Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools?
In a speech delivered to the NAACP last week, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called for parents and communities to play a more formal role in the tough work of turning around chronically underperforming schools. The remarks came in the wake of much discussion among educators, policymakers and even some lawmakers that turning around a low-performing school requires a look at circumstances beyond the school building. "Based on your input and the very productive engagement we have had around the school improvement grant program," Duncan said, "we will revise our ESEA reauthorization proposal to require parent and community input."
The required input "means notification, outreach, public input, and honest, open discussion about the right option for each community." Details about how exactly schools would gather input from surrounding communities are unknown.
What do you think is the appropriate way to structure parental and community involvement in the school turnaround program? Is it a meaningful role if they must still choose from the administration's preferred turnaround models?
-- Eliza Krigman, NationalJournal.com
Ellen Winn responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 21, 2010 10:47 AM
Parent Empowerment (This entry is co-authored by Ellen Winn of the Education Equality Project (EEP) and Ben Austin, Executive Director of the Parent Revolution, member of the California State Board of Education, and a brand new member of EEP’s Board of Directors .) Parental involvement is no longer the typical site council (i.e., get three parents to sign a grant request) non-involvement. Today, parental involvement is defined by a real transfer of political power to parents – empowerment is a more apt word than involvement. The moral and political imperative is self evident. If we are ever going to upend our country’s broken...
Parent Empowerment (This entry is co-authored by Ellen Winn of the Education Equality Project (EEP) and Ben Austin, Executive Director of the Parent Revolution, member of the California State Board of Education, and a brand new member of EEP’s Board of Directors .) Parental involvement is no longer the typical site council (i.e., get three parents to sign a grant request) non-involvement. Today, parental involvement is defined by a real transfer of political power to parents – empowerment is a more apt word than involvement. The moral and political imperative is self evident. If we are ever going to upend our country’s broken...
Eliza Krigman responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 21, 2010 09:20 AM
Chuck Saylors Responds Families and Schools Must Be Partners in Education Charles J. “Chuck” Saylors, national PTA president, submitted the following: I’m pleased about Secretary Duncan’s recent announcement on strengthening the role of parents in turning around our nation’s lowest-performing schools. So are our five million members. We cannot solve America’s dropout crisis or reverse achievement gaps without powerful, focused partnerships between our families, our schools and the other caring adults in our communities. This can happen if families are provided the tools needed to be treated as equal partners at the education planning table. We already know about...
Chuck Saylors Responds Families and Schools Must Be Partners in Education Charles J. “Chuck” Saylors, national PTA president, submitted the following: I’m pleased about Secretary Duncan’s recent announcement on strengthening the role of parents in turning around our nation’s lowest-performing schools. So are our five million members. We cannot solve America’s dropout crisis or reverse achievement gaps without powerful, focused partnerships between our families, our schools and the other caring adults in our communities. This can happen if families are provided the tools needed to be treated as equal partners at the education planning table. We already know about...
Michael L. Lomax responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 20, 2010 03:57 PM
Only way to make sure reform endures Kudos to Arne Duncan for giving the issue of parental and community involvement the priority and prominence it deserves. There’s been a lot of discussion on this blog and throughout the education policy community on the right components for meaningful reform. But as important as they all are, this may be the most important of all. The great reforms that have been implemented or are under discussion are, by and large, top-down reforms. And what one administration and Congress can give, the next can take away. Only once in the past sixty years, has an administration...
Chad Wick responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 20, 2010 03:16 PM
Community engagement must be organic One way not to achieve effective parental and community engagement for school turnarounds is to mandate engagement into public policy. Community participation in school turnarounds needs to be organic. It must rise up from the grassroots to be successful. To be sure, community and parental involvement have been lacking in too many schools in the United States, and that disengagement is certainly partly to blame for our struggling schools. The reasons are numerous and complex – and not necessarily a result of community disinterest. A decades-long disconnect may lie at the root of the problem....
Marlene Seltzer responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 20, 2010 03:05 PM
A Community Approach Civic involvement—from teachers and parents and from other stakeholders in a community—is essential to turning around schools. The question, of course, is how to structure meaningful involvement, and one answer comes from Philadelphia, where a sustained cross-sector collaborative—Project U-Turn—has made significant advances in heightening the public’s awareness of Philadelphia’s dropout crisis and improving options for struggling students and out-of-school youth. Today, other cities look to Philadelphia, where Project U-Turn has coordinated more than 50 organizations to galvanize the Philadelphia community to address the dropout crisis. It has gathered data on the size and scope of the dropout...
Ellen Winn responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 20, 2010 01:45 PM
Parent Empowerment (This entry is co-authored by Ellen Winn of the Education Equality Project (EEP) and Ben Austin, Executive Director of the Parent Revolution, member of the California State Board of Education, and a brand new member of EEP’s Board of Directors .) Parental involvement is no longer the typical site council (i.e., get three parents to sign a grant request) non-involvement. Today, parental involvement is defined by a real transfer of political power to parents – empowerment is a more apt word than involvement. The moral and political imperative is self evident. If we are ever going to upend our country’s broken...
Delia Pompa responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 19, 2010 05:08 PM
Community Engagement Programs That Work It is encouraging to hear Secretary Duncan talk about the need for more community and parental involvement. He is right when he says that turning around low-performing schools is tough work and teachers and administrators need the support from the community to achieve that. However, the administration proposed to eliminate funding for Parent Information and Resource Centers which provide necessary tools for parents and families to understand the education system. Requiring family and community input and providing the right tools and resources for ensuring that critical input is a step in the right direction. One...
Monty Neill responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 19, 2010 03:40 PM
Duncan plan not meaningful Secretary Duncan’s proposal for parent involvement will not produce meaningful parental or community engagement and seems primarily designed to help salvage his sinking “Race to the Top” approach to school “turnarounds.” In particular, his four models for turnarounds – closing a school, turning it over to a private operator (e.g., charters), firing the principal and at least half the staff, or merely firing the principal – appear to be going nowhere in Congress. Some of these components may show up as allowable options, and some of the options do include some useful elements, but the...
Sandy Kress responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 19, 2010 10:39 AM
Watch What You Ask For Just asking for more input doesn't move the dial. Just creating more "parental involvement" doesn't move the dial. Research does show, however, that when parents set higher expectations for their own children, establish the discipline for more work and effort, and follow through with their children and teachers in the work - this can make a real difference in student and school performance. (Making this happen is a lot easier said than done.) Also, my experience tells me that parents sometimes can easily be shmoozed by friends and acquaintances in school management in poor performing...
Frederick M. Hess responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 19, 2010 09:32 AM
“Frog, I Said Stay in that Wheelbarrow!” Duncan’s notion is a fine one. Community and parental involvement are enormously important. And low-performing schools often suffer from a paucity of both. Neither the value of involvement nor the lack of it is new, however. It's not like others haven't tried to previously address this. So, I love Duncan’s pledge to have the feds “require” parent and community input. Not only that, but Uncle Sam will require “honest, open discussion” as well. Man, what a great idea. Here are a few other suggestions, while Duncan’s on a roll. Let’s require colleges to get input as to how...
Lisa Graham Keegan responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 19, 2010 09:26 AM
When They Talk, Do We Listen? While I appreciate the Secretary’s continuing attention to the importance of parents, I have to agree with Bill Jackson that this should not have to be a federal requirement. Seeking input from families at your school is the obvious and reflexive behavior of every quality school in the country. And frankly, where you have to mandate it, no law will be enough to make "parental input" matter. I get tired of hearing that parents can and should be actively involved enough to improve their schools. Let's just agree that you can't out-parent a very bad...
Bill Jackson responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 19, 2010 08:38 AM
Involve Community & Let Them Lead Of course community stakeholders should have a say in school turnaround decisions. When I read that we need a Federal law mandating this, I wonder: Do we also need a Federal law mandating that students should tie their sneakers before running around at recess? I his speech, Secretary Duncan also said: “The fight for education reform will be won school-by-school, and community-by-community. But it will only be won if leaders are demanding it and defending it.” I agree. And, given this, I believe the theory behind this re-authorization of ESEA is that we...
Only way to make sure reform endures Kudos to Arne Duncan for giving the issue of parental and community involvement the priority and prominence it deserves. There’s been a lot of discussion on this blog and throughout the education policy community on the right components for meaningful reform. But as important as they all are, this may be the most important of all. The great reforms that have been implemented or are under discussion are, by and large, top-down reforms. And what one administration and Congress can give, the next can take away. Only once in the past sixty years, has an administration...
Chad Wick responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 20, 2010 03:16 PM
Community engagement must be organic One way not to achieve effective parental and community engagement for school turnarounds is to mandate engagement into public policy. Community participation in school turnarounds needs to be organic. It must rise up from the grassroots to be successful. To be sure, community and parental involvement have been lacking in too many schools in the United States, and that disengagement is certainly partly to blame for our struggling schools. The reasons are numerous and complex – and not necessarily a result of community disinterest. A decades-long disconnect may lie at the root of the problem....
Marlene Seltzer responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 20, 2010 03:05 PM
A Community Approach Civic involvement—from teachers and parents and from other stakeholders in a community—is essential to turning around schools. The question, of course, is how to structure meaningful involvement, and one answer comes from Philadelphia, where a sustained cross-sector collaborative—Project U-Turn—has made significant advances in heightening the public’s awareness of Philadelphia’s dropout crisis and improving options for struggling students and out-of-school youth. Today, other cities look to Philadelphia, where Project U-Turn has coordinated more than 50 organizations to galvanize the Philadelphia community to address the dropout crisis. It has gathered data on the size and scope of the dropout...
Ellen Winn responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 20, 2010 01:45 PM
Parent Empowerment (This entry is co-authored by Ellen Winn of the Education Equality Project (EEP) and Ben Austin, Executive Director of the Parent Revolution, member of the California State Board of Education, and a brand new member of EEP’s Board of Directors .) Parental involvement is no longer the typical site council (i.e., get three parents to sign a grant request) non-involvement. Today, parental involvement is defined by a real transfer of political power to parents – empowerment is a more apt word than involvement. The moral and political imperative is self evident. If we are ever going to upend our country’s broken...
Delia Pompa responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 19, 2010 05:08 PM
Community Engagement Programs That Work It is encouraging to hear Secretary Duncan talk about the need for more community and parental involvement. He is right when he says that turning around low-performing schools is tough work and teachers and administrators need the support from the community to achieve that. However, the administration proposed to eliminate funding for Parent Information and Resource Centers which provide necessary tools for parents and families to understand the education system. Requiring family and community input and providing the right tools and resources for ensuring that critical input is a step in the right direction. One...
Monty Neill responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 19, 2010 03:40 PM
Duncan plan not meaningful Secretary Duncan’s proposal for parent involvement will not produce meaningful parental or community engagement and seems primarily designed to help salvage his sinking “Race to the Top” approach to school “turnarounds.” In particular, his four models for turnarounds – closing a school, turning it over to a private operator (e.g., charters), firing the principal and at least half the staff, or merely firing the principal – appear to be going nowhere in Congress. Some of these components may show up as allowable options, and some of the options do include some useful elements, but the...
Sandy Kress responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 19, 2010 10:39 AM
Watch What You Ask For Just asking for more input doesn't move the dial. Just creating more "parental involvement" doesn't move the dial. Research does show, however, that when parents set higher expectations for their own children, establish the discipline for more work and effort, and follow through with their children and teachers in the work - this can make a real difference in student and school performance. (Making this happen is a lot easier said than done.) Also, my experience tells me that parents sometimes can easily be shmoozed by friends and acquaintances in school management in poor performing...
Frederick M. Hess responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 19, 2010 09:32 AM
“Frog, I Said Stay in that Wheelbarrow!” Duncan’s notion is a fine one. Community and parental involvement are enormously important. And low-performing schools often suffer from a paucity of both. Neither the value of involvement nor the lack of it is new, however. It's not like others haven't tried to previously address this. So, I love Duncan’s pledge to have the feds “require” parent and community input. Not only that, but Uncle Sam will require “honest, open discussion” as well. Man, what a great idea. Here are a few other suggestions, while Duncan’s on a roll. Let’s require colleges to get input as to how...
Lisa Graham Keegan responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 19, 2010 09:26 AM
When They Talk, Do We Listen? While I appreciate the Secretary’s continuing attention to the importance of parents, I have to agree with Bill Jackson that this should not have to be a federal requirement. Seeking input from families at your school is the obvious and reflexive behavior of every quality school in the country. And frankly, where you have to mandate it, no law will be enough to make "parental input" matter. I get tired of hearing that parents can and should be actively involved enough to improve their schools. Let's just agree that you can't out-parent a very bad...
Bill Jackson responded to Can Communities And Parents Help Turn Around Schools? on July 19, 2010 08:38 AM
Involve Community & Let Them Lead Of course community stakeholders should have a say in school turnaround decisions. When I read that we need a Federal law mandating this, I wonder: Do we also need a Federal law mandating that students should tie their sneakers before running around at recess? I his speech, Secretary Duncan also said: “The fight for education reform will be won school-by-school, and community-by-community. But it will only be won if leaders are demanding it and defending it.” I agree. And, given this, I believe the theory behind this re-authorization of ESEA is that we...