Detroit Update

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…

Parents In Detroit

Last month, I posted about an organization called the Detroit Parent Network, and how they were likely to get a major contract from the Detroit Public Schools to coordinate parent involvement for the district. That contract has indeed come to pass, and they’re opening seven “parent centers.” From what I read, the Parent Network sounds […]

“Parent Power” In Detroit

The Metro News just ran an article about the Detroit Parent Network called Parent power:Amid the Detroit schools chaos, who helps parents? It sounds like they’re doing some pretty impressive work, but all I know about them is what I’ve read in newspaper articles. I’d be interested in hearing from local people who might be […]

February’s (2021) Useful Parent Engagement Resources – Part Two

Balance of Power is from the Global Family Research Project. Family Engagement Game is from the same organization. Central to turning around public education in Detroit is reengaging the parents who had been largely cut out of the district. #LeadersToLearnFrom https://t.co/XU53QBhMxO — Education Week Teacher (@EdWeekTeacher) February 24, 2021 From @washingtonpost: Kids’ math skills have […]

June’s (2018) Useful Parent Engagement Resources

How To Get Your Kids To Do Chores (Without Resenting It) is from NPR. Network of California districts to explore the enigma of engaging parents is from Ed Source. For many parents, school data is hard to find and hard to understand https://t.co/PHCkHRallV — Alexander (@alexanderrusso) June 26, 2018 https://t.co/O8EnEvOUmx #ell #ellchat @TNTP pic.twitter.com/Eubbx089Tr — […]

Teacher’s Union Convention Considers Support For Making Home Visits

Source: shareasimage.com via Larry on Pinterest     Carrie Rose, the extraordinary and tireless Director of the Parent/Teacher Home Visit Project is at the Detroit convention of the American Federation of Teachers. She let me know that the St. Paul affiliate (read more about their work at St. Paul teachers visit students’ homes in search […]

The Worst Parent Engagement Ideas

I’ve posted a lot about good parent engagement/involvement ideas, but sometimes you can learn just as much from looking at bad examples. You can see lots of good ideas at all my parent engagement-related “The Best” lists here. Here are my choices for The Worst Parent Engagement Ideas: Putting Parents in Charge is a condescending […]

Update On Proposed Michigan Law To Jail Parents Who Don’t Attend Parent Conferences

Last month, I wrote about a Michigan prosecutor who had the ill-conceived notion of jailing parents who didn’t attend a teacher conference in their child’s school. Unfortunately, he’s moving forward with it. Read Jail For Parents Skipping Teacher Conferences in Detroit?, an AP story. As I’ve written previously: Why not make something mandatory… instead of […]

Don’t Attend A Conference With Your Child’s Teacher? Then Get Fined Or Go To Jail!

Here’s another bad idea to promote parent engagement in schools — a Michigan prosecutor wants to make it illegal for a parent to miss a scheduled parent-teacher conference. As I wrote in my post about an equally ill-conceived plan to make parent involvement mandatory in a San Jose school District (see “School to Parents: Volunteer […]

“Why parents matter”

I’ve written several posts about some interesting sounding efforts by the Detroit schools to connect with parent. Unfortunately, all I know about what’s going on is what I read in the papers. I’d love to hear from someone on the ground there. The head of the Detroit schools, Robert Bobb, and the leader of the […]