kitchen table math, the sequel: Parent Involvement

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Parent Involvement

Parental involvement has real staying power as a catch phrase in education-speak. Possibly because it assumes that parents can always be counted on to take the blame (or blame each other) for most anything going wrong. But there are a few schools that take parent involvement seriously, and could possibly serve as role models. One of the local public schools in my town has taken a few simple steps to move past rhetoric; and I offer it as an example.

1) last May, a Parent's evening was held for parents of 6th graders. The principal, VPrinc, and Guidance Counselor answered questions and gave information. I found this typical and not terribly helpful -- a lot of general information on middle school organization, lockers, classes, blah blah blah. Nothing specific on curriculum, which is what I'd like to hear about.

2) a week before school starts -- a picnic on the lawn for families then about an hour for kids and families to wander the school, find the classrooms they'd be in, lockers, talk to administrators. The event ran past the scheduled end time, but no one was hurried to the door.

3) the second full day of classes -- parents are invited to come immediately after classes to meet teachers for an hour in the cafeteria (although it ran late, again, and nobody threw the parents out). Every teacher was there, all were willing to discuss curriculum and expectations

4) Two weeks into the year -- an open house is held in the evening. We got copies of our child's schedule and followed their day class to class for 2 hours. Every teacher was there, curriculum was discussed, some teachers had detailed syllabi available.

5) 3rd week of classes -- a morning parent open house is held -- from 7:30 to 9:30 parents are invited to attend classes with their child. Parents park all over the lawn. The Principal takes pictures -- the more parents the better. He's told us repeatedly at the first 4 events how he wants to blanket the front grass with parent cars. Yes it's disruptive, but he wants parents to see what their kids are actually doing in class.

The point of all of the events at various times of the day make it easier for parents to find at least one time when they can make it in to the school. The principal asks parents to come to school. He makes it easy to get them there by making the times flexible. No topic is off-limits.

Having sat through two classes with my daughter's teachers (with students present) has given me a far greater understanding of what is happening in my child's school day. I may not like everything going on there, but there is no doubt that transparency is more than empty talk. There are things I will continue to fight to change (still too much emphasis on the child taking responsibility for their own learning), but with transparency and an attitude of openness towards parents, I feel I am involved (for the first time ever in this school district) WITH and NOT AGAINST the school my child attends.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

LynnG,

Sounds good. We are seeing similar here; it is a result of the school board listening to very angry parents and voters as well as the NCLB numbers (we failed to the point that the m.s. principal was booted). The new one has read the voters correctly. It has been a year since any parent has been told it is the child's fault that he didn't learn. The admin has silenced the teachers and told them to teach in a manner that children can understand. The extra money for the sixth period remedial class they agreed to teach was helpful too. The nicest thing is that the homework load has decreased, since the teachers are actually teaching in the classroom, rather than talking & having parties and sending what should have been seatwork home. We're down to math and the occasional essay, which gives the kids time to study and read.

LSquared32 said...

This sounds very promising. You may have a rare effective principal.

Catherine Johnson said...

wow

this is amazing

absolutely amazing

Anonymous said...

So... I found out the new tactic as I attempted to finish up on getting my kid help for his illegible handwriting....it is to deny that there is a problem. It was all I could do to not ROFL. Can't go into details, as this will have to continue up the ladder...suffice it to say I have about 5 years of written proof that teachers view it as a problem. They did give ds an alphasmart, and had the audacity to say he must not need it since he's not using it...when the true reason is they didn't install any printers....so I guess 'blame the kid' is still present.