Parent Leader

NYC parents want more say

2005-12-12T18:10:00.000-05:00

Parents Advisory Council in NY City is pushing Chancellor Klein to enforce parent involvement requirements, according to NY Times.

"Essentially, these requests boil down to asking people to do their jobs," said Tim Johnson, the chairman of the advisory council and a parent leader in District 2 in Manhattan, who noted that after the mayor won control, the administration hired a full-time parent coordinator for every school.

"They are spending probably 100 times what they used to spend on parent engagement," Mr. Johnson said. "We're just not getting any value out of that. How can you have a full-time, union person in the school as a parent coordinator and still not have a functioning P.T.A.?"

More on Million Fathers

2005-10-15T09:52:00.000-04:00

Great story from Christian Science Monitor on Million Father March, this one focused on fathers' impact on Amistad School in Connecticut.

Communicating the value of parent involvement

2005-09-06T14:21:00.000-04:00

New guide from the Learning First Alliance, a coalition of education organizations, encourages school leaders to proactively embrace the power of parent involvement as one of seven core values that drive educational improvement. Guide focuses on how school leaders can promote their schools and offers advice on how to talk about parent involvement...along with specific steps that administrators can take to make it happen in their schools.

Other six topics that school leaders should stress, says LFA: values such as hard work, school discipline, academics, accountability, benefits of public ed, and accurate public information (both successes and shortcomings).

Excerpts:

What to Say
• When it comes to their children, parents are often more powerful than they believe. Parents can use this power to shape their children’s behavior so they can succeed in school—by teaching them respect and responsibility, by encouraging them to work hard to learn, by showing a consistent interest in their schoolwork, and by celebrating their accomplishments.
• We need parents as our partners to ensure that every child can succeed in our schools.

What to Do
• Describe how you support parents’ efforts to help their children succeed. Assist parents in understanding the curriculum and homework assignments. See that messages are returned promptly, teachers are available to talk with parents, and school meetings and events are scheduled at times that permit parents to attend. Then publicize these efforts with parents and the community.

Inspired in Indianapolis

2005-09-06T14:03:00.000-04:00

Interesting interview with dynamic, new, no-excuses superintendent of Indianapolis schools, who pledges to "grow our own parent involvement."

Excerpt from the Indianapolis Star story: "He envisions a more challenging curriculum, while understanding the need to support struggling kids. He is planning a program to connect with new IPS parents from the day their children are born.

"That's particularly crucial in a district where so many kindergartners arrive already trailing children in suburban districts.

"When the children reach 4 or 5, not only do we want them connected to the school district, we also want the parent connected," he said. "We're going to grow and raise our own involved parents."'

Million Father March

2005-09-04T07:02:00.000-04:00

Chicago-based group, the Black Star Project, has organized back-to-school events in 79 communities, encouraging fathers to get involved in their children's education. Nonprofit offers multiple programs for parents and educators, designed to improve achievement for low-income and minority students.

Education Week reports: "The event is taking different forms in different places. In Kansas City, Mo., a radio station has offered to drive fathers and their children to school in limousines. In one Illinois town, the mayor planned to greet men as they brought their children to school. One Hawaii town organized an effort to get men in prison to write to friends and relatives and ask them to take their children to school in their stead.

"Here in Prince George’s County, Md., a predominantly African-American, largely middle-class community east of Washington, civic leaders asked parents to bring their children to school on the first day. They dubbed the event “Embracing Our Village,” in an attempt to revitalize the sense of communal responsibility for children in the oft-cited African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.'"

Maryland's leadership

2005-09-02T10:30:00.000-04:00

Maryland state school board acccepts landmark report from a 125-person parent advisory council, calling for much greater efforts by the state and local districts to promote parent and family involvement. It represents the strongest set of state-level recommendations anywhere to support increased parent involvement--including mandatory parent membership on the state board, a huge emphasis on training for parents and educators alike, regular satisfaction surveys, and a call for local districts to factor parent satisfaction into staff reviews. State Supt. Nancy Grasmick is very supportive and I'm confident she'll push for implementation; some of the recommendations will require legislative changes. (Note: We served as the national adviser to this effort.) Washington Post story here. Report and related materials here.

Parents: "A Big Idea"

2005-08-29T13:23:00.000-04:00

Parent involvement is one of 10 Big Ideas for Better Schools being promoted by the George Lucas Foundation. Excerpt below from the latest issue of its magazine, Edutopia. The Sept. 2005 also includes an excellent article about how to rethink how we use school time more effectively. Did you know, for instance, that in 42 states only 41% of postsecondary school time must be spent on academics?

Involve: Parents
When schoolwork involves parents, students learn more. Parents and other caregivers are a child's first teachers and can instill values that encourage school learning. Schools should build strong alliances with parents and welcome their active participation in the classroom. Educators should inform parents of the school's educational goals, the importance of high expectations for each child, and ways of assisting with homework and classroom lessons.

Reality Check: In the Sacramento Unified School District, teachers make home visits to students' families. Teachers gain a better understanding of their students' home environment, and parents see that teachers are committed to forging closer home-school bonds. If English is not spoken in the home, translators accompany the teachers.

Did your district make the list?

2005-08-26T16:57:00.000-04:00

Standard & Poor's has identified 203 school districts in 13 states for significantly narrowing the gaps in achievement between black, Hispanic or economically disadvantaged students and their higher-performing classmates while simultaneously raising the average proficiency rates of the student groups being compared, such as black students and white students. Gaps were closed by at least 5% in the districts. States studied: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia and Washington. Read more.

Train the teachers

2005-08-26T09:53:00.000-04:00

New report from a group of progressive organizations recommends that "training on techniques for communicating and engaging parents should be part of teacher training and professional development programs." Parent involvement rates only a paragraph in the 85-page report, but something is better than nothing. Majpor recommendations call for greatly expanding funding, adopting voluntary national standards, and extending and reorganizing the school day and school year. The report, "Getting Smarter, Becoming Fairer: A Progressive Education Agenda for a Stronger Nation," is available from the Center for American Progress.

Writing parents about teachers

2005-06-28T11:13:00.001-04:00

Alabama school districts once again will be notifying parents if their child is not being taught by a "highly qualified teacher," as defined by NCLB. According to news report, letter will say: "As of the date of this letter, your child's teacher (name) has yet to complete every requirement of the new federal definition of 'highly qualified.' He/She is, however, currently working to meet the new requirement, and we have full confidence in his/her ability to teach effectively in the current assignment."

Undercounting dropouts

2005-06-23T16:07:00.000-04:00

Tough new report from Ed Trust criticizes most states for continuing to seriously inflate their graduation rates and goes after US Department of Education for allowing them to get away with it. Lots of charts that compare official state graduation rates with more accurate (and lower) tallies from groups like the Urban Institute. The conclusion:

"If we want high schools that
truly serve all students and
prepare them for work, college,
and life, we first need to know how
many students are leaving school
altogether. And we need to know
who these students are. With
that information in hand, we can
begin to craft targeted, responsive
improvement strategies.
Some states know this and,
like Washington, have taken it to
heart. They’ve been thoughtful
and creative in calculating good
graduation rate estimates, even in
the absence of ideal data systems.
Others, under cover of a
negligent U.S. Department of
Education, have skirted the issue.
Some have allowed their work to
build future data systems, while
important and necessary, to eclipse
the very urgent needs of schools
and students. These states, and
the nation as a whole, cannot
afford to wait any longer for good
information, because as we wait,
doors are closing on hundreds of
thousands of young people.
Getting an honest picture
of who is graduating from high
school should be the priority
of everyone—educators,
policymakers, parents, business
and community leaders—who is
invested in improving our high
schools. As The Indianapolis Star
declared: “The first step is to tell
the truth.”

Helping with math

2005-06-23T14:54:00.000-04:00

Good advice from District Admimnistrator magazine on how parents can help their kids with math.

Extracurriculars for homeschoolers?

2005-06-22T17:22:00.000-04:00

Good front-page story in today's New York Times about the growing push to force districts to allow home schooled children the oppportunity to participate in sports and others extracurriculars.

New guidance on tutoring

2005-06-18T08:57:00.000-04:00

New guidance document from US Department of Education on what states and districts must do to provide quality supplemental services to students in low-performing schools. The 57-page report answers questions such as: what must the notice to parents contain, can the district set a deadline for parents to apply, who is monitoring vendor quality, what resources are available to help parents make a good choice? And scores of others.

New Metlife survey

2005-06-18T08:40:00.000-04:00

This year's MetLife survey includes an important chapter on parent involvement in middle and high school. I need to look more closely at it, but this finding jumped out at me: "According to two-thirds of secondary school principals (66%) and half (47%) of new teachers at the secondary school level, involving parents is a priority at their school. Students’ perspectives on this issue are slightly different. Parental involvement tends to be more focused on after-school activities. Nearly half
(45%) say that their school does a good job of encouraging parental involvement in after-school activities. But this is almost twice as many as say that their school does a good job of encouraging parental involvement in the classroom (27%). And for every student who says that their school does a good job of encouraging parental involvement in the classroom, there is a student who says that their school does not give parents the opportunity for any meaningful roles (24%). The predominant opinion among secondary school students is that their school only contacts parents when there is a problem with their child (68%)."

Engaging in finance lawsuits

2005-06-18T08:18:00.000-04:00

Useful new guide from the Public Education Network makes the case for why parent leaders and community-based organizations need to get involved in school finance lawsuits...with advice on how to do so. This guide answers questions such as: What does finance litigation mean? How does it come about? Whom does it affect? What options and outcomes does it make available to communities?

Word-of-mouth choices

2005-06-14T18:44:00.000-04:00

Interesting article about how parents choose schools in Milwaukee, which has one of the largest choice programs in the country: gut instinct and word of mouth typically trump extensive research. Part of a 7-part series by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on choice.

San Diego inspiration

2005-06-13T18:12:00.000-04:00

Inspiring story of parents in San Diego who took charge of their children's education and created a charter school. From a column in the Sacramento Bee: "More than 700 parents representing about 70 percent of children in the Gompers Secondary School attendance area, signed petitions demanding that the San Diego Unified School District relinquish control of the campus and hand it over to a board of parents, teachers, academics and community activists. After initially resisting, the district's trustees approved the request.

"This fall, the site will reopen as Gompers Middle Charter School under a partnership with University of California, San Diego. It will have a longer school day, many new teachers and high expectations. The school will combine intense instruction in basic subjects with strong discipline and close attention to the problems many children from this area deal with outside of school.

Three other San Diego neighborhood groups took control of their schools the same day Gompers did. And what is happening here increasingly is happening throughout California. Parents, it seems, are less willing to accept a public school system that cannot or will not help their children succeed. This has always been the case in affluent neighborhoods, where families could turn to private schools if they were dissatisfied with what the government offered them. But now parents in poorer communities are finding the tools that allow them to do much the same thing within the public school system."

NCLB: Where are the parents?

2005-06-12T08:21:00.000-04:00

Wendy Puriefoy of the Public Education Network, writing in Ed Week, says NCLB hasn't come close to living up to its promise of involving parents in their child's education. She's right. Excerpt: "By and large, the public has been assigned a perfunctory role in school improvement. Districts send out report cards that people cannot understand, agendas for reform parents had no hand in developing, and invitations to meetings at which they are expected to play no active part. Parents see the names of their children’s schools on watch lists, but they don’t know what those lists mean. They hear politicians talk about school choice, but they don’t see any real choices in their own neighborhoods. They know they need to speak up in order to get the services their kids deserve, but they don’t know how to voice their concerns or who will listen to them."

Getting tough with parents

2005-06-12T08:15:00.000-04:00

New Georgia truancy law could have real consequences for parents of truant students: fines and jail time. Read more here.

Too reliant on mom and dad?

2005-06-03T08:53:00.000-04:00

Middle and high school students may be relying too much on their parents for advice on what to do after high school, according to a new survey of 3,000 students conducted by ACT, the college testing company. The ACT report, "College Readiness Begins in Middle School," says students are not planning properly. One reason may be that students are relying more on parents and friends than on trained school personnel for help in selecting their high school classes. Fewer than two-thirds (63%) of respondents said they received help from a guidance counselor in selecting their classes, and around one-fourth (27%) said they were helped by a principal. In comparison, the overwhelming majority named their mother (92%), father (84%), or friends (85%) as sources who provided help in selecting high school courses.

"Trained school personnel know what classes students should take to be prepared for college and careers," said an ACT spokesman. "Parents and friends certainly have the student's best interests at heart and are strong sources of support, but unless the school district has a formal parent information program that focuses on educational and career planning, parents may not always be well enough informed to provide accurate advice."

The ACT report recommends that school districts set up a formal program to help students develop a college readiness plan starting in middle school. It urges schools to work with all students and their parents, explaining to them the importance of taking a challenging curriculum and the effect it can have on their future educational, career and income options. It also recommends that schools work with families to calculate college costs and develop a plan to meet those costs.

"Schools can help students by helping their parents," said ACT. "Information is vital. If parents understand what their children need to meet their goals, then they can properly advise and encourage them to make the right decisions on course planning."

Good advice.

Helicopter parents--again

2005-05-31T18:28:00.000-04:00

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

2005-05-31T18:09:00.000-04:00

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

2005-05-31T18:04:00.000-04:00

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

2005-05-31T17:59:00.000-04:00

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

Seeking best practices

2005-05-22T10:58:00.000-04:00

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

2005-05-19T19:10:00.000-04:00

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

2005-05-16T12:40:00.000-04:00

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

2005-05-16T11:29:00.000-04:00

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

2005-05-16T09:57:00.000-04:00

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?

2005-05-12T07:33:00.000-04:00

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

2005-05-09T16:44:00.000-04:00

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

2005-05-06T15:52:00.000-04:00

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

2005-05-06T14:20:00.000-04:00

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?

2005-05-06T14:10:00.000-04:00

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

2005-05-06T14:04:00.000-04:00

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

2005-05-02T14:31:00.000-04:00

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

2005-05-01T08:50:00.000-04:00

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.

Charters--Drain or draw?

2005-04-26T17:26:00.000-04:00

Lively and feisty (as always) piece by Jeanne Allen defending charter schools. This gives you a flavor:

"We're so far beyond reason at this point. Even the media are picking up on the special interest rhetoric:

"Charters are siphoning money from the district."
Siphoning? You mean they are sticking a hose in and pulling it out involuntarily?? Money belongs to all of us, and charters are entitled to public funds to educate public kids no less than a school district.

"Charters are draining money from the budget."
Who’s draining what? Aren’t kids leaving because the think they’ll do better in another school? Maybe it’s really the parents that are draining the budget, in which case, you’d be picking on the parents. Not a good move, is it?

Here’s a better way to look at it, courtesy of the Gary, Indiana Post Tribune , April 11:
"Parents are showing their disenchantment with their feet. They’re walking away in droves from the city’s traditional public schools and toward newly created public charter schools. They say they’re looking for safer schools, smaller class sizes, and a better academic foundation."

Draining? I think not. These parents, and the thousands like them nationwide, are working for their kids, not the system. It costs us all when we don’t educate children. We should applaud when we find ways to keep people attending public schools, and if that costs the district funds they’d otherwise love to keep, maybe they need to act and stop complaining.

Until then, when you hear that charters are costing someone money, remember who pays for the schools and why they are supposed to exist. Money is for education, not just to perpetuate a system or jobs or programs that may not work for every child. If kids are leaving, it’s safe to say that there’s a problem. Thank God there are parents who care enough to buck the status quo."

Raspberry on parents

2005-04-26T12:08:00.000-04:00

Columnist Bill Raspberry discusses two kinds of parents in his commentary on why NY City's school reforms, including paid parent coordinators in every school, have lagged. "What is hard for us to get our minds around is that school improvement is fairly easy to accomplish for children whose parents were successful in school and are enjoying some success in their lives. Threats of retention, loss of privilege, even the prospect of embarrassment, can nudge such parents into more active participation in their children's schooling.

"But for parents who have not enjoyed success or seriously envisioned success for their children, it takes more than reorganization and parent coordinators and such. It takes a consistent, nonjudgmental effort to reach and teach parents how to prepare their children for learning."

Special ed battles in suburbia

2005-04-24T09:11:00.000-04:00

NY Times profiles ongoing fights between parents and wealthy Westport (CT) schools about how much special ed is enough.

New grading policy

2005-04-21T09:00:00.000-04:00

Interesting piece in Washington Post about Montgomery County, MD's continuing efforts to help parents understand the new grading policy, which ends the long-standing practice of grading on a curve. Students now get A's only when they meet the standards, not simply for doing better than their classmates.

Where are the civil rights leaders?

2005-04-18T09:34:00.000-04:00

Very thoughtful editorial from Brent Staples in today's NY Times. Bottom line: "This is a difficult moment for the civil rights movement, which is understandably fearful of taking positions that would discomfit the teachers among its supporters. But standing silently on the sidelines of the debate about teacher preparedness and No Child Left Behind is hardly the answer. Unless the civil rights establishment adopts a stronger and more public position, it will inevitably be viewed as having missed the most important civil rights battle of the last half-century." Agreed.

April FINE -- lots of links

2005-04-16T09:20:00.000-04:00

April issue of monthly newsletter from Harvard's Family Involvement Network of Educators is out. As usual, lots of links to useful research and resources, including new tools from SEDL's Family Center and Virginia Dept. of Education. Subscribe here.

Too pushy?

2005-04-16T09:11:00.000-04:00

National roundup from AP, profiling incidents of parents who are too aggressive. "Educators attribute the assaults and arguments, in part, to a general decline in civility and the intense competition these days to get into the right colleges. Lisa Jacobson, chief executive of the tutoring and test preparation business Inspirica, said teachers have told her they are overwhelmed by pushy parents. 'They feel like the parents come in as CEOs and order them around,' Jacobson said. 'I've seen many cases of parents going into schools and coercing teachers to change grades.'"

Closing gaps in Indiana

2005-04-12T08:35:00.000-04:00

Profile of efforts in the Indianapolis area to encourage greater involvement of minority parents as a way to help close persistent achievement gaps.

Building quality schools

2005-04-09T06:47:00.000-04:00

Did you know that...

Half of all U.S. schools report one or more building features in "less than adequate" condition (NCES).
About 40 percent of U.S. schools report one or more "unsatisfactory environmental condition" (NCES)
The average age of a school facility in the U.S. is 40 years.
According to a report from the National Education Association, it will take $332 billion to bring the nation's existing schools into good overall condition.

Just some of the many nuggets of information about school facilities available from the partnership promoting School Building Week (April 18).

Crimes and misdemeanors: parents and schools behaving badly

2005-04-09T06:31:00.000-04:00

Parents blaming individual teachers for school-wide shortcomings...School leaders who keep low-performing teachers in schools....School leaders who fail to recognize and reward high-performing teachers...Not becoming a Picky Parent until something goes wrong for your child at school. Some of the good advice from this month's Picky Parents newsletter from Bryan and Emily Hassel. If you're not a subscriber, you should be.

Mild push for better reporting

2005-04-08T07:18:00.000-04:00

New education secretary Spellings discusses much anticipated changes to help states meet NCLB rules. States that do certain things will be more likely to receive flexible treatment. Among the things: "making a good faith effort to reach out to parents, with easy-to-access information about their schools and frequent notices of their school transfer choices and tutoring options." Tennessee and Louisiana singled out for providing good info on supplemental services, but those were the only examples offered in a speech littered with examples of good practice in other areas. To date, the department has done nothing to push states and districts to provide parent-friendly report cards, a key but much-neglected part of the law. Maybe this signals a new focus? Stay tuned. Spellings' speech here.

A TV-Bullying connection

2005-04-06T11:47:00.000-04:00

New study from University of Washington suggests that, for every hour of TV a 4-year-old watches daily, the risk of bullying in elementary school increases 9 percent.

Wanna' be a sub?

2005-04-02T06:57:00.000-05:00

Denver schools may have a job for you. Facing continued shortage of substitute teachers, school system starts recruiting parents. Story.

Union contracts = "adult entitlements"?

2005-04-01T06:53:00.000-05:00

Provocative new report from business-backed Education Partnership of Rhode Island charges that union contracts are "adult entitlements" that have little to do with improving student learning. Unions are furious. Excerpt:
"Because principals and superintendents, as well as teachers, must operate within the confines of collective bargaining agreements, contract clauses ... restrict managerial flexibility and represent costly expenditures that do not benefit students. Such clauses:
• Fill teaching positions on the basis of seniority, not on the basis of who is most qualified.
• Deny the ability to evaluate teachers meaningfully and to hold them accountable.
• Mandate costly grievance procedures.
• Limit teacher work day and year.
• Prescribe class size.
• Limit student contact outside of classes.
• Limit parent contact after school.
• Designate the insurer who provides (increasingly expensive) health insurance.
• Institutionalize excessive sick-day provisions.
• Limit collaborative meeting time with principals and teacher colleagues.
• Set work day schedules that limit common planning time."

Worth reading to better understand the rarely discussed collective bargaining process, which has so much to do with what happens in schools day to day.

Preschool pays off

2005-03-31T09:55:00.000-05:00

New ammo for advocates of universal preschool. New RAND research says California will gain $2 to $4 for every dollar invested. The study estimates that the cost of a high quality universal preschool program would be more than offset by benefits such as a drop in the amount of special education provided, less grade repetition among K-12 students, less youth and adult crime, and a more productive state workforce.

KIPP, parents and performance

2005-03-31T09:34:00.000-05:00

Jay Mathews of the Washington Post has an interesting piece on a new evaluation of the KIPP charter schools. Some suggest that KIPP students are atypical because their parents are more motivated, which explains the students' success. Here's what Mathews says:

"Some critics (although not Rothstein) have suggested that KIPP's scores have increased so much because they recruit students with the most motivated parents. This seems wrong to me. Those students had those same great parents when they were getting much lower scores back at their regular schools. Their progress would almost certainly deteriorate if all the KIPP schools closed tomorrow and they had to return to low standards and disorganized teaching at their neighborhood schools, no matter how conscientious their parents were.

"KIPP, I think, makes parents better by giving them something to do, and yet does not put so heavy a burden on them that they might collapse under the strain. In the KIPP system, students who do not complete their homework in time for class the next day are in as big trouble as I would be if I did not send my stories to my editors before The Post was distributed the next morning. The parents don't have to correct or explain the homework. If students have questions, they are told to call their teachers, whose cell phone numbers they have. All the parents have to do is make sure their child had completed the homework, and sign the paper to demonstrate that they have looked at it. If they don't do that, their child is disciplined -- usually made to sit in a corner of the classroom -- and the parents are asked to come to school to discuss it. Their only other important duty is to get their child to school each day, which in most big cities can be done by making sure they catch the right bus. "

Inside 4th grade

2005-03-29T14:36:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post continues its interesting series on learning, grade by grade. You can also catch up on previous articles covering kindergarten through 3rd grade.

Data galore from Standard & Poor's

2005-03-29T08:32:00.000-05:00

Incredibly powerful new data tool from Standard & Poor's unveiled today, allowing parents, educators and taxpayers to compare their school district and local schools on many, many indicators. In 10 minutes, for instance, here's what I found out about my home district, Arlington, VA. 16 other districts in the state serving similar percentages of low-income students consistently outperform us. We're slightly below the state average in reading proficiency, slightly above in math--with not much change in the past few years.

We serve much higher percentages of ELL students, slightly more disabled and poor students than the state average. We greatly outspend the state average per student and have a significantly higher percentage of adults with college degrees. We have a lower percentage of highly qualified teachers,lower class sizes, a higher percentage of instructional and administrative staff, lower percentages of support staff, and we're much wealthier than the state average. On any of these indicators, I can compare Arlington not just to the state but to four other districts--neighbors, districts with similar demographics or spending levels, and so on.

Best yet, a Better Performers section let's me see how Arlington stacks up to other school districts in reading, math and graduation rates. For instance, over the past three years, in grade 5 reading proficiency, 25 districts have done better than us ....4 better than us if you look only at low-income students .... none better than us in educating 5th grade ELL students .... but 24 better than us in educating low-income 5th-graders.

And finally, and likely to be the most controversial, I can see how Arlington compares on the Return on Spending Index (the average reading and math proficiency for every $1,000 spent) and the Performance Cost Index (what it costs for every point of reading and math proficiency attained, adjusted for districts with a high cost of living and disproportionate percentages of high needs students). Arlington doesn't fare too well on these indices.

There's lots more, but you get the idea. Think of this Web site as a powerful question generator, giving parent leaders the knowledge to ask: where are we doing well compared to others, where are we behind, who's consistently doing well, if they can do it, why can't we? Parent leaders in every community in the country owe a big thank you to S&P and the Broad and Gates Foundations, which funded this resource.

Black parents tackle the gap

2005-03-29T08:04:00.000-05:00

Good story in Boston Globe, profiling efforts in New York City and elsewhere to boost involvement of inner-city African-American parents. From Virginia Walden Ford, an African-American educator in Washington who initially placed the responsibility for educating her children on the schools. ''I do believe middle-class and affluent black parents are seeing we have to do more and more. ...I started seeing in my children things education was not giving them, and it became very clear in watching them that I needed to intervene....I started watching my white friends and asking them for advice: 'How do you get into that community organization and that program?' They were like bulldogs when they wanted something for their children."

Achievement Alliance newsletter

2005-03-28T18:36:00.000-05:00

New online newsletter from coalition that includes Ed Trust, BRT, Just for the Kids and National Council of La Raza. Features include Mythbusters (defending NCLB), It's Being Done (profiles of schools that are having solid academic success with minority and low-income students) and Why Schools Don't Work for All Kids (flipside of the good-news It's Being Done section).

Assessing NCLB

2005-03-25T16:24:00.000-05:00

Some nuggets from this week's big report on NCLB from Center on Education Policy.

Overall: Student achievement is up in nearly three-fourths of states and school districts surveyed. Virtually all districts are now using test data to help improve teaching and are aligning curiculum and instruction with standards and tests.

Choice: only 1% of eligible students are taking advantage of this option, with lack of space for transfers, concerns about transportation and leaving neighborhood schools the main barriers. 25% of states and districts say they're having a hard time getting timely information to parents. (Would be interesting to know what percentage of parents think they're getting such info. A Mass. survey cited in this report said 42% of parents there didn't even know they had a choice.)

Supplemental services: only 18% of eligible students are taking advantage, but only one in five states and districts say they're having a hard time getting info to parents, which seems to suggest that 72% of parents are knowingly turning down free tutoring for their children, which is hard to believe.

Lots more...228 pages worth. Unfortunately, nothing in here about the quality of reporting school results (generally lousy) or about NCLB's other parent involvement provisions, which are especially relevant to the 99% of families who are staying put.

Uncommon common sense

2005-03-23T07:05:00.000-05:00

Good roundup from Ed Week on recent Coalition for Community Schools annual conference in Chicago. Community schools offer a slew of wrap-around services to students and families at the school site, from mental health to job training to parent workshops. Parents and community members typically have a huge role in governance and decision-making. “We want to make our schools centers of the community, community anchors, rather than an isolated island open five or six hours. We are really trying to redefine what school is,” said Chicago supt. Arne Duncan, a huge proponent. Great quote from C. Warren “Pete” Moses, the executive director of the Children’s Aid Society, a NY-based group and leader in the movement: “Everything we do is pretty commonsensical, with the exception that it is not very common.” At least not yet, though the number of schools are growing. More at the Coalition's web site, including a conference blog. (Full disclosure: Coalition is a longtime client of ours.)

Parent leadership in Philly

2005-03-23T06:57:00.000-05:00

New Parent Leadership Academy to open in Philadelphia, with $750,000 grant from a local foundation. Ed Week brief here.

Parent policies, by state

2005-03-21T15:14:00.000-05:00

The Education Commission of the States has compiled a helpful state-by-state summary of parent involvement policies. See what your state says that it and school districts are supposed to be doing. Walking the talk is another story.

6th grade warning signs

2005-03-18T09:40:00.000-05:00

Only 1 in 10 sixth graders who failed English or math; who were flagged for bad behavior; or who attended school less than 80 percent of the time ended up graduating from high school on time, according to a new study of Philly students. Ten percent of the sixth graders graduated a year late. Most of the rest, the researchers said, never graduated at all. A good reminder, in the wake of all the recent attention to high school, that the entire educational pipeline matters.

Communication Breakdown...

2005-03-17T11:36:00.000-05:00

Open to the Public, a report released by the Public Education Network yesterday, provides some interesting insights into how little parents and the public still know about key NCLB issues such as assessments, teacher quality, supplemental services, school performance and their rights to information. There's growing frustration among parents and members of the community who say they are actively excluded from the school improvement process. Schools say they need more parent involvement, but parents say they are being shut out. The PEN findings certainly track what we see around the country. Some happy exceptions that we're particularly familiar with, since they're clients: serious statewide effort in Maryland by Nancy Grasmick to strengthen parent involvement policies and put some teeth into them; and parent-friendly report cards in Kansas City, MO we've developed with Schoolwise Press with support from Kauffman Foundation. Seems like it's time for the Ed. Dept. to step up and insist on the kind of quality information and involvement opportunities that the law promised.

Wide variation in transfers, tutoring

2005-03-16T13:35:00.000-05:00

Ed Week has a very useful state-by-state roundup of percentage of eligible students who are taking advantage of school transfers (only 1% nationally) and tutoring (11% nationally) under NCLB. Transfers: best are Alabama and Kansas, worst are Idaho, Nebraska, Maine and Texas (with zero transfers). Tutoring: best are Utah and Tennessee.

Community school, Comer schools

2005-03-12T10:43:00.000-05:00

Two good articles in the March issue of Education Leadership magazine. One documents how parents, community members and educators collaborated to create a new community high school in Chicago...the other by James Comer describes his School Development Program, which for 40 years has been transforming what he calls "parent paralysis" into parent participation. Involvement is focused at 3 levels: parents providing general support (homework help, parent-teacher conferences, etc.); parents as school volunteers; and parents as decision-makers on school planning and management teams. Our Case for Parent Leadership (free) uses a similar framework to help describe and organize the work. Abstracts of the Ed Leadership articles here; you'll have to pay $3 for the complete articles.

How NOT to do parent involvement

2005-03-12T10:15:00.000-05:00

Talk about dumb. Detroit Public Schools hires an ex-con with no PR experience, pays him over half a million dollars to distribute flyers, t-shirts, banners and the like to boost parent attendance at school meetings. Read about it here. Many parents say they never saw the stuff. Even if they had, we're skeptical that feel-good PR campaigns like this work very well anyway. Better bet: Make sure parents know exactly what their children are supposed to know at each grade, how that learning will be tested, how the parent can help at home, and what the parent should expect from teachers and the school system. In other words, treat parents more as partners with something to contribute.

And in Nebraska...

2005-03-11T09:36:00.000-05:00

Governor Heineman and key state senator say expanded parent involvement is one of three priorities to strengthen high schools, along with more challenging academics and better coordination between high school graduation tests and college admissions tests. More here. Commitment made after major national summit on high schools sponsored by Achieve and National Governors Assn. Wash Post's Jay Mathews this week profiles an innovative approach by a DC-area principal to reach out to high school parents: home visits, a program that's gaining popularity in many districts, including Sacramento.

Maryland takes the lead

2005-03-11T08:54:00.000-05:00

Under leadership of chief Nancy Grasmick, an advisory group of about 150 parents has proposed sweeping changes in policy and practice to strengthen parent involvement in the state's schools. Highlights: 2 parents on the state board, parent satisfaction built into teacher evaluations. This is the most ambitious statewide program in the country. As Grasmick says, "I think we've given a lot of lip service to parents. I honestly feel this is the first time we've had such a profound and substantive set of recommendations that would put parents in a very important position relative to their children's education." She's right.

County-by-county hearings this spring, with final report presented to state board of ed this summer. Read more in Washington Post, Baltimore Sun and Ed Week. Details, including recommendations and schedule of forums, here. (Full disclosure: we're serving as national consultant to this effort.)