Parental Involvement

Matthew Lynch published in Parental Involvement, Teachers

How can parental involvement in schools improve?

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

A guest post by Michael J. Ryan

During this season of public school awards and recognition ceremonies, I am reminded of a middle school principal who at one awards ceremony finger-wagged at families. She first thanked everyone for attending. Then, with obvious disappointment, she highlighted that she had not seen most of the adults at all during the school year.

The conversation involving charter schools often includes debatable issues regarding the quality and/or treatment of the teachers, the dedication to sustainable continuity of teaching staff and whether or not charter schools live by the same rules as traditional public schools. However, one aspect that is never debated is many charter schools, which are public schools, demand parents sign a “contract” to volunteer.

Some doubt that these contracts or covenants are fully enforced and others point to imaginative methods to allow “volunteer” hours for parents who live some distance away. However, the act of signing a contract obviously means something.

As a former PTA president, I understand the significant challenges in getting families to successfully cross the threshold of a school. We know, however, once families volunteer or engage, they quickly learn that family engagement in the school environment generates positive benefits for their own children and for the school environment at large.

You don’t have to be an accomplished educator or a Nobel-prize winning economist to understand the benefits of familial engagement in education. Imagine the dollars saved if more families volunteered for projects involving our schools, the benefits of having more people to read, tutor and mentor and the positive long-term economic boost from smarter, more successful students which, in turn, would strengthen public education.

However, sadly, familial engagement in our public schools is not always what it should or could be. When did it become acceptable for parents and guardians to never engage in their child’s school?

Fully-funded, free and equal public education is a constitutional right that must be protected and can never be denied. Schools recognize some households are struggling, working multiple jobs with challenging hours or raising children alone. Others may have difficulty volunteering often or feel they have little to offer. Language differences can work to undermine confidence in the benefits of engaging in a school.

We know, as a result, we cannot generate a mandatory volunteer policy in public education that is fully enforceable against those who refuse to engage. At the same time, we can’t rely on more community meetings to solve this familial engagement crisis.

For municipalities who do not control education, the lack of familial engagement is not something to ignore. We know that strong schools support vibrant neighborhoods, which translates into safer and more economically stable communities. While implementing municipal-based solutions when schools are governed by a separately elected board of education is challenging, the impact of failing to try directly and negatively impacts municipal governments.

So what to do?

We must begin by altering the expectations for a parent or guardian and families in a quality public education system. Public education is a collective commitment intended to build future success for our children and our society involving the entire community, including, not excluding, families.

Schools need to develop a true, sustained and supported customer service model, like we see in businesses who must compete, to overcome fears and preconceived notions, as well as blunt negative past experiences. Schools must embrace the notion that some families may be intimidated or may have had experiences in the past where the school was not as welcoming as it could have been. Directly communicating a customer-friendly atmosphere can be a challenge since not every “customer” comes to the school, but it is not impossible. It starts, perhaps, in the car loop and the front desk, and progresses outward to those who do not come to the school.

Next, schools must understand that not all families will have someone who will be able volunteer inside the school or as part of the curriculum. So, developing a menu of opportunities to engage must include at home projects and potential in-kind efforts.

Additionally, if engagement is the goal, let’s re-think what engagement in education means. Since we recognize that not all families can volunteer or will have the confidence that they have something to offer, changing the definition of engagement offers opportunities to achieve compliance with overall educational goals. Maybe re-define engagement to include meeting with the teacher or administrator to learn about how the student is doing in school, reading to the student at night, going over the homework assignments or attending a school wide event or meeting.

Start with that level of engagement, track it, praise it and encourage different types of engagement. Set a baseline expectation of 1 hour per week, which is roughly 40 hours per school year. Then, watch the hours grow through a visible tracking system communicated to the community.

While we recognize benefits to the students should be enough incentive, developing other incentives for parents or rewards to students for engagement can help as well. Of course, we must be mindful the system of incentives does not operate to punish students who cannot find a family member to engage.

Municipalities which do not control education have an important role to play in addressing the crisis of familial engagement. Prioritizing engagement in schools as a theme in meetings with community, inter-faith, and business leaders sets the tone. Establishing the benefits to the community at large helps to generate a gravitational pull towards the school if for no other reason than self-interest in an economically stable community.

In the end, it is time to have all families sign a covenant, or contract, to engage in their respective schools. The act of signing a “contract” or covenant means something. Even the lack of enforcement options generates only marginal incremental increases in engagement, in whatever form defined, we can no longer ignore the current familial engagement crisis. We owe it to ourselves and our young minds to try something.

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Michael J. Ryan is a partner with the Fort Lauderdale law firm Krupnick Campbell Malone Buser Slama Hancock & Liberman, a former president of the Parent-Teacher Association at Sawgrass Elementary School and former chair of the City of Sunrise Education Advisory Board. Mr. Ryan also currently serves as Mayor of the City of Sunrise, Fla.

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Matthew Lynch published in Parental Involvement

Parental involvement in early childhood learning: A stitch in time saves nine

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

By Khaula Mazhar

In today’s increasingly busy world, parents have less and less time to spend with their young children and often miss out on this extremely important time in a child’s life. Children are developing more and more behavioral problems. They are stressed out at ages when they should be enjoying their childhood.

Research has shown the positive effects of engaged parents on a child’s academic success as well as on the emotional and physical well being of a child. It has also shown the advantages of early childhood learning and just how much young children can literally sponge up information and then be ready for even more.

There are vast amounts of reading material on the subject of early learning, hundreds of books by dedicated professionals in childhood education, but I am going to give you the experience of a normal everyday mother. Myself. The reason is when I read those books, it was to improve my skills as a teacher, curiosity and also just because I am a voracious reader. But when I saw another mother, like myself, use those wonderful things she learned on her own child, it was a whole different story. It is something I sincerely wish every mother and father would do with their child. They can if they are provided with the opportunity to learn how to, something governments can do quite cheaply, and it will open the door for enormous pay backs. We must help empower the parents and we must educate the parents first.

When I started as a teacher I was in the school library every free minute I got. They had an incredible resource of good books and I wanted to take advantage of them all. Although I read many, the ones I came to fall in love with were Glen Doman’s.  I renewed “How to Give Your Baby Encyclopedic Knowledge” so many times it needed a new sign out card. Yes way back when those cards were still used. My daughter was four and my son was two. I had never imagined that a two year old could read, let alone recognize countries on a world map. They can. My kids were my test subjects although I didn’t know it at the time. Now that they are teenagers, I see the results.

The techniques are simple, and don’t take a lot of time. Working mothers can do it with a little prioritizing. I managed to do it with my job and two small children, and I was not exactly a skilled multi-tasking professional. It was simply a matter of investing time wisely, and nothing is a bigger investment than our kids.

Glen Doman’s Method involved facts cards. Fact cards can be made for everything from colors, animals, countries and key reading words to dot cards (for numeracy). Those are about the only materials needed, the cards can be obtained cheaply in bulk and pictures of everything can be found in old national geographic magazines. Whatever is to be taught can be done so easily by flashing these fact cards to children as young as eighteen months. Ten cards at a time, two or three times a day. Children think it is a game and are happy to spend time with parents “playing”.  I started out with just colors, keywords and dot cards, but the “game” became a favorite and I soon added historical figures, musical instruments, animals, monuments and countries. My kids could not get enough of it, my two year old son not only knew where China was but he could tell you interesting tidbits about it. You just needed a translator to understand what he was saying.

Once they started to read I had an endless supply of books that we explored together.  Years later their teachers came to me and told me how my kids knew the most interesting facts and added positively to all the class discussions. They were interested and eager learners. I finally convinced the head of the pre-primary section at school to let me go ahead and try it in my pre-nursery class.

It was a great experience. Parents would come to me at home time and tell me excitedly that their kid knew what an isosceles triangle was or had told them all about African elephants. They wanted to know what we were doing in the class. Unfortunately that is where I could have empowered those parents, instead I just told them we were trying something new.  It never occurred to me to suggest that we do a workshop on the technique for parents. I really wish I could go back in time and act more wisely.

Most parents today don’t have the leisure of going through large amounts of reading material to find out all the things they can do to give their child the early advantage. But schools can help by offering free workshops focused on simple techniques that parents could implement at home with their children. If these type of workshops were provided to parents every year they could make an enormous positive change in the futures of so many children. Not just academically but behaviorally as well. Imagine an entire generation of less stressed, positive youth all geared up to run the world in a more constructive manner.

There are many other techniques and systems out there besides Glen Doman’s awesome fact cards system. This is just my experience with this. But what I have learned is how much the right thing at the right time can affect a child’s positive attitude towards not just learning but life in general. Engaged parents teaching kids their first lessons is very important to build confidence and a positive attitude in children.
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Khaula Mazhar, children’s book author, has a ten year teaching experience from Pakistan where she also wrote for Dawn Newspaper. After moving back home to Canada she continues to pursue her writing when she can. She blogs at Blog Her, MuslimMoms.ca and writes articles for Examiner.com.

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Matthew Lynch published in Parental Involvement, Secondary Education, Teachers

Parents can’t answer everything children ask about science – and that’s OK

Carol Davenport, Northumbria University, Newcastle

If a child asked you how close an astronaut can get to the sun, the chances are you’d need a moment – or perhaps a search engine – to figure it out. Anyone who has spent some time with young children know that they ask “why?” – a lot. Children have a curiosity about the world that leads them to question almost everything around them.

Unfortunately their parents typically don’t. A recent survey of 1,000 parents found that 83% of them couldn’t answer simple school science questions. While this may seem concerning, what’s more worrying is that 63% admitted to making up answers so that they didn’t have to admit to not knowing. So what should you do if you don’t know the answer?

The Institution of Engineering and Technology, which carried out the survey, and parenting website Mumsnet recently held a Twitter party with the hashtag #AskTheEngineers. Parents were asked to tweet questions that their children had asked, and then a team of engineers would tweet back answers. You can have a look at some of the questions below. Could you answer them?

  • How does gravity work? And what would happen without it?
  • Why do beavers build dams?
  • Why can’t we hear dog whistles?
  • How do stars stay in the sky?
  • How do onions make your eyes water?
  • Why do power stations have so much smoke coming out of them?
  • If light comes from the sun, where does dark come from?

Many primary schools put on after-school sessions for parents explaining how they can support their children with English and Maths. Parental support is known to be an important factor in how well a child does in school, so by equipping parents with the confidence to help their children, schools are aiming to improve the achievement of their pupils.

However, very few primary schools provide similar support in science. And, as the survey shows, this is an area that many parents feel unable to answer when their asked by their child.

Science isn’t about right and wrong

But do parents need to know all the answers? The questions posed to #AskTheEngineers cover a huge range of science and engineering topics – some not even taught at school. They also include questions that science doesn’t yet fully know the answer to (how does gravity work?) as well as questions that are more philosophical in nature (what is dark?). For that reason, I don’t think it makes sense to expect parents to know it all.

Parent and child thinking about science together.
Think Physics, Author provided

In fact, it’s far more important that parents feel confident in saying “I don’t know, let’s see if we can find out”. Many people who finished their science education at the age of 16 have gained the impression that science is about knowing the right answers because this is how they experienced science up to that point.

However, successful science involves not knowing the answer, but being willing to ask questions, just like children do. By admitting that they don’t know the answer and then searching for the answer, parents are modelling good practice to their children – supporting them in their educational development. There are many great websites that aim to communicate science to a general audience, including BBC iWonder, The Naked Scientists, or the Royal Institution ExpeRImental films.

I’m involved in the Think Physics project at Northumbria University, which is currently working with parents to increase their confidence in talking about science with their children. We have developed a five-week after-school club called “Science for Families”, which we are running with partner local authorities. Children, and their parents, come along to each session and together learn about different topics in science through hands on experiments using everyday objects.

The key aim of the sessions is to show parents that science is all about asking questions and exploring phenomena to find the answers. We aren’t aiming to “teach” parents the science topics that their children will be learning about, rather we are aiming to give them confidence to have conversations with their children about science.

Recent research has emphasised the importance of parents in children’s career choices, showing that parents who are comfortable talking about science are more likely to encourage their children into careers which involve science. So if you’re stuck with an inquisitive child or two at home, just embrace their curiosity and learn with them.

So how close is it possible for astronauts to get to the sun? The engineers at the Twitter party replied that satellites can get even closer than Mercury, which is the closest planet, but they get very hot. However, it takes years and years to get there, so we haven’t sent any astronauts yet. You can view more of the engineers’ answers here.

The Conversation

Carol Davenport, Director, Think Physics, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in Parental Involvement

How to Choose the Right Childcare Center

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

A guest post by Anica Oaks

Leaving your child and going to work is one of the most difficult things that a parent must do. There are always horror stories of daycare centers and home care providers that don’t treat the children how they should. There are ways you can make sure that your child is in good hands by doing a bit of homework.

Ask Tons of Questions

Even if you are being a bit annoying, be sure to ask plenty of questions to the person in charge. Find out what their backup plan is when people call off work and request the child-to-adult ratio they use. It is not being nosy when your child is concerned. Be sure to ask them about the daily routine and what type of things they will be teaching. A daycare center that puts a child in front of a television set all day long is not good for the child’s development.

What Kind of Workers Do They Have?

All workers should be drug tested and have a background check performed before they can be around children. Make sure that the daycare center has this policy in force. Do they hire educated people or just anyone who is 18 years of age? Some centers, like Youthland Academy, only hire the best of the best to work with the children entrusted to their care. If the center doesn’t have a great group of employees, look elsewhere.

Don’t Make the Decision Based on Money

The old saying “you get what you pay for” certainly applies here. If you only care about the financial aspects of the center, you will miss the big picture. Sure, you need to be able to afford the daycare center’s rates, but you also would pay an extra $10 or $20 a week if it meant your child was safe from harm. While money is important, safety and good quality employees are even better.

Tour the Facility: Give the White Glove Test

Before making a decision on a daycare center, tour the facilities. Ask to see even the simple things like the diaper changing area. Look for safety violations and issues that might cause problems with the child’s safety. Don’t ever feel bad to question the health and safety of your child. Look at the restrooms, lunchroom, and the napping center. Make sure the toys are not broken and play areas are divided by age.

 

You want to make the right decision regarding a daycare center. While most of the centers are really good, there are still those certain few that make a bad name for everyone else. For the sake of your child, an investigation is warranted.

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Anica is a professional content and copywriter who graduated from the University of San Francisco. She loves dogs, the ocean, and anything outdoor-related. She was raised in a big family, so she’s used to putting things to a vote. Also, cartwheels are her specialty. You can connect with Anica here.

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Matthew Lynch published in Matthew Lynch, Parental Involvement, Policy & Reform

Understanding Parental Involvement

When we discuss parental involvement in schools, we often concentrate on ways in which parental involvement can help schools perform better and how parents can help their children excel in learning. It is a well-known fact that parental involvement can help students achieve success in school; however, it is difficult to measure how much parental involvement is required of parents in order for them to help their children to improve their learning skills and performance.

Parental actions that obstruct the learning process and other educational goals are equally immeasurable. Comprehending the impact of parental involvement requires understanding deficiencies that reduce student performance, and providing parents with tools to diminish their effects. This same principle applies to understanding the ways that schools can encourage parental involvement in low income communities. Situations like these necessitate sensitivity to ethnicity, race, religious affiliation, linguistic challenges, single parenthood, and familial characteristics.

Parents are often influenced by their ethnic background when trying to help their children improve academically. It is imperative that school personnel understand the importance of the family’s cultural characteristics in the educational process. Schools should structure parental involvement programs that take advantage of the strong qualities individual parents bring to the schooling process, as a means for promoting improved relations between parents and the school. Interactions between parents and school personnel are meant to provide information and assistance to both the school and parents.

It is important to monitor how parents act on the instructions, information, and advice offered through such programs. Due to various cultural differences, some families may succeed in obtaining the maximum possible benefit of such interactional programs, while other families may fail to utilize these opportunities. Another factor to consider is the possibility of conflicts between parent’s cultural and linguistic background, and the social, linguistic, and cultural values existing in the school.

Schools often promote common ideals of a capitalistic culture, and, in doing so, present the impoverished, minorities, the disabled, and immigrants, as inferior. The success of parental involvement programs often depends on reaching parents living within different political, economic, cultural, and social realities. In order to help parents make better use of parental involvement programs, it is necessary to attend to these differences, and incorporate ways to meet the varied needs and expectations of parents within the parental involvement program.

The success of parental education and involvement programs depends on the ways parents can make use of their social, human, and financial resources to help their children perform better at school. Parents can also help their children improve their learning skills by providing attention to their children’s studies and participating in meaningful collaboration with school personnel and authorities. Historically, schools have played a major part in improving social conditions. Collaboration between schools and parents can help alleviate the challenges facing students who are living in families that have a lower socioeconomic status.

Policy makers must realize the importance of public schools and their role in facilitating the prosperity of our nation. Federal and state agencies have initiated various programs to improve the relationship between schools, parents, and communities. In order to increase parental involvement and reduce barriers that restrict parents from participating in the education system, it is essential to offer parent education for impoverished parents or parents with disabilities, so that they may learn better ways to boost their children’s learning skills.

The value of parental involvement programs has been well established. Effective parental involvement programs are best achieved when the program originates with the study of the school community, and then proceeds to develop instruction, and provide advice and information that reflects the circumstances, needs, and potential contributions of families who are a part of the school community.

Schools must be prepared for the fact that one outcome of effective parental involvement programs will be the desire of parents to become partners in the decision-making process existing in schools. Thus, school personnel must possess a genuine belief that shared responsibility for multiple aspects of the educational enterprise will result in improved learning environments for children and youth.

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Matthew Lynch published in Matthew Lynch, Policy & Reform

Parents: The Missing Ingredient in K-12 Success

As educators, we talk a lot about the role of teachers in the lives of students and debate the best ways to strengthen the classroom experience for students from all backgrounds. There is only so much a teacher can do, though, particularly with large class sizes and limited resources. Even teachers in the best of circumstances are limited when it comes to hours in the day and the amount of material that must be covered. As K-12 academic standards become more rigorous, parents are becoming an even more integral piece of a student’s success.

The timing couldn’t be worse though, from a cultural standpoint. A report released in February by Stanford University that found that the number of U.S. households with two working parents nearly doubled from 25 percent in 1968 to 48 percent in 2008, and that doesn’t even factor in parents who have part-time jobs, health issues or other children that vie for their time. Sending children off to school is a relief for many parents who need a place for their children to go and put their faith in the school to make those hours productive ones.

Asking parents to pick up some of the “slack” for teachers is often perceived as a burden and not as the legitimate parental duty it actually is. If you look at students living in poverty, whose own parents may not have played an active role in their own K-12 learning, the chance of parental involvement in the education process is even slimmer. No teacher would argue the fact that parents ARE needed to maximize student success – so how can educators, and society as a whole, make it so?

The parental difference

The most obvious benefit of parental involvement is more time spent on academic learning, with direct results in student performance. There are other benefits too, though, like:

  • Parents being aware of what is taking place at the school and getting involved.
  • Parents better understanding where their children may struggle, and not just hearing it secondhand at a teacher conference.
  • Better attendance and participation for kids who follow the enthusiasm and good example of their parents.
  • Parent-child bonding over a common goal (and what better one than education?).

Schools doing it right

Teachers reading this are likely shaking their heads as their frustration builds. Yes, parents are needed! Yes, students perform better if their parents are involved in their academics! But HOW do we get the message across to parents?

Every school district and community will have a difference approach but here are a few places that have figured out some great ways to trigger parental interest in what happens at school:

Sunnyside Schools, Washington: This school district has designed a pilot program that will engage parents and investigate what methods best keep parents involvement in education of children the highest. Regular, informal meetings are part of the plan and a family advocacy group is working with the school district to find the best solutions.

Chicago Public Schools: In June 2013 Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett unveiled a five-year action plan to help kids get ready for their college, career and life. In that plan, she discussed the importance of holding adults accountable as indispensable allies and says they must enforce homework, turn off the television and make education a priority. To help parents keep children on track, her action plan promises to launch city-wide “Parent Universities” that help parents learn more about appropriate expectations of their children, how to build academic skills and ways to support their college plans. Parents can also learn more to help better their own lives.

Getting parents to the right level of participation will take at least a generation of K-12 students but it is a must for future academic and life success.

How have you been successful at getting parents more involved in their children’s schooling?

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Parental Involvement

How to Get Your Child to Listen

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding a P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

By JaVohn Perry

As parents we often ask ourselves, “Why isn’t my child listening to me?” We seem to have the assumption that just because we say something, our child should automatically obey. Wouldn’t that be nice? Well it seldom works out that way. In fact, it is frequently the total opposite. We sometimes find that when we tell our child to do something, they don’t do it. Or, when we ask our child not to do a particular thing, they do it anyway. Why is this? Well this happens for a number of reasons including rebellion, misunderstandings, and sometimes our children are just testing us. Whatever the cause may be, there are ways to increase the chances of our children listening to us.

Talk to your kids, not AT them. As parents, we should talk to our children instead of talking at them. Lectures can sometimes be discouraging and one sided. A better option would be having conversations with our children. Try talking to your child about what is expected of them. Let them know what type of behavior is acceptable and what consequences they may encounter if rules are not followed. Encourage your child to engage in the conversation by asking questions. It is also important to let your child speak as well.

Leave out the judgement. It also helps to be non-judgmental when talking with your child. Judging actually does more harm than good because it causes a feeling of shame, which sometimes leads to rebellion. There is a way to tell your child what is acceptable behavior without judging them. By setting the ground rules and making them aware of expectations, you are putting a foundation in place.

Be proactive. Another good idea is to discuss issues with your child before they come up. Talk to your child about listening at a time when everything is calm and there is no issue. Children are more likely to listen and actually remember when issues are discussed while they are in a calm mood. While you and your child are just sitting around or having fun, it would be a nice time to tell them how good it feels when they listen to you. You should also ask them how it feels when people listen to them.

Set a good example. Always try your best to be a good example to your child. It is important for you to listen to your child when he or she is trying to relay a message to you. This can be a verbal message or one shown through behavior. Tell them what you are getting out of the message so that they will know for sure that you understand and that you were really listening. If you pay attention to your child, they are more likely to listen to you.

Follow through. Another very important thing we must do as parents is follow through. If you have established consequences and they are clear to your child, it is important to actually do what you say you will do. Children are very smart and they know when they can get away with things. If there is no follow through, it sends the message that they don’t have to listen because there won’t be a consequence. It also shows inconsistency between your words and actions.

In conclusion, we need to remember that each individual child is different. It is important that we know our child so we know what type of technique works for him or her. This is why we have to try to strengthen the bonds with our children. Having a close relationship with your child is very important. Children with distant relationships with their parents are less likely to listen to them. Children need to know that we care and that they are being heard. Once we start listening to our children, we are one step closer to them listening to us.

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JaVohn Perry is a devoted mother of three, Early Childhood Educator, Freelance Writer and Business Owner. As a writer, she holds many titles including Seattle Childhood Education Examiner for Examiner.com. With writing and working with children being her two passions, she makes it her duty to utilize her skills in those areas.

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Matthew Lynch published in Parental Involvement

Are parents missing from schools or are they being pushed out?

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

A guest column by Regina Paul

Dr. Matthew Lynch’s “Parents: The Missing Ingredient in K–12 Success” in the September 24 issue of The Edvocate is insightful as far as it goes, though that is not far enough.  Dr. Lynch writes, “As K-12 academic standards become more rigorous, parents are becoming an even more integral piece of a student’s success.”  Yes, most of us policymakers and advocates would agree that parents should understand what their children are expected to learn in school and should be engaged in helping them learn it.  That goes for parents with college educations, parents with high school educations, and parents with grade school educations.  That goes for parents with great jobs, parents with not-great jobs, and parents with no jobs.  In fact, as we prove time and again, all parents can help teach their children.  

Some three decades ago when the Cleveland Public Schools were the subject of a long Court-ordered desegregation case, we worked on behalf of the Federal District Court to establish new reading curriculum objectives for grades 1 through 9 and to develop new districtwide tests to see whether children were learning the new objectives.  It sounds so old-fashioned now, but it worked.  Reading improved, but not just because of what teachers did in the classroom.

Reading improved because we sent the new reading objectives home to every family of every child in those nine grades—the actual objectives that teachers taught every day.  On the back of the Reading Skills Checklist (there was one for each grade), we had an important tagline—Remember:  The schools cannot do it all alone.  We followed up the parent checklists with Reading at Home:  A Parent’s Guide to Helping Children Read (there was one for each grade), which explained each objective, gave some easy-to-do activities for parents to use to teach it, and gave a sample test question from the districtwide test.  We sent a parent handbook to every family of every child in those nine grades.  

Many people told us that parents in Cleveland were way too busy to help their children learn to read.  Many people told us that parents in Cleveland wouldn’t be able to help their children learn to read even if they wanted to.  Many people were wrong on both counts.

When we did the same thing a few years later in the Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools—this time with parent checklists and parent handbooks for language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, and health objectives for each marking period—we got the same pushback.  People told us that the parents who still had children in the public schools after desegregation were just not able to do what we imagined.  They told us we were wasting the district’s money.  They were wrong again.

When the school district was late sending out Savannah’s parent checklists at the beginning of the next school year, the principals said their phones were ringing off the hook, with parents calling to say, “Where is my checklist?  How do you expect me to help my child this year when you haven’t sent me my checklist?”  Standardized test scores improved so much that the testing company rescored the tests; gains like that were never seen, the testing company said.

So, I know that parents can make a big difference—maybe all the difference.  But here is a problem I have run into in some of the hundred school districts I have worked with:  Some schools and school districts are staffed with professionals who would rather that parents just stayed out of the way.  They are willing for parents to come to back-to-school night in the fall, to take part in fundraisers, to sign homework before it is turned in or tests after they are graded, and to attend twice-yearly parent-teacher conferences.  But are they willing to give parents any power, any say about how things are done?

Are they willing to let parents have a voice in the curriculum, for example?  Not long ago, I attended a statewide PTA convention.  The Common Core and its matching statewide tests were all most people were talking about.  Yet, there was not one workshop session about the Common Core, the tests, or any curriculum topic.  The sessions were about how to get more PTA members, how to conduct meetings, and how to raise money—all useful topics, but far less important than what kids are being taught.  The exhibit hall was full of parents with misinformation about the Common Core and the tests being used to measure them, but there was not a workshop to be found.  Who was benefitting from the parents’ confusion?

My question is this:  Are the parents missing or are they being pushed out?  Do they even realize that they are often being held at arm’s length?  Could they do more if they were invited in?  Would schools be better if parents had a real voice in more school decisions, if they wielded real power and not just a rubber stamp?

One clear path to increased parent power is for parents to run for local school boards.  As someone who has worked with and trained literally thousands of school board members nationwide, I can honestly say that I think there is no nobler calling.  I continue to be amazed at how smart and perceptive most school boards are when their members are working together to improve schools.  Parents, if you haven’t attended a school board meeting lately—or ever—it is time.  Watch the way the board handles its power.

And when you go, ask the board to discuss its policies on parent involvement.  Look at how parents in your school district are encouraged and expected to engage with teachers and administrators.  Are there structures in place that put any power in the hands of parents and that give parents a real voice in important decisions?  If there are policies that call for real engagement, then you are lucky.  Make sure you take advantage of them—in the best possible way.

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Regina H. Paul is president of Policy Studies in Education (PSE), a nonprofit organization with more than 40 years of experience in working with schools, local and state boards of education, state and federal education agencies, foundations, professional associations, and colleges to improve education.  Ms. Paul is the co-host of NYCollegeChat, a weekly podcast for parents about negotiating the world of college, and the co-author of a new book, How To Find the Right College:  A Workbook for Parents of High School Students.  She blogs regularly at ParentChatwithRegina.org.

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