Is enough ever enough when it comes to parents being involved in school? | www.ajc.com

How Atlanta parents strike balance of involvement in kids' school | www.ajc.com:

Is enough ever enough when it comes to parents being involved in school?

What's the right balance of parental involvement in children's education?

According to a recent Pew Research survey, a narrow majority of respondents — 54 percent — say parents can never be too involved in their children's education. But 43 percent say too much parental involvement in a child's education can be a bad thing.

Parental involvement was a hot topic earlier this year when Cobb County School Board member David Morgan suggested that if parents don't show interest and engagement in their children's academic work, then their kids can't participate in sports or other extracurricular activities.

Photo courtesy of Susan Wilson

Marietta mom Susan Wilson volunteered in the kindergarten class of her oldest daughter. As her girls matured, she stayed involved, but her involvement began to look different. Today, her oldest daughter is a rising junior in college, and her youngest daughter is a rising junior at Marietta High School.

The outcry was fierce and the measure was voted down 5-2. But the incident put a spotlight on the importance of parental involvement in education.

"For schools to be successful, families need to place an overt emphasis on learning," said Leigh Colburn, director of the Graduate Marietta Student Success Center at Marietta High School, where she previously was principal for 10 years.

"Parents need to be involved, and children need to see that their parents place high value on education," she continued.

Her perspective is echoed by the National Center for Families Learning: "... (I)t has been well established that young people whose parents are more engaged in their education do better academically than their peers, adding that "all parents — regardless of socioeconomic or educational level — can help their children succeed in school and in life."

Marietta mom Susan Wilson said she has been involved in her daughters' education through the years in a variety of ways.

"My husband, Neal, and I place high value on education. I believe teaching is a partnership between home and school, so I want my daughters' teachers and administrators to know they have my interest and support for a positive educational experience," she said.

Striking that right balance can be difficult. When children are in elementary school, parents tend to welcome involvement opportunities — whether it's going into a classroom to read a book, serving as a field-trip chaperone or participating in career day – and kids generally are proud to have their parents involved.

Yet, as children mature, moving into middle and then high school, parents may be less sure about the need and avenues for their involvement. And children might begin to resist their parents' attempts at involvement.

As her girls matured, Wilson said she stayed involved in their education, but her involvement began to look different. "I followed the leads and needs of my children and balanced that with my goal of having them be confident, independent children," she said.

Middle and high school are not the time to pull back from involvement, Colburn said. It's just the time to rethink what that involvement might look like.

During these years, she said, "You want to stay involved, but parent differently."

Sandra Sommerman, who lives in Marietta, said she enjoyed a lot of hands-on involvement in the educations of her two sons when they were in elementary How Atlanta parents strike balance of involvement in kids' school | www.ajc.com:

Tilson-Ravitch Exchange, Tilson Pens 5K Word ALL CAPS Essay On Politics - ValueWalk

As Kase Cap Struggles, Tilson Pens 5K Word ALL CAPS Essay On Politics - ValueWalk:

As Kase Cap Struggles, Tilson Pens 5K Word ALL CAPS Essay On Politics

 As Whitney Tilson’s Kase Capital struggles in Q1 (and 2015 and other years) Whitney Tilson is busy writing 5,137 word posts about important issues.. As Whitney Tilson notes regarding his conversation with Diane Ravitch “she was kind enough to reply, so I have included her comments (in ALL CAPS), interspersed and at the end of my original email (shared with her permission of course).” Via Tilson’s Education Blog – presented without further comment.

An exchange of emails with Diane Ravitch, focused on what we AGREE on

STOP THE PRESSES!!!

I’ve had a lot of interesting conversations in my life – and this ongoing one with Diane Ravitch certains ranks up there.

If I recall correctly, we first exchanged emails a few years ago when I send her my presentation about K12, the awful for-profit online charter school operator. I knew we’d have common ground there, as she’d also exposed K12’s misdeeds in her book, Reign of Error.

I reached out to her again recently because I knew we’d have common views on North Carolina’s hateful HB2 law (in fact, we’ve both now published articles in the Huffington Post on this; here’s mine: An Open Letter to a North Carolina State Legislator; and here’s hers: That Dumb Bathroom Bill in North Carolina).

Our common views got me thinking: how is it that two well-informed people can agree on so much in almost all areas, yet apparently disagree on so much in one area (ed reform)? Is it possible that we agree on more than we think?

So I sent her themail below, in which I wrote 24 statements about which I thought we might agree, and asked if she’d reply, in the hopes that we might both learn something, find more areas of agreement where we could work together, and, in general, try to tone things down.

She was kind enough to reply, so I have included her comments (in ALL CAPS), interspersed and at the end of my original email (shared with her permission of course).

Overall, I was heartened to see how many things we agree on.

That said, we still disagree on many things, about which I will respond in due time. But in the interests of keeping this email to a manageable length, I’ll let her have the last word here – but not the final word, as we’ve both committed to continuing (and sharing) our ongoing discussion.

In the meantime, I hope you’ll find our initial exchange as interesting and illuminating as I did.

——————————

Hi Diane,

You know, despite our disagreements on ed reform, I’d bet we agree on 95% of everything else. I’m certain that we agree that the Republican party has been hijacked by extremists, Trump is a madman, Cruz is terrifying, and there’s nothing more important than getting a Democrat elected president in November (and, ideally, retaking the Senate and maybe even the House as well).

We agree.

I’ll admit that this creates quite a dilemma for me: I want the teachers unions, which remain the single most powerful interest group supporting the Democratic party, to be strong to help as many Democratic candidates as possible win. But when it comes to my desire to implement the reforms I think our educational system needs, I usually want them to be weak.

I disagree.

I want the teachers’ unions to be strong so they can defend their members against unfair practices and protect their academic freedom. Teachers have been blamed for the ills of society, most especially, poverty. Today’s reformers have created the myth that great teachers–as defined by their students’ test scores– can overcome poverty and close the achievement gaps among different groups of students. I wish it were true, but it is not. The myth encourages lawmakers to believe that wherever poverty persists or test scores are low or achievement gaps remain, it must be the teachers’ fault.

Race to the top required states to evaluate teachers to a significant degree by their students’ test scores, which was a huge mistake that has cost states and districts hundreds of millions of dollars but hasn’t worked anywhere. This method has proved unstable and inaccurate; it reflects who is in the class, not teacher quality.

Scores on standardized tests are highly correlated with family income, over which teachers have no control. In the past few years, some states have eliminated collective bargaining, and there is no correlation between the existence of a union and students’ academic success. In fact, the highest-performing states on the As Kase Cap Struggles, Tilson Pens 5K Word ALL CAPS Essay On Politics - ValueWalk:

REPOSTED: Whitney Tilson and I Exchange Views on Education Reform and the Future | Diane Ravitch's blog http://bit.ly/1pC85eT

A Disillusioned Teacher Responds to the Tilson-Ravitch Exchange | Diane Ravitch's blog http://bit.ly/1MWZVJh

'We’re At War' Says Organizer Behind Education Protests Sweeping The Country | ThinkProgress

'We’re At War' Says Organizer Behind Education Protests Sweeping The Country | ThinkProgress:

‘We’re At War’ Says Organizer Behind Education Protests Sweeping The Country

Keron Blair will look you directly in the eye the whole time he’s talking to you, making sure you absorb every single word he’s saying. His personality seemed a bit reserved when he sat down with me at a Starbucks to discuss Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, the coalition he is director of, which been responsible for organizing and supporting school protests across the country. But when you listen to his speeches, you hear a minister’s voice.

“Public education…could die on our watch,” Blair said at a recent event for the Milwaukee Teachers Association. “The reality is what drew me to this fight is the shared acknowledgement that we are in fact at war, and what I’ve learned about wartime is that you cannot operate with the same kind of rules. You’ve got to make some wartime adjustments.”

AROS’ ongoing protests have conveyed exactly that level of urgency.

The coalition’s campaign began with a “day of action” where cities across the U.S. protested cuts to public education, the closure of schools in low-income neighborhoods that are predominantly black and Hispanic, the expansion of charter schools, and the proliferation of standardized testing. An estimated 40,000 parents, teachers, and students from over 830 schools in more than 30 cities participated in the February 17 walk-ins. A spokesperson for AROS said the protests were biggest in Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Seattle, and Chicago.

#BuffaloStudentsDeserve #ReclaimOurSchools pic.twitter.com/sgDxBBpMPe

— Michelle Couture (@michellecoutur3) April 14, 2016

 AROS believes that schools are ultimately community institutions that help in the fight against poverty by providing support services. The coalition rejects top-down reform from “corporate executives, entrepreneurs or philanthropists,” and wants the voices of teachers, parents, and students to be prioritized in the decision-making process about important changes in education policy, whether local, state, or federal.

Drawing inspiration from other grassroots movements like Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter, Blair easily weaves together various political and economic issues to ensure that AROS is engaged in a broader fight — one focused on narrowing the gap in economic inequality and focusing on the voices of teachers, students, and parents in black and Hispanic communities. Blair says he learned what not to do from Occupy Wall Street as well. He wants to make sure the message isn’t so broad that people don’t see a focused policy agenda.

“I came to AROS because I felt that the fight for education and public schools in this country would be one of the defining fights of the decade,” Blair said.

Blair’s background as an immigrant helped informed his views about the value of public schools. Blair and his mother emigrated from Jamaica to the United States, where he attended Roosevelt Junior-Senior High School in New York. At the time, the school was struggling, but it was important 'We’re At War' Says Organizer Behind Education Protests Sweeping The Country | ThinkProgress:

What’s the Matter With Corporate Education Reform?

What’s the Matter With Corporate Education Reform?:

What’s the Matter With Corporate Education Reform?

Why Students and Teachers Won When the Vergara Decision was Overturned

Last week I reviewed Thomas Frank’s Listen Liberal: What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? in which he lambastes professional-class Democrats for thinking that there is “no social or political problem that cannot be solved with more education and job training.”  This makes perfect sense because, as a class, professionals are “defined by educational attainment, and every time they tell the country that what it needs is more schooling, they are saying: Inequality is not a failure of the system; it is a failure of you.”  

But, Frank contends, the only problem with education, for the professional crew, is that it is “not meritocratic enough.”  Thus, all that needs to be done is bust the teachers’ unions (whose sin is their outdated belief in solidarity), open charter schools, test our kids to death, and give tax breaks to “innovators.”

Nothing is more illustrative of this aspect of Frank’s critique than the way so many Democrats lined up to support the Vergara decision in 2014 even against the interests of a key Democratic constituency and key Democratic electeds.  

What was the Vergara Decision?

Nearly two years ago, a Los Angeles-area judge struck down the due process rights of California’s K-12 teachers in what many educators like myself found to be a distinctly bad ruling.  As Kelly Mayhew and I wrote at the time:

Last week’s decision in the Vergara v. the State of California lawsuit that undermined tenure and seniority rights was a profound slap in the face to teachers who have committed their careers to improving the lives of our children.  It was yet another significant victory for those who are seeking to impose corporate education reforms by pitting teachers against children in a cynical, destructive, and utterly counterproductive fashion.

As tenured professors in the community college system, union members, and parents of a child in California’s public school system, we have a unique perspective on this matter.  Although the “Vergara” decision has no effect on our jobs at San Diego City College, it does affect the professional lives of the educators who teach our son and it will do them, and him, more harm than good . . .

Pitting our child against his teachers, as the “Vergara” lawsuit seeks to do, is a fool’s errand. It destroys any sense of community in our schools and heaps scorn on the very people we all want to trust with our children’s futures.  The interests of teachers and students are not diametrically opposed, as so many in the corporate education reform industry would have us think, but rather inextricably linked.  When we disrespect teachers, we demean our education system and do nothing to help students.

San Diego is full of [good] schools . . . as is the rest of the state.  If you read much of the news media, however, you’ll believe differently given the endless drumbeat of education “reformers,” who often hide their true agenda of privatization and union busting behind a deeply dishonest rhetoric of “saving children” from “bad teachers.”

More specifically, with regard to the “Vergara” decision, David Welch, a conservative Silicon Valley millionaire and corporate education reformer who has been funding a group called “Students Matter,” won the opening salvo in a battle to deprive teachers of their constitutional due process and seniority rights.

The suit, which hid behind a group of poor and minority students, several of whom did not even attend schools where the teachers had tenure or due process rights, alleged that California’s teacher workplace rights infringe on the constitutional rights of students to an equal education–basically saying that hard-won job security, due process (i.e. that teachers cannot just be fired without a process), and seniority adversely impact low-income and minority students by keeping on “bad” teachers and too-often sticking inexperienced teachers in low-performing schools.

The problem with this argument and the “Vergara” decision (which will be appealed) is that it is based on What’s the Matter With Corporate Education Reform?:

 

CURMUDGUCATION: It's Sunday and Peter Greene Is Losing his Head

CURMUDGUCATION:

CURMUDGUCATION: It's Sunday and Peter Greene Is Losing his Head

Stand With Troy

Chicago principal Troy LaRaviere has been relieved of his job as principal of Blaine Elementary because he won't shut up and stay in place.I'm not writing about this because I think it's news; at this point, the news has spread far and wide. Lots of folks are writing about it, and I'm writing about it because everybody should be writing about it.It's alarming because it is wrong in the specific, n

1 by Peter Greene / 5min hide  //  save

Why Our Betters Like Charter Schools

You must read this post from Mercedes Schneider, if you have not already, showing the many connections between Education Post, the administration, and the usual gang of reformsters.This is not news, exactly. We've seen it before. The Center for American Progress was founded by John Podesta after he left the Clinton White House and before he left CAP to run the current Clinton campaign (catch him i

1 by Peter Greene / 50min 

ICYMI: Edu-reads from the week

Here's your assortment of reading goodies for the week:Race and the Standardized Testing Wars Kate Taylor's piece from yesterday's New York Times is a worthwhile read about tough issues. Additionally, she quotes Jennifer Berkshire's Have You Heard podcast and Jose Luis Vilson (an actual teacher). Nice to see a major mainstream article about education that doesn't just go straight to the usual refo

1 by Peter Greene / 1h 

More About MI Super

Nancy Flanagan, a top blogger who was one of my earliest inspirations in this bloggy biz, left a comment on my earlier post about Michigan's call for more testing, more often, of more students. It adds some important insights that I lacked, and I think it's important enough to get moved up here where people who don't read the comments will still see it. Hmm. I actually live in Michigan. And while

1 by Peter Greene / 1h 

One System To Rule them All

Every once in a while something turns up in the comments that is just too good not to pass on. This is from reader J. Chaffee (If I had a good elvish font, I'd use it).  Data Systems for the administrators under the sky,Systems for the teacher drones in their halls of stone,Systems for Mortal students doomed to die,One system for the Corporate Head on his dark throneIn the Land of Cyber where the

1 by Peter Greene / 1h 

YESTERDAY

No More Lone Genius

Earlier this month at the Harvard Business Review, Greg Satell wrote "It's Time To Bury the Idea of the Lone Genius Innovator." He opens his argument with the story of Alexander Fleming. You know the standard bit-- Fleming finds his experiment with bacteria has been ruined by fungus which is killing every piece of bacteria it touches. So he has a flash of insight, redirects his attention

18 by Peter Greene / 18h 

What Can You Do?

It has become an oft-repeated progression in the world of the public education debates. People become curious, then interested, then informed, then alarmed. Then they ask the question--What can I do?In some places, it's obvious. Some cities and communities are on the front lines of these battles and they need people to stand up and make noise right now, today. Parents need ton turn up at meetings.

41 by Peter Greene / 18h 

Stand Up. Stand Together: Reflections on Raleigh

I had a lot of reasons to stay away from this year's Network for Public Education conference in Raleigh, and up until the last minute I thought I wasn't going. Finances, family stuff, social anxiety, time off, general work stress, concerns about the venue-- all that and a few other things made me balk. I'm certainly not unique. Lots of folks have lots of reasons not to attend a conference, some of

8 by Peter Greene / 18h 

Getting Better

Some days I think the problems behind ed reform boil down to a basic misunderstanding of human nature.In Ed Week a few weeks back, Marc Tucker wrote about getting great teachers in every classroom (I would rather talk about helping the teacher in every classroom to do more great teaching, but okay) and in the midst of that discussion, he drops thisThere are, of course, teachers who do work really

100+ by Peter Greene / 1d 

CURMUDGUCATION:

Race and the Standardized Testing Wars - The New York Times

Race and the Standardized Testing Wars - The New York Times:
Race and the Standardized Testing Wars

WHEN the parents of more than 200,000 pupils in the third through eighth grades in New York chose to have their children sit out standardized state tests last spring, major civil rights organizations were quick to condemn their decision, along with similar movements in Colorado, Washington and New Jersey.

Reliable testing results, they argued, broken down by race, income and disability status, were critical in holding schools accountable for providing equal education for all. By refusing to have their children participate, the parents were “inadvertently making a choice to undermine efforts to improve schools for every child,” according to a statement by the groups.

Because the families opting out were disproportionately white and middle class, testing proponents dismissed them as coddled suburbanites, while insisting that urban parents, who had graver concerns about the quality of their children’s schools, were supportive of the tests. Earlier this year, proponents of testing began using the hashtag #OptOutSoWhite — a spin on the #OscarsSoWhite social-media campaign — to suggest that testing opposition was a form of white privilege.

Yet as testing season unfolds this year, the debate is becoming murkier. More minority educators, parents and students are criticizing the tests, opening a rift with civil rights groups and black and Hispanic educators who support testing, like Secretary of Education John B. King Jr.

Their complaints are wide-ranging. They argue that the focus on testing has forced struggling schools to cut back on enriching programs like field trips and arts education. Some view testing as part of a larger agenda, driven by test companies and opponents of teachers’ unions, that seeks to wring profits from education while closing public schools and replacing them with non-unionized charter schools. Others say that the tests are damaging to students’ self-esteem, because students interpret low scores as proof that they are inferior and destined to fail.

Some even suspect that part of the tests’ purpose is to identify future Race and the Standardized Testing Wars - The New York Times:

Ravitch stands up for beleaguered public schools | News & Observer

Ravitch stands up for beleaguered public schools | News & Observer:

Ravitch stands up for beleaguered public schools

 Diane Ravitch, the well-known historian of education and fierce defender of public schools, came to Raleigh last week with a mix of reluctance and dismay.

The group she co-founded in 2013, the Network for Public Education (NPE), held its national conference at the Raleigh Convention Center April 16-17. She wanted to cancel the gathering of 500 people as part of the growing protest against HB2, but doing so on such short notice would have cost the group its deposits and many participants coming from around the nation would have lost their airfares.

The dilemma gave Ravitch a direct sense of how North Carolina’s Republican-led legislature can cause headaches. She’s been hearing for years about the Republican leadership’s denigration of teachers and the legislature’s agenda for education – expanded charters, vouchers, schools graded A to F – that is exactly what she thinks shouldn’t be done to improve public schools.

“The legislature seems to be systematically pulling apart the education system,” she said. “I get email from people in North Carolina all the time telling me about egregious acts.”

NPE wanted to lend support to North Carolina teachers and other public school advocates here, but the group didn’t expect to arrive just as the legislature and governor ignited a national controversy not about how schools should run their classrooms, but about how they should police their bathrooms.

“When we picked North Carolina it was because it was in trouble,” she said. “Now things are even worse.”

A prolific writer of books on education and the keeper of the widely read Diane Ravitch’s blog, Ravitch, 77, is one of a dwindling number of prominent leaders who are unapologetic advocates for public schools. She sees the once unquestioned commitment to public schools dissolving. Conservatives are pushing to privatize public education and divert more tax dollars to private schools, she said, but that approach will narrow opportunity and increase inequality.

She helped form NPE, she said, “to support public education and students and teachers in the fight against privatization and high-stakes testing, both of which are very harmful to teachers and students.”

Ravitch, a research professor of education at New York University, has the fervor of a convert. She started out taking a conservative approach, stressing testing and teacher accountability. She served as an assistant secretary of education in George H.W. Bush’s administration and was an early supporter of charter schools and No Child Left Behind.

Now she said she is disillusioned about charter schools and opposed to vouchers and extensive testing. She thinks schools would improve if politicians stopped excoriating teachers and started appreciating what public schools achieve despite the increasing demands, inadequate funding and the social ills that are funneled into the classroom. InRavitch stands up for beleaguered public schools | News & Observer:

Big Education Ape: Educators at Raleigh NPE conference condemn HB2 | News & Observer #NPE16NChttp://bit.ly/1Snl9lP

Live From Raleigh, North Carolina: NPE’s 3rd Annual National Conference Complete interactive schedule http://bit.ly/20LAehc

Big Education Ape: Video: Saturday at NPE’s 3rd Annual National Conference #NPE16NC http://bit.ly/1SnHj7f

Big Education Ape: Karran Harper Royal and Jesse Hagopian at the NPE National Conference on Vimeo http://bit.ly/1YDW2JM

Big Education Ape: Anthony Cody Interviews Mary Cathryn Ricker, AFT VP and Becky Pringle, NEA VP #NPE16NC http://bit.ly/23QZRPn

Big Education Ape: Opt-Out Conscientious Objectors #NPE16NC http://bit.ly/1MGcTuK

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/ned-barnett/article73581122.html#storylink=cpy