payments made to families to encourage them to do things like go to doctor appointments, and to children for increased school attendance and higher standardized test [...]
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The Obama Administration’s Blueprint for re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is being criticized for not emphasizing parent engagement. Here is an excerpt from an article that appeared today In Education Week. It described a meeting recently held between Education Secretary Duncan and urban superintendents and school board members: Yolie Flores Aguilar, [...]
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Part Three Of The MetLife Survey Of The American Teacher has just been released. I’ve written about the first two parts in my other blog. The third part of this extensive survey of teachers and students is titled Teaching As A Career and “examines collaboration in the context of teacher professional growth, experience level and [...]
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I’ve written several times about why I oppose “parent triggers,” which allow 51 percent of parents in a local school’s area “trigger” dramatic changes in a school. A Connecticut bill is advancing in its legislature, and was just voted out of a committee. Read about it at Parent Trigger Bill Passes Its First Test.
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Middleweb, a well-respected resource of materials for teachers and parents of middle-school children, has an excellent collection of resources related to parents and schools. Their usefulness is certainly not limited to students of any one age group. It’s worth checking them out.
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To Close Achievement Gap, US Must Address Major Health Risks for Urban Minority Youth, Study Finds is the title of an article from Science Daily. It reports on research from over 300 sources highlighting the impact health issues have on student learning. As I describe in the book, it’s unlikely political will can be generated [...]
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Over two million people in California are eligible for food stamps but are not receiving them, according to Sunday’s Los Angeles Times (California’s food stamp participation rate is nation’s second-lowest). I’ve written before about why I think schools could get involved in helping parents register for food stamps. It would be a win/win situation for [...]
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Education leader: Empower teachers, engage parents is the headline of an article that appeared yesterday in the Reno Gazette-Journal. It’s describing a meeting of 600 teachers from the National Education Association. Here’s an excerpt focusing on speaker NEA Vice-President Lily Eskelsen: Bringing parents into the school improvement process is vital, she said, noting that means [...]
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The New York Times published an article today headlined At Stuyvesant, Interpreting Parent-Teacher Night. It shows how one school is trying to deal with the problem of having interpreters help communicate between teachers and parents. It’s a lot better idea than how an Oklahoma school deals with the issue.
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Check-out this interesting story: Parents and children defend homemade treats at City Hall rally. I tend to agree with those New York City parents who are saying that there are more effective ways the School District can combat childhood obesity than banning the use of homemade items at school bake sales. Of course, it would [...]
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Here’s an excerpt from a statement issued by National PTA President Charles J. “Chuck” Saylors about the Obama Administration’s new education plan: “…we are deeply concerned that the blueprint contains no comprehensive plan for meaningful family engagement in education. The blueprint, which is aligned to the President’s FY11 budget, signals that the Administration lacks a [...]
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The Brookings Institution just came out with a major report on schools called The 2009 Brown Center Report on American Education: How Well Are American Students Learning?. It’s divided into three sections. I am dumbstruck by the second one, which is what led me to write an uncharacteristically strongly-worded headline on this post. That part [...]
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Do They Really Care?: Latino Parent Involvement In Urban Schools is a PowerPoint presentation geared towards school psychologists. However, the information in it is useful for anyone working with parents and schools.
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I’ve written several posts about parents and the Detroit School District. Here’s the latest article on the topic from the Detroit News, DPS initiative to get parents involved, offer training. I’d love to hear from somebody who’s actually on the ground there…
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The Public Advocate (an elected official who is first in line to succeed the the mayor) of New York City has just announced a new organization of parents to organize for school change. You can read about it at De Blasio creates new citywide parent advocacy group, which also includes a number of other links [...]
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Part Two Of The MetLife Survey Of The American Teacher has just been released. I posted earlier this month about Part One of the survey — see The Saddest School-Related Statistic I’ve Heard In Awhile…. I’m just going to share one item from Part Two that stands-out for me. For further thoughts on the report, [...]
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Taking Leadership, Innovating Change:Profiles in Family, School, and Community Engagement is a new report that highlights what the authors believe to be twelve excellent examples of school/parent engagement. It’s a free downloadable report. I’m familiar with a couple of the authors, and have respect for them. I’m not familiar with all twelve examples they describe, [...]
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As I highlight in my book, a major reason schools need to engage parents is to develop allies and respond to the many issues outside of the schoolhouse walls that affect academic achievement within them — health, unemployment, safety, etc. Two new studies have just come-out reinforcing that view. You can read about them in [...]
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As regular readers know, I am not a supporter of the so-called “parent trigger,” the new law in California that lets parents “trigger” an overhaul of a school. To make matters worse, there is no mechanism in place to guide how it is put into practice. The Educated Guess, a California education-related blog, reports on [...]
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