Having gone to school doesn’t mean we all can run a school - by Seth Rosenblatt
Almost all schools need parent volunteers, and educators will universally agree that getting supportive parents and other family members to be part of the educational process is crucial. This involvement can be anything from just making sure a child does their homework all the way through volunteering at the school, tutoring, helping the PTA organize schoolwide events, raising money, attending school board meetings and other district events and forums, or dozens of other ways parents can (and should) get involved. Parents have essentially become the part-time workforce upon which our schools rely, particularly in this age where public education is being defunded.
Each school district will likely have its own approach to engage parents and other community members. The ones more focused on this engagement often have inclusive decision-making processes with multiple community committees and other ways to encourage involvement and feedback (both positive and negative). But even if they do, it’s inherently a self-selection process as parents will choose how (and for what issues) they want to get involved (or choose not to get involved). Many of the
District settles with ACLU over program for English learners - by John Fensterwald
While insisting that it did nothing wrong, a Central Valley school district has quickly settled a lawsuit filed by several chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a half-dozen parents and teachers who charged that the district had adopted a destructive program for English learners, which the state, in turn, failed to monitor.
ACLU Chief Counsel Mark Rosenbaum said no teachers defended the program.
Mark Rosenbaum, chief counsel of the ACLU of Southern California, vowed Friday that it would be filing similar suits in order to force the state Department of Education to fix flawed programs that other districts offer English learners.
Under the terms of a settlement released last week, Dinuba Unified has agreed to immediately replace the controversial reading program, Second Language Acquisition Developmen
