Helicopter parents--again

Ever since Time went after overly involved parents a few months ago, the media has a new hook for writing about parent involvement gone bad. The latest from the Cincinnatti Enquirer, which starts:

"Almost every school has them.

"Parents who hound their child's teacher. Parents who do their kid's homework. Parents who argue with teachers for grade changes, lenient punishment or preferential treatment.

"Parents who hover too much.

"Some educators call them "helicopter parents," saying they can be over-involved, pushy, even an impediment to their children's education. Parents say they mean well and often don't realize when they've crossed the line. " And so on.

Best quote is the last one: "I could use a couple more helicopters," said Jennifer Moody, principal of Greener Elementary in Mount Healthy. "I've got some who won't even get into the aircraft." See for yourself here.

Overcoming poor college counseling

What do you do if you think your child's college guidance counselor has aimed too low? The Christian Science Monitor offers a few examples here.

When principals try to take over

Good advice from PTO Today's Tim Sullivan on how parent groups should respond when principals try to coopt or close down their groups. Excerpt: "When parent groups are micro-managed by their school administrations, a very predictable outcome takes place. The most enthusiastic, talented leaders slowly move away from the group. Those folks will find other outlets for their volunteer efforts—perhaps the cancer society or the Girl Scouts or the like—places that will value and use their skills. While the parent group will not go away, it will instead be led more by followers, with predictable results. Parent involvement is almost always lower in schools with highly governed parent groups than in schools with empowered groups. You’ve got to nicely and persistently make that case to the powers that be. " More here.

Parents as political force

Short piece in USA Today on efforts to mobilize parents to address isuses ranging from school funding to obesity.

Seeking best practices

The National PTA is compiling a list of examples of how parent involvement provisions of NCLB are being successfully implemented and resulting in increased student achievement. If you have an example of a stellar parent involvement program, please contact Melina Wright, National PTA lobbyist, at mwright@pta.org .

Miami-Dade's ambitious parent academy plan

Miami-Dade County's school board is considering a proposal that would establish a Parent Academy with 130 courses, mostly designed to help boost student learning, at 8o sites. $3.3 million budget over three years. School officials expect 10,000 participants in year one. Transportation, babysitting and rewards for completers will be offered. More here.

Communicating with ELL parents

Communicating with parents of English language learners is the challenge cited most often by elementary school teachers (27% mentioned it first), according to a new survey of 5,000 California teachers released today by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning (one of our long-term clients). Teachers frequently expressed concerns about school districts' failure to provide resources to help them bridge the language and cultural gaps. Secondary teachers' top concern: their inability to engage and communicate with ELL students.

Kids, high school and the parents' role

Public Agenda has a useful summary for parents from its recent report, Life after High School: Young People Talk about Their Hopes and Prospects.

1. Young adults say a parent is their
#1 influence on their decisions about
going to college or going directly into
the workforce.

2. Parental encouragement plays a
big role in whether or not kids go to
college: By a 30 point margin, young
workers who do not get a degree
after high school are less likely than
the more educated to say their parents
strongly expected them to go to
college (32% vs. 67%).

3. The vast majority of young adults
“get” that higher education is the key
to success in life, but many times, they
may not be getting the nuts-and-bolts
help and guidance they need to reach
the goal of getting a college degree.

4. Don’t assume that kids are getting
the help they need from high school
counselors. Young adults across all
racial and ethnic demographic groups
said counseling resources in their high
schools were stretched thin, with the
majority saying that there were not
enough counselors and almost as many
saying they didn’t feel they got individualized
attention from counselors.

5. Don’t assume that high school is
doing enough to prepare your kids
for the future. The vast majority of
young adults admit that they could
have worked harder in high school
(78% of those who do not get a college
degree and 62% of those who do). 42%
of those who do go to college say that
their high school education should
have done more to prepare them for
college level work. Of those who did
not go to college, 38% said high school
did not adequately prepare them for the
world of work.

PDF of full survey here. Plus, Achieve found very similar results from recent grads in its February 2005 poll.

NYTimes poll: education counts

Fascinating new series on class in America started yesterday in NY Times. Among the findings: 88% believe you need at least some college to get ahead (51% say college degree, 17% say postgraduate degree, 20% say some college). But hard work is more important than education, natural ability or personal connections as the ticket to success. Lots more here.

Are your pre-k teachers qualified?

Ed Week reports on a new study from the National Institute for Early Education Research, including a state-by-state look at the percentages of pre-k teachers who meet the recommended requirements. Meanwhile, the advocacy group Pre-K Now grades the governors on their commitment to early education. Twenty of them have proposed funding increases this year, up from 11 last year.

Newsweek: Best high schools

Jay Mathews does his annual list of the best high schools, based on the percentage of students taking AP or IB exams. In all, he ranks 1,036 high schools. Meanwhile, a more troubling set of numbers from Indiana University--as reported by USA Today, 55% of high school students spend only 3 hours or less on homework a week.

PIRC conference-get your costs covered

U.S. Dept.of Education is offering to underwrite expenses for up to 100 parent organizations interested in attending the 2005 national conference of the parent information resources centers, June 2-3, in Baltimore. Contact Kate Gill Kressley at RMC Research Corp. for more info: 800-258-0802 or kkressley@rmcres.com.

Key concern: lack of parent involvement

Better late than never, I just got a chance to read the revealing poll released a few weeks ago by The Teaching Commission. Most news coverage focused on findings that public strongly supports more pay and differentiated pay for teachers--especially if it's tied to improved student achievement and greater accountability. But improving teacher quality isn't close to being the public's top concern. Surprise, surprise--lack of parent involvement is—cited by 35 percent of general public, followed by large class sizes (34%), safety/discipline (27%), materials/resources (25%), teaching quality (16%), and facilities (8%). This data tracks closely with other polls, such as the annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup, where the public and educators invariably put parent involvement at the top of their list of concerns.

Moreover, while most of the public and public school parents generally give their local schools good marks, they're least satisfied with student discipline (40% rate it as excellent or good) and amount of parent involvement (43% say it is excellent or good).

Good data for making the case to superintendents, school boards and others to get serious about policies and programs to change this picture...and address what parents, the public and educators alike agree is the top priority.

Does college count?

Confusing and somewhat contradictory poll out of Michigan this week. About half of the 1,500 adults surveyed don't think everyone should get a college education, even though 71 percent think you can't "make a decent living with just a high school education." Only 27 percent think "a good education is essential for getting ahead in life." Another 51 percent think it's "very important." News article here, poll here.

Talking to foster kids

Want to better understand life as a foster child? Talk to several of the 523,000 foster children during an online chat hosted by Connect for Kids...Wednesday, May 11, 1-2pm eastern time, www.connectfor kids.org.

NCLB guide for parents of learning disabled

New 22-page NCLB guide for parents of learning disabled students from National Center for Learning Disabilities and Schwab Learning. Sections cover testing, accommodations, highly qualified teachers, choice and tutoring, report cards and general parent involvement provisions; each chapter has practical "actions parents can take."

School safety in perspective

Good overview in Ed Week about school safety. Excerpt:

"“Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2004,” released by the National Center for Education Statistics last November, found that 62 percent of all victimization incidents in schools were thefts. In addition, the report showed that students were nearly 3½ times more likely to experience violent crimes—such as sexual or aggravated assault—away from school than on school grounds.

School-based homicides and firearms-related incidents showed further evidence that students are likely to be safer while they are on school property than in their neighborhoods and homes. The report says, for instance, that between 1992 and 2000, 390 students died in violent deaths or accidents at school, with 234 of those incidents being homicides and 43 suicides. By contrast, over the same time period, more than 24,000 school-age children were the victims of homicides outside school, while nearly 17,000 students committed suicide. Other statistics also illustrate a picture of less, rather than more, school-based violence. The number of school-based homicides involving students, for example, dropped from 33 incidents during the 1998-99 school year to 14 by 2001-02, the latest year for which federal figures are available.

In fact, most experts estimate that fatal and nonfatal school shootings make up less than 1 percent of all reported episodes of violence in schools nationwide. The Justice Policy Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit research and public-policy organization, published a research report in 2000 that estimated that school-age children face a one-in-2-million chance of being killed by someone or dying in an accident at school."

But other say the federal data rae misleading--out-of-date and principals typically under-report incidents.