Program spells success for families in need of support is newspaper headline about a program in Ohio that has what are — in effect — social workers based in each school site to provide needed social services to parents and families. It’s particularly interesting because it has research showing its positive effect on student academic achievement.

It’s an example of the sort of thing schools can do to begin to attack the two-thirds of factors that affect student academic performance and not just the one-third of factors within the teacher’s control.

It would be nice, though, if such programs were not so obviously using the social work model of looking as parents solely as “clients” and, instead or in addition to, explore how schools could work with them more as “partners.” That way, schools could connect parents who have similar challenges with each other and help them to work together to solve them, and work with other local organizations, like religious congregations, unions, and neighborhood groups, to do the same.