3). PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT
This is an important and often tenacious component of our children's education. Most people would agree there is never enough. Why is that? Few would say that their parents don't care about their kids, not publically anyway.
Since many parents have to work two or three lowpaying jobs to make it, parental involvement is necessarily limited in the traditional sense. Schedules are going to condlict. That is why a constant stream of different forms of communication is vital to enable multiple opportunities for parents to engage in our children's education.
To say that they don't want to participate is a gross miscalculation. Twice in little over a year, the parents have come together to force a PUBLIC HEARING mandated by the city charter. To my knowledge, this had never been done before yet lately it's been done TWIC. We have a community eager to get involved. It is our job to show them HOW!
A lot of money and time has been invested in the WRAP-AROUND INIATIVE through the RACE TO THE TOP monies. From TENNESSEE to COLORADO through ARIZONA, we are finding new ways to invent the wheel. For over twent years we have had a successful example in the community school model at the FORD SCHOOL. Still there are those in the administration at LPS who would rather create new positions and waste money on salaries than actually provide the services.
It's time to take a hard look at parental involvement, redefine it, and make sure that LPS is actually open to receiving it.
This one is huge! There are so many ways parents can be involved, and not all require them to leave their house. It is every parent/guardian's responsibility to be in frequent contact with all their children's teachers, for knowing exactly how their children are performing in school, and for ensuring their children are doing all their school work and home work. Unfortunately, there are too many parents/guardians who are failing to do this. I have heard it time and time again from teachers that the only parents they typically hear from or see are those of students who are doing well. They rarely, if ever, speak to or see parents of students who are not doing well, particularly at the middle and high school levels. Of course, there are many parents who want to be involved and try to be involved, but are discouraged or even prevented by the school and/or district. I think we all know that LPS needs a lot of improvement with their communication methods and skills. We've already determined that the lack of required interpretation and translation services is a major issue and obstacle for many parents. The lack of notice and the lack of notification methods is also a major factor. I think every teacher in the district should be surveyed to find out how many total students they have in all their classes and how many of those student's parents are considered to be involved. Also, what do they think parents should or can do to be involved? Who better to know how involved parents really are than the teachers, right!! All parties need to do their part if we want to have successful district wide parental involvement
ReplyDeleteThis survey you want taken is already done. Teachers are contractually required to attend 3 open houses per year. Most schools use these for parents to come in and talk to teachers...a few, very few, use this time for political discussion, serving pizza, talent shows, etc. not what the original intent is but hey the principal can do whatever the principal wants to do. So when parents come in , from kindergarten to 12 th grade, teachers ask parents to sign in. We already know who comes and who doesn't ...do you want that info published in the newspaper? haven't you been ask to sign in? If not your attendances was tallied somehow. It is done system wide.
ReplyDeleteI am not talking about open houses. Only having contact with your child's teachers for a couple of minutes 3 times per school year is obviously not enough and certainly not acceptable. What other ways would teachers like parents to be involved throughout the school year aside from open houses?
ReplyDeleteWho is going to pay for that? You don't like charter schools and they have that exact kind of communication but they pay their teachers for that time. There is not one teacher I know who wou
ReplyDeleteD not take time to speak to a parent per request but formally set up time needs contractual agreement. Bottom line, it is not all warm and fuzzy , it is a career choice, a job. Would a lawyer, a doctor, a nurse, a computer technician work for free...?
I am so confused by your response. Since when does it cost extra money for parents to be involved? And since when does a teacher having involved parents require that teacher to work for free?
DeleteI was told something very interesting recently by a former Harrington teacher that never occurred to me before. In many cultures, teachers and school personnel are regarded as being almost religious and their rule or position is not to be questioned. Which again brings up the translation issue, all parents need to know that they do have a voice and a right to question anything that goes on in the schools so that their child can receive the best education possible. This fear of speaking up was apparent at the Kindergarten Public Hearing when many parents spoke for the first time, in broken English, expressing fear at speaking out and nerves clearly visible. What a shame! I was nervous too, but only because I don't like to speak in front of others, not because of what I have to say.
ReplyDelete