Rahm Emanuel’s “Transactional” Perspective On Parent Involvement/Engagement

As most readers know, Rahm Emanuel is favored to become the next Mayor of Chicago, where there is mayoral control of public schools. In his response to the question “Please explain how you would encourage more parental involvement in the public schools. Do you support tying parental involvement to school funding or what schools should […]

Obama’s Blueprint For Reform Is Very Weak On Parent Engagement/Involvement

The Washington Post just ran a column about a new book several education researchers have written severely criticizing the research base of President Obama’s “Blueprint For Reform,” his successor to No Child Left Behind. Here’s a quote from that column: For example, it says, “Family involvement is crucial to education, but the evidence for a […]

Promise Neighborhood Award Winners Announced

Yesterday, the Department of Education announced that 21 nonprofit organizations and universities will receive Promise Neighborhoods planning grants. These are designed to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone. You can read more about them in these places: The Hechinger Ed blog has a good summary and analysis. Here’s the Department of Ed’s official announcement And here’s […]

One More Post On HCZ

The House of Representatives is now considering a bill to reduce spending for the Promise Neighborhoods Initiative by seventy percent, according to the Hechinger Report. Promise Neighborhoods is the name given to the effort to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone. Boy, it’s sure been in the news over the past 36 hours.

“Ready by 21”

Claus von Zastrow has written a very intriguing post over at Public School Insights called Getting Students Ready by 21. It’s about an organization named Ready by 21. In many ways, it’s similar to the Harlem Children’s Zone. I’ve posted about the Harlem Children’s Zone several times here and like its work. The work of […]

My Best Posts & Articles About Building Parent Engagement In Schools — 2009

I’ve been doing a lot of work this year on building parent engagement in schools, including having a book published (Building Parent Engagement In Schools) and starting a new blog called Engaging Parents In School. Plus, I continuing to do the usual work at our school of actually engaging parents, too! I thought readers of […]

Community Schools

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Education Secretary Duncan spoke at a conference yesterday designed to support the creation of more “community schools” in the United States. Typically, community schools are ones that host multiple social services, as well as regular school classes. A report on community schools was released at the conference. The […]

“Whatever It Takes”

Whatever It Takes is the title of a recent book about the Harlem Children’s Zone (you can see my thoughts and questions about the Zone here). I just learned that its author, Paul Tough, has a blog that supports the book and provides updates on the Zone (and its proposed national expansion). One of the […]