The Who – Christmas

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We’re almost there, Santa!

The recent personal event of having another nephew being born yesterday highlights, once again, the critical role that parents and families play in the education of their children.

While school districts¹, reform advocates², parent groups³, and unions⁴ all seem to agree on the importance of “parent engagement”, the sad truth is that every single initiative I’ve encountered from these groups has been a top-down strategy that, in the end, is either too specific to apply to an individual school like mine, or too vague to be any use at all.

For example, in LAUSD, we now have a whole division dedicated to family engagement. Led by former director of the non-profit Families in Schools⁵, the LAUSD Families⁶ office has begun its work in earnest. But what exactly are they doing? Well, they’ve written a document called Parents Bill of Rights and Responsibilities⁷(a document which no one at my school seems to know exists), and developed a poll (as of now about 700 parents have responded to it, which is in the range of one- to two-tenths of a percent of my estimate of the number of parents in LAUSD). Clicking on the “School Resources” link gives very few actionable steps to take at my school, and the “Parent Resources” link is even more dismal – “Hey parents! Click here and download a giant PDF of the LAUSD Parent handbook”.

Look, Santa. Here’s what I want. And I know you can do it because it’s easy. EASY. While having a district-wide strategy is important, tell the district that they mainly need to be focused on becoming a "Parent Engagement Resource Center”, or PERC, since we seem to acronymify everything nowadays (and “verbify” everything too). What does a PERC do? Really simple. It’s main jobs are to:

• Scour the district and find schools that actually are doing parent engagement well. I KNOW there are schools out there.
• Develop a system to catalogue not only what these schools are doing, but who at the schools are doing them (more on this later).
• Include both numerical data AND, just as (if not more) importantly, anecdotal data as well.
• Allow, encourage, and foster communication between schools who want to learn parent engagement strategies with those who seem to be leading the way.

But how do they actually do this? Well, assuming that the district know which schools seem to be doing parent engagement well, here are some ideas:

• LAUSD could compile an online database with names and emails of leaders at each school with exemplary parental engagement.
• LAUSD could provide stipends for leaders at these exemplary schools to provide workshops, classes, or PDs.
• LAUSD could provide sub-time for teachers, and principals to visit schools where parent engagement is done well.

Simply put, there ARE great things going on in the district right now, but no one seems to know about them. If the district can act as a facilitator rather than a manager in this regard, schools might actually be able to see not only “what’s working” but be inspired to tweak it to meet the needs of their own school community.

Santa, make it happen!

1. LA Daily News: LAUSD aims to engage parents in schools
2. Intersections South LA: “Don’t Hold Us Back” Movement Rallies at LAUSD Meeting
3. Transparent: A grassroots organization focused on making LAUSD better for our kids!
4. Long Beach Press-Telegram: UTLA workshop will help parents teach kids over summer
5. Families in Schools website
6. LAUSD Families website
7. Parents Bill of Rights and Responsibilities

One Response to “#2 Local Examples of Schools that Successfully Engage Families – All I Want for Christmas: My 2011 Education Wish List”

1. Neil says:

   December 22, 2011 at 5:24 pm

   Kyle, I like this post, and your others. This is just a rambling thought, but here it goes. Ill try to keep it short. We want parents involved in education for two reasons. 1) parental engagement should improve community – more kids will do their homework and behave if parents are involved; 2) if parents could help with homework that would improve outcomes significantly. To be honest though, in schools where a large number of parents didnt graduate from high school, or are illegal, or are very busy, or are very young, getting parents invovled is going to be difficult. So, why not give them some incentive to get involved. What if schools offered GED programs for parents at night time where parents could engage with their kids’ teachers on a regular basis while also improvng their station in life? Or, better yet, what if there were an e-learning program that accomplished the same thing, using skype and other commonly available technologies, that allows parents to stay involved at odd hours and from home? Too costly you say? Thats nuts. A person with a GED generates way more money in terms of taxes than someone without. And how much money are we really talking about here anyways? Even assuming 10% participation, maybe we are talking about a 20% increase in spending? The biggest advantage here might not even be the increased earning. It might be the improved parental engagement.

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