Growing Federal Interest on Family and Community Engagement as a Policy Priority by Oscar E. Cruz

Growing Federal Interest on Family and Community Engagement as a Policy Priority

Oscar E. Cruz

President & CEO at Families In Schools, Los Angeles, CA

Jan 4, 2016

The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education (ED) recently released a draft statement entitled Draft Policy Statement on Family Engagement from the early Years to the Early Grades. The document highlights a growing interest by the Federal Government to elevate family and community engagement as a key policy priority.  This is a positive sign that the federal government is paying attention to factors beyond test scores as fundamental  components of quality education. However, more will need to be done to clarify the specific role the federal government can play on improving the way education institutions reach-out and partner with families to support child development and student achievement and provide opportunities for families to be involved in decision-making.
HHS and ED invited the public to submit edits/recommendations in order to improve the draft. An abstract from the recommendations submitted by Families In Schools is included below.
"................To start, FIS would like to offer a broad recommendation regarding the focus of the document. While we recognize the importance of providing recommendations to state and local agencies, we also see it equally as important to include recommendation to US federal departments on how to embed authentic family engagement within their policies and programs. Thus, FIS recommends adding a specific section to the draft document that provides recommendations to US Federal Departments, including HHS and ED, on how to promote authentic family engagement in their policies and programs. For example, the new section should address:

• Ensure federal programs that seeks to impact child development (families with children 0-5) and/or academic outcomes (K-12 grades) include a priority to engage families as a key strategy to reaching goals.
• Allocate adequate financial resources to support family engagement strategies as part of the federal programs mentioned above; encouraging a minimum of 1% of the total program budget to be allocated for family engagement practices (as done by ESSA Title I).
• Ensure federal grant programs include family engagement as a "competitive advantage" in the application process.

The following are specific recommendations to the current sections included in the draft document:

• Expand Grade Range. Expand the scope of the document to address “early years to high school” and not just early grades. The responsibility of public educational institutions to engage families is not limited to early years/grades, but along the educational pipeline from pre-k to high school. Keeping a narrow focus may send the wrong message to intuitions that their responsibility to engage families decreases after 3rd grade. Furthermore, The Dual Capacity Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships released by ED encompasses grades K-12. Thus, the research references included in the draft document should also address family engagement related to middle and high school years. In particular, include research from Organizing Schools for Improvement: http://www.schoolreforminitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Organizing-schools-for-improvemnt-Bryk.pdf
• Shared Leadership. Under the "Principles for Effective Family Engagement Practices" section, FIS recommends that an additional principle be added to highlight the importance of engaging families in decision-making. The important role families play can range from supporting learning at home to participating in decision-making in policy and budget decisions.

• Budget Allocation. Under the "Recommendations for State Action" section, the document should recommend that States allocate a minimum of 1% of early education and state school improvement initiative budgets for family engagement practices (as done by ESSA Title I).
• Credentialing. Under the "Recommendations for State Action" section, the document should recommend that States incorporate family/community engagement as core competency in teacher credentialing programs.
• Vision for Authentic Family Engagement: FIS recommends including the Vision for Authentic Family Engagement infographic/report as part of the "Family Engagement Resources" section. FIS, in collaboration with dozens of organizations from across California, developed a set of family engagement indicators that can be used by the state and school districts to better track family engagement activities. We believe these indicators will help change the culture at every school site and in every district across the state, moving boldly from a culture of compliance (Family Engagement 1.0) to a culture of real, meaningful authentic engagement (Family Engagement 2.0), yielding powerful educational outcomes for all students and for California. Learn more about the indicators: http://familysmatternow.org/about.........."

Recession fuels shift from private to public schools

By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
January 7, 2009

When the family budget started feeling the recession's pinch last year, Angela Allyn and her photographer husband, Matt Dinnerstein, pulled their three kids out of Chicago-area private schools and enrolled them in Evanston, Ill., public schools.

It has been a challenging transition: Maya, 16, now a high school sophomore, "doesn't like crowds — and her high school is as big as a small college," her mother says. Though Maya is learning a lot in the "amazing" science program, she's also hoping to leave the crowds behind by doubling up on coursework, graduating by the end of junior year "and then going and doing interesting things," Allyn says. Her younger children face their own challenges, from bullying to sheer boredom.

The transition also has been an education for Maya's parents, who say they had "no choice" in the struggling economy but to switch to public schools.

They're saving about $20,000 a year in tuition, but like many former private-school families, they're coming face-to-face with larger class sizes and the public school bureaucracy as they push to get services for their children.

"We ask a lot of questions — we follow up on things," says Allyn, a former professional dancer who's the cultural arts coordinator for the city of Evanston. "We contact the school board. ... We'll challenge teachers, we'll challenge coordinators. My kids are mortified because they don't want to be singled out."

It's too early to tell whether the recession has had a profound effect on public schools' educational mission. But parents and educators across the nation say it's already bringing subtle changes to the culture of many public schools as some families seek the personal attention they received from private schools.

Private-school parents typically find that the structure of public schools takes some getting used to. In most states, funding for public schools is calculated on a per-student basis, based on average student counts during the first few weeks of the school year. If a student drops out after 40 days, the funding that student generated stays with the school — even if he or she does not return to that campus.

Private schools, on the other hand, risk losing tuition payments once a student leaves.

"Private schools tend to treat you more like a customer than the public schools," Allyn says. Public schools are "going to get their tax dollars whether or not you as a parent are upset. If you're in a private school and you yank your kid out, that's a lot of money walking out the (private school's) door."

Enrollment figures for the current school year won't be available until next year, but the U.S. Department of Education's latest estimate finds that from 2006 to 2009, public school enrollment grew by nearly a half-million students, or about 1%, while private school enrollment dropped by about 146,000, or 2.5%.

Government projections find that private schools could lose an additional 28,000 students this year, while public schools should gain 246,000.

Actually, the trend could be worse, says Thomas Toch of the Association of Independent Schools of Greater Washington. Private schools "have weathered the first year of the downturn pretty well by providing more financial aid to families — and in a few cases, significantly more financial aid," he says.

"Whether or not that model is sustainable is unclear."

A boost for public schools?

Stories about how the troubled economy is hurting public schools are plentiful these days: Many schools are cutting teaching positions and programs. The Los Angeles Unified School District, the USA's second-largest, laid off 2,000 teachers last spring and may need to lay off 5,000 more employees — including 1,500 teachers — next fall.

But could the recession benefit public schools in the end by bringing in a new clientele?

"In a way, it's a good thing for public schools," says New York University education professor Pedro Noguera. "I would say it's a good time for public schools to pitch the value they bring to middle-class parents."

He's starting to see the effects on the public system in New York City as affluent parents in parts of Brooklyn switch their children from private to public schools and in the process push the public schools to improve.

"College-educated parents are not going to subject their kids to second-class education," he says. So their influx "absolutely has a huge impact," whether it's by volunteering in classrooms or campaigning for more funding.

Most years, public schools rarely see more than a few new students as families come and go. Last fall at Thomas Johnson Elementary-Middle School in Baltimore, 60 new students showed up — about half of those from private schools, including a nearby Catholic school that closed in the spring because of dwindling enrollment.

James Dendinger, Johnson's principal, scrambled to accommodate them all, adding more lockers and an extra fourth-grade class, among other moves.

He also noticed that many families who in previous years would have started their kids in private schools' pre-kindergarten or kindergarten programs were applying to Johnson. Interest in those slots was so intense that he had to freeze new admissions from outside the neighborhood.

Since then, Dendinger has seen participation in Johnson's parent-teacher organization (PTO) grow — the group staged the school's first "fall festival" in five years as a fundraiser. "They're getting very involved," Dendinger says of the new parents.

Among the new students: first-grader Miles Donovan, who attended preschool at the recently shuttered Catholic Community school. At first, Miles' mother, jazz pianist Sandy Asirvatham, says she and her husband were stunned by the difference.

"I had to get past certain 'public school' things," she says, such as "big, big" classes unlike the tiny ones at Catholic Community.

"To see 27 5-year-olds in my son's kindergarten last year was quite shocking at first," she says. But she acknowledges that Miles has flourished.

"The energy of that room, as crazy as it could be sometimes, is something he really enjoyed," she says. So far, first grade has been "an incredible social learning experience for him that, in the small, rarefied environment of a private school, he might not have gotten."

Knowing the front office

Several parents at Johnson and surrounding schools in the Federal Hill section of Baltimore — once a blue-collar bastion that now attracts young professional families — say they sense a "critical mass" of families that's beginning to change the character of neighborhood schools.

At nearby Francis Scott Key Elementary-Middle School, Tiffany Harlow says her children — 11-year-old Mia and 5-year-old James — weren't the only ones who had to adjust to a different way of doing things after switching from private school.

Harlow remembers walking into the office at Catholic Community knowing the entire staff. "Now, when I go to this school, there's a lot of people — I might have never seen this person before."

Since signing her kids up at Key last fall, Harlow helped arrange several fundraisers and social events. As a lunchroom volunteer, she pushes kids to recycle those little foil juice boxes.

"There are a lot more parents who have the time, energy and skills to be involved," Asirvatham says. "They have the know-how to shake things up and get things done." And they tend to have a lot less patience when things don't go their way.

Miles Donovan attended kindergarten at another area public school, which invited students to take entrance exams for a gifted program. It accepted only 15 students per grade. Parents complained when their kids didn't get a slot, so the program was expanded to accommodate more kids — and other parents complained because it got too big.

A few families stuck with the program, others pulled out — and a few left the school altogether, Asirvatham says.

"You come with a certain sense of, 'This is my school, it should be working for me,' " she says of parents whose kids have been in private schools. "I've heard parents say, 'That principal is my employee. I pay her salary.' "

It's only natural that private-school parents would think that way, says Jeanne Allen, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Education Reform, which advocates for parental choice in education. "In a private school, you don't want to lose customers."

Allen has a few friends and colleagues who have moved their kids to public schools — and like conscientious private-school parents, they "know everything about the curriculum and what's expected of their child," she says. "They investigated how the teachers grade and how you best approach them, whether they like parents or are a little bit scared. They go out of their way to understand all of the offerings in a way that your public-school parent traditionally doesn't."

Allyn, in Evanston, Ill., agrees.

"Those of us who have seen other options are not as likely to accept the P.R.," she says. "They'll tell me, 'It can't be done, it can't be done,' and I don't understand why it can't be done, because the private schools managed to do it."

She says friends are still talking about how to get their kids into public schools with programs that suit their kids' needs and interests — much as they talked about private schools in years past. A few have gotten "so frustrated with their public school experience" — dealing with standardized testing and school bureaucracies — that they're considering home schooling.

Noguera says schools must take the opportunity to keep these families in the fold.

"Public schools play such an important role for our democracy as the only institution that serves all children," he says. "If you lose the people who have the power of choice because they have the resources and the information and the time to make a difference, it becomes a system that only serves people who have no other option. And that's a problem."

Parent Participation, Partnerships, Politics, and Power

by David Bloomfield
October 29, 2009

What is the appropriate role for parents in New York City’s public school system? Parents often feel intimidated or marginalized by those in charge of their children’s education. Educators (and many students!) are oppressed by parents’ disinterest and over-interest. Politicians and policymakers, forever straddling the divide, have created myriad structure for parent inclusion, leading to complaints from all sides about pandering and bureaucratization.

A major criticism of Mayor Bloomberg’s schools leadership has been his failure to consult parents regarding his education policies or to revise those policies in the wake of parent opposition. According to a recent article in Downtown Express, “Bloomberg said parents need only be involved in the micro issues of their child’s education, like the child’s attendance, behavior and grades.” Beyond that, the Mayor suggested that parents could have “influence through the city councilmembers and mayor they elect.” Comptroller William Thompson released a report last May suggesting his own views on “Parent Influence on Local School Governance.”

Notwithstanding the Mayor’s remarks, a broad legally-mandated constellation of parent organizations exists to directly influence decision-making beyond the individual child. Federal law calls for extensive parent power in shaping school, district, and state Title I policies. Recent amendments to the New York State Mayoral Control statute require 32 District Community Education Councils and 3 Citywide Councils for High Schools, Special Education, and English Language Learners. The State Education Department requires School Leadership Teams and District Leadership Teams, which must include parents, to be directly involved in school-based planning and shared decision-making. A recent New York State Commissioner’s Decision held that the city’s parents were being illegally denied their mandated role in comprehensive educational planning. Chancellor’s Regulation A-660 mandates a robust system of Parent Associations, P.A. Presidents Councils, and a Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council. It is incumbent upon all administrators, from assistant principals to the Mayor himself, to respect the letter and spirit of this strong legal orientation toward parent partnership not only in pedagogical decisions regarding individual children but in school and district policy-making and implementation.

But any parent who has had a playground run-in knows that we each have different — often strongly different — views toward child rearing. So it is impossible to describe a single parent opinion regarding schools. That is one problem with the school system’s fallacious parent surveys and, just as wrong-headed, for anyone to claim representation of a single parent voice.

The conundrum of how to structure parent voices — plural — beyond the classroom is especially difficult in an urban setting because of the geographic, demographic, and numeric diversity that make our city such a vital social cauldron. As a public good, schools belong to everyone. Fundamentally, all citizens have a right to determine how their tax dollars are spent by investing their vote in elected representatives who, in turn, have sovereignty over the public weal. Parent control of school policies, perhaps a straw man invented by those inimical to a strong parent role, would thus be as exclusionary and self-defeating as would any other proposal for unelected dominance by a single, limited constituency.

That is why parent organizations such as Community Education Councils, exclusively a parent domain (students are non-voting members), can not and should not have more than an advisory role. Selected by school Parent Association officers, these volunteers simply do not adequately represent the full range of public education stakeholders, however important their informed input may be.

Further, recent legislative activity seems to pit parent against parent, weakening rather than strengthening our evolving system of parent leadership. For example, the Citywide Council on High Schools now must include representation from the Citywide Council on Special Education and the new Citywide Council on English Language Learners. But members of the CCHS (I am a past President) already include several parents whose children have special needs, are limited English proficient, or both. Are those parents to defer to the designee from those other councils? It is the responsibility of all council members to represent their entire constituency, not just their own child’s needs. Specialized representation of this sort is contrary to principles of American democracy and plays into the hands of those who would atomize rather than unite parent interests.

Finally, parent power must be wrested from the deadening grip of over-regulation. Parents are not usually lawyers and should not be forced to become experts at parliamentary procedure. Too many parent meetings become bogged down in arcane and ultimately destructive disputes about procedure rather than substance. Parents’ lack of political sovereignty should release them from undue procedural mandates. What procedural mandates exist should be read to strengthen parents’ otherwise weak voices against more powerful institutional interests rather than to set parent against parent in an embarrassing pecking frenzy over the remaining political crumbs.

This tension between unity and pluralism in parents’ role is appropriate in our complex system of school governance. Especially in New York, where most voters do not have children in the public schools, parents provide a uniquely informed constituency for everything from testing policies to school siting decisions. Parent opinion should not be assumed to be correct or even uniform, but, amid the cacophony of their multiple voices, policy makers ignore parents at their — and more importantly, students’ — peril.

The Parent Gap

Inside Higher Ed
August 10, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO -- Many studies have found that low-income high school students and those whose parents are not well educated are less likely to enroll in college. And disproportionate numbers of black and Latino youth fall into this group.

One solution to this problem is to increase the availability of aid -- as the Obama administration and Congress appear to agree with their plans to increase the maximum Pell Grant significantly. But research presented here Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association suggested that without shifting the attitudes of parents of low-income students -- well before it’s time to enroll for college -- any increases may not have the full impact desired.

Deborah M. Warnock, a sociologist at the University of Washington, began her paper by citing numerous previous studies showing that students from low-income families (and others) are more likely to go to college if parents are engaged in the process, encouraging their children and having some sense of how to finance higher education.

Her findings are summed up in her paper’s title: “Inequalities at the Outset.” Using a combination of federal and state databases in which parents are interviewed about college for their eighth graders, she finds negative attitudes that not only are likely to discourage these youth from enrolling, but that suggest widespread ignorance of the present availability of aid -- even before any Pell Grant growth -- for those below the poverty line. And she found that low-income white parents may be particularly unaware of aid.

Among her findings:

* Hispanic and Asian parents of eighth graders are less likely than white parents to think about how to finance a higher education, and black parents are more likely than white parents to think about paying for college.
* Parents with low incomes and less education are less likely than others to have thought about how to pay for college.
* While a majority of parents of all demographic groups who are below poverty level report that they believe they have “no way” of getting funds for college for their children, white parents in poverty are more likely to have this feeling than are minority parents.
* Among middle and upper income families, across the board, only a minority feel there is “no way” to pay for colleges. In this economic group, whites are less likely than minority parents to feel that way.

The findings about low-income parents believing that they can’t imagine finding funds for college anywhere are “especially troubling,” Warnock writes, because “all of these families would likely be eligible for Pell Grants,” which could cover considerable shares of expenses at many institutions. So these families do in fact have resources, but don’t realize it. While studies in the 1990s found that many high schoolers and their parents were unaware of the availability of aid, the Warnock paper suggests that public information campaigns that have taken place since haven’t changed the situation and may be needed earlier.

As to why white parents would be especially pessimistic, Warnock notes that previous studies have suggested that up to one third of junior and high school students believe that financial aid is available only for minority students. This could account for low-income white parents thinking they don’t have any help for them – even though Pell Grants (and many other programs) are based on income, not race and ethnicity.

Warnock’s paper praises Obama’s aid proposals as “a key policy to increase access to college for underrepresented groups.” But she concludes: “[i]n order for low-income students to take advantage of this, they must know that financial aid, such as the Pell Grant, even exists.”
— Scott Jaschik

The Parent-Teacher Talk Gains a New Participant

This is wonderful. Sounds like an ideal way to engage parents. States and districts should invest in ensuring that schools and teachers have the capacity to use this approach.

-Patricia

STREAMWOOD, Ill. — For years attendance was minimal at Tefft Middle School’s annual parent-teacher conferences, but the principal did not chalk up the poor response to apathetic or dysfunctional families. Instead, she blamed what she saw as the outmoded, irrelevant way the conferences were conducted.

Roughly 60 percent of the 850 students at Tefft, in this working-class suburb some 30 miles northwest of Chicago, are from low-income families. Many are immigrants, unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the tradition of parents perched in pint-size chairs, listening intently as a teacher delivers a 15-minute soliloquy on their child’s academic progress, or lack thereof.

“Five years ago, the most important person — the student — was left out of the parent-teacher conference,” Tefft’s principal, Lavonne Smiley, said. “The old conferences were such a negative thing, so we turned it around by removing all the barriers and obstacles,” including allowing students not only to attend but also to lead the gatherings instead of anxiously awaiting their parents’ return home with the teacher’s verdict on their classroom performance.

Recently, 525 parents attended parent-teacher-student conferences, Ms. Smiley said, compared with 75 parents in 2003. No appointments were needed, and everyone was welcome at the conferences this year, spread over two days that school officials called a Celebration of Learning.

Student-led conferences are gaining ground at elementary and middle schools nationwide, said Patti Kinney, an associate director for middle-level services at the National Association of Secondary School Principals in Virginia.

Although researchers have long hailed the benefits of such conferences — anointing students as the main stakeholders in their education, accountable for their performance during the school day and responsible for their academic future — their popularity appears to be increasing in part because of the rapidly shifting demographics at public schools nationwide. The classrooms, after all, are where a community’s changing cultural identity is often first glimpsed.

“I think we’re learning that every school has its own DNA, and there is not a prescription for conferences that works for every school,” Ms. Kinney said. “There is such an increasingly diverse population at our nation’s schools, the one-size-fits-all model conference just doesn’t work anymore.”

At some schools, not only are students on hand for conferences, but their siblings are also welcome, as are grandparents, aunts and uncles, even family friends.

When Mark Heller accepted a job as an assistant principal at the middle school in his hometown of Plano, Ill., he discovered that the community had changed a lot in the eight years he had been a teacher in Iowa. The population had nearly doubled to 10,000 residents, and 37 percent of the students at Plano Middle School were now from low-income families.

Bolstered by the success of student-led conferences at his Iowa school, Mr. Heller also realized that changing the model was not enough to accommodate families with limited English proficiency, many of whom work shifts at area factories.

The traditional parent-teacher conferences without a student present are always available by appointment, and sometimes necessary, for example, to discuss a private matter concerning a noncustodial parent, a family crisis the child is unaware of or a special education diagnosis.

Still, Mr. Heller is convinced that a true dialogue concerning a student’s academic progress is impossible without both the child and the parent engaged and present, and with the teacher on hand to share impressions and answer any questions the parents have about homework, standardized test scores, behavior and other issues.

First, Mr. Heller made sure to schedule the student-led conferences when as many children, parents and teachers could attend, which turned out to be over two days in late October.

“We looked to our community to define what time we needed to hold our conferences,” said Mr. Heller, who scheduled the first conference day from noon to 8 p.m., followed by an 8 a.m.-to-noon schedule the next day.

Mr. Heller’s staff arranged meetings for 93 percent of their 300 seventh and eighth graders, and 82 percent of the families attended the conferences. Now, the principal and his staff members are reaching out to the families who did not attend; their goal is a 100 percent rate of teacher-parent contact.

“Our veteran teachers who have been around for a while and have seen our town grow see this weird correlation,” Mr. Heller said. “It might be more difficult to get a hold of parents these days, but we are seeing more people at our student-led conferences than we ever had in the past.”

At the C. L. Jones Middle School in Minden, Neb., parental involvement has never been a problem. The principal, John Osgood, describes the rural community in south central Nebraska as tight-knit with mainly middle-class residents — the kind of place where students are apt to sit down for supper with their families every night, sharing stories of their school day at the kitchen table.

Nonetheless, Mr. Osgood is convinced that its student-led conferences, which he started 10 years ago just as they were taking root across the country, are crucial to the school’s continued success.

In 2007, a newly elected school board strongly questioned the practice’s efficacy and led a campaign to return to the traditional conferences of their own youth. But the critics were deterred after a survey that Mr. Osgood championed found that 93 percent of parents approved of conferences that included their children.

“I can remember attending the old-style conferences with my own children, some of whom had a few problems with a particular class from time to time,” Mr. Osgood recalled. “We’d get back home, and try to talk to our kids about something we heard, and it would end up with me getting angry and yelling, and the kids telling me what I heard wasn’t true. It always turned into, ‘Who’s the liar here?’ ”

That is a far different experience than Cierra Turks, 13 and a seventh grader at Tefft Middle School, shared recently with her mother, Scheree Issa. Cierra was all smiles as she started off her conference sharing the details of a typical school day with her mother.

Inside her math classroom, Cierra, an honor roll student who dreams of attending Georgetown University, used a portfolio of her assignments — homework, quizzes and even standardized test scores — to deliver a quantitative and qualitative snapshot of her progress and her goals. Above all, she had the chance to introduce her mother to her favorite teacher, Patricia Pluchrat.

“At the student-led conferences, our children are learning to be organized and capable adults someday,” Ms. Issa said. “When I was growing up, my parents went to my conference, and I waited at home, scared they would come back with some concerns. With this new kind of conference, there are no secrets.

“My daughter is learning that the teacher is not responsible for her learning. Cierra knows that she is responsible for her own success.”

US court: Parents cannot sue to enforce 'No Child'

By MARYCLAIRE DALE | Associated Press
January 2, 2009

Parents cannot sue to force school districts to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act, a federal appeals court said Thursday in a precedential ruling.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit case concerns the Newark (N.J.) Public Schools, which the parents say had 51 'failing' schools under the federal law _ among its 81 schools _ in 2006-07.

The parents say the district failed to notify them, as required, of NCLB provisions including their right to transfer their children to non-failing schools or to seek supplemental services. Other parents say they sought but were denied such services.

"Congress did not intend to give individuals a right to enforce the notice and supplemental educational services provisions of the Act," but instead left enforcement to state educational agencies, Circuit Judge Maryanne Trump Barry wrote.

The 3rd circuit is the first federal appeals court to address the issue of individual enforcement, but each district judge asked to review the question has reached the same conclusion, Barry said. Thursday's ruling upholds a decision by District Judge Susan D. Wigenton.

Emily Goldberg, a lawyer for the parents, said her clients must now pressure the state to enforce the law's educational promises.

"Obviously, the courts are no longer an option, so it really puts pressure on the political process," she said.

The parents won't appeal because they do not believe the Supreme Court would be "more hospitable" to their cause than the 3rd Circuit, Goldberg said. However, they hope another circuit will rule differently, setting up a conflict between circuits which might interest the high court.

School district lawyer Adam S. Herman did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press.

Arne Duncan on Making the Parents Care

By David Nather, CQ Staff

A bit of congressional testimony from earlier this year provides an interesting window into how Arne Duncan, President-elect Barack Obama ’s choice to be the next Education secretary, might provide a counterpoint to Obama’s thinking on how much of the schools’ success is up to the parents.

Obama has been vocal about his belief that parents need to take more responsibility for making sure their kids take school seriously. “No education policy can replace a parent who makes sure a child gets to school on time or helps with homework, and attends those parent-teacher conferences,” Obama said at today’s press conference announcing the Duncan selection. “No government program can turn off the TV or put away the video games and read to a child at night.”

In testimony at a House Education and Labor Committee hearing in July about urban education, however, Duncan — currently the chief executive officer of the Chicago public schools — said policymakers are often too quick to blame the parents and that they should be focusing instead on finding ways to encourage the parents to get more involved in their kids’ education.

“I think so often it’s very easy to — to criticize parents and say they’re not engaged enough or that’s part of the problem,” Duncan said. When he directed a program that tried to improve inner-city education, Duncan said he found most of the parents actually were “extraordinarily interested in their children’s education.”

The real problem, he said, was that “historically we’ve had a culture in which, frankly, parents weren’t invited in. They were supposed to drop their children at the school door, you know, come pick them up at the end of the day, maybe come a couple of times a year for report card pick-up, but they were really kept outside, and what we’re trying to do is dramatically change that culture.”

One way to do that, Duncan said, is through the “community schools” Chicago has created, which offer classes not just for the kids, but for the parents as well — including computer classes, GED classes and family literacy courses. “The more we open our doors, the more we get a mindset in which parents are welcome and needed, I think we can reach the vast majority of parents,” Duncan said.

It’s a subtle point, and one that focuses on one of the factors that is hardest to address in national education policy. But even if Obama just intends to use the bully pulpit to appeal to parents’ sense of responsibility, Duncan’s influence might convince him to round out his message.

Key to stemming high-school dropouts: parents

Check out the full report "One Dream, Two Realities: Perspectives of Parents on America's High Schools"

-Patricia

Many parents of students in low-performing schools say they're not kept informed, a new report finds.



By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
October 27, 2008

If America is going to stem the dropout crisis, low-performing schools will have to do a better job of reaching out to parents.

That's the conclusion of a new report that found that, among parents with students in low-performing high schools, fewer than half said the schools did a fairly good job communicating about their child's academic progress.

The report's findings "counter the myth that many parents, including low-income parents, don't value education or don't want to be further engaged by the schools," says John Bridgeland, the report's coauthor and CEO of Civic Enterprises, a public-policy firm in Washington. "Parents with students in low-performing schools see the need for their involvement as advocates for their children," he says, "but they need schools to provide good information and more tools – from homework hot lines to [guidance on] how to help their child get into college."

The report, which was released last Thursday, is aimed at bringing the voices of the 25 million parents of high-schoolers into the dialogue on education reform.

Research shows a correlation between parental involvement and academic success, and young people themselves see the need for it: 71 percent of high school dropouts said better communication between schools and parents was one key to keeping students in school, according to the landmark 2006 "Silent Epidemic" study by Civic Enterprises. According to that study, nearly half said the school did not contact them or their parents when they were absent or dropping out.

The great majority of parents want their children to go to college. But they cite vastly different levels of engagement with high schools, according to the new report, "One Dream, Two Realities."

In schools considered high performing, 83 percent of parents say the school did a fairly good or very good job communicating about their child's academic progress. Just 43 percent say the same of low-performing schools. Only 51 percent of parents in low-performing schools say they've had good conversations with half of their child's teachers (versus 70 percent in high-performers).

The nationally representative survey included 1,006 parents of current or recent high-schoolers. A school was labeled "high performing" if parents said most students there go to college, "low performing" if most do not. Researchers also conducted focus groups. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation commissioned the report from Civic Enterprises and Peter D. Hart Research Associates.

The report aims to move the conversation beyond traditional tensions – with schools and parents sometimes blaming one another for low student achievement. It shows broad support for a number of steps that schools could take, including a single point of contact for parents and a way to check grades on the Internet. Six of 10 parents in low-performing schools say it would be extremely helpful to be notified when a student is cutting classes or having academic problems.

Too often, such communication doesn't come when "the parent and teacher can … help this child better his grade before it's too late," says Mary Najera, who helped found the Los Angeles Parents Union to educate parents about their rights and responsibilities. In some people's native countries, such as Mexico, it's not expected that parents will question teachers and play an active role, she says.

Ms. Najera was "a desperate mom" after her son got into trouble in junior high. But after he spent some time at a Green Dot charter high school in L.A., he joined a club for students with grades above 3.0, she says, and now he's in college. She saw his progress connected to the school's requirement that parents do at least 35 hours of service each year. "When you start to realize that the parent engagement makes such a difference in your child's education success – I can't explain it, it's a transformation," she says in a conference call with reporters.

School systems should create that welcoming culture, and high-achieving schools do, says Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators in Arlington, Va. "The least amount of parental involvement tends to take place at the high school…. That is where we really have to make the effort," he says, citing one estimate that about 7,000 US students drop out each day.

Women graduate from AISD's ePromotoras program

What a great model for working with parents.

-Patricia

12/14/2008
By: News 8 Austin Staff

It was graduation day of sorts at Houston Elementary in South Austin Sunday.

About 50 women became the first wave of what the Austin Independent School District calls "ePromotoras.�

The women have been learning a new curriculum that shows them how to teach their toddlers several essential skills before they even enter pre-kindergarten.

Martha Garcia with Bilingual Education for AISD said it's an effort by the school district to make sure the students don't fall behind.

"Being bilingual is an opportunity,� she said. �It's a good thing, and so what this tells us is we're going to have to have more parent involvement in the education of their kids which we all know is important and makes a huge difference for our children."

The new ePromotoras will also teach what they've learned to other women who, in the coming months, will go through the same process.

According to AISD, Texas currently leads the nation in the increase of children under the age of five, with the majority coming from Hispanic households.

Parents fight proposed school closures

By LINDA BYRON / KING 5 News and Charlotte Starck / KING 5 News
Thursday, December 4, 2008

SEATTLE – The list of proposed school closures in the city of Seattle grew Wednesday night.

Rainier Beach High School is now on the list. It could be combined with Cleveland High School. Another elementary school in the area may be closed, bringing the number of proposed closures from seven to nine. Other schools that could be cut include TT Minor, Pinehurst, Van Asselt, Genesee Hill, Mann, Old Hay, and Lowell.

Even as parents band together to save their schools, the Seattle School Board will soon have to sharpen its ax to propose even deeper cuts to other areas.

The proposed Seattle school budget gap has exploded into a canyon and many parents who packed a school board meeting Wednesday night disagree with how the superintendent proposes to bridge it.

"Bottom line is to have stronger schools. We have to be more effective and efficient, with quality programs and access all across the city," said Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson.

In addition to closing schools, the Superintendent proposes relocating many others programs. In addition, a number of programs, including the African American Academy, would go away even if the building stays open to house new programs.

But even those proposed cuts fail to make up the enormous amount of cash needed.

The school board heard how the previous projected $24 million shortfall has now skyrocketed to projected $37 million, based on the state's economic woes and the projected school closures are expected to save only an estimated $3.6 million.

They're just one small piece of the overall budget pie, but an extremely emotional one. Yet more difficult decisions are on the way.

The district's financial experts predict the new higher projected budget shortage means Seattle schools now must identify where to cut an additional $10.2 million.

Protests have blocked school closures in the past but the superintendent says it's not going to work this time around.

"I just don't think that's effective. I understand that people are emotional, very tied to their school," she said.

Still, people who came to Wednesday night's meeting wondered whether school closures are the way to go.

"I can't begin to share with you the rage, confusion, the fear that this recommendation has caused across our city," parent Michael Foster said.

"It seems that the district is in a panic," parent Laura Grauer said.

Public hearings and community workshops will be held during December and January at locations throughout Seattle.

Each of the buildings recommended for closure will host a public hearing on December 15, 16 or 18. Scheduled dates and times are listed below.

The School Board is scheduled to vote on the final recommendations on January 29, 2009.

Embracing diversity

Midland Park Elementary takes on challenges of having district's biggest Hispanic enrollment

By Diette Courrégé | The Post and Courier
Sunday, November 30, 2008


A striking surge in Hispanic students at one Charleston County elementary school has changed the way its educators do business.

The school communicates with its Hispanic parents in their native tongue, and teachers work hard to overcome the language barrier of students and their families.

Hispanic students make up nearly half of the roughly 750 students at Midland Park Elementary School in North Charleston, up from just 20 percent five years ago. Its Hispanic enrollment is the largest in the county and among the largest in the state. The Hispanic student growth spurt at Midland Park is the most dramatic in the school district, but similar increases can be seen throughout county schools.

The racial diversity in Charleston County schools traditionally has consisted of black and white students, but an increasing number of Hispanic students is affecting the school district's approach in reaching out to families.

The number of Hispanic students in Charleston County nearly has doubled in the past five years, from 1,370 in 2004-05 to 2,317 this year. Hispanic students now make up about 5.5 percent of the roughly 42,000 public school children, black students account for about 50 percent and white students are about 42 percent.

Rachel Amey, the district's coordinator for English Speakers of Other Languages, said in her eight years with the district, the number of ESOL teachers has nearly tripled. About 87 percent of those who don't speak English speak

Spanish; the remaining 13 percent speak 35 different languages.

The district's Hispanic population growth has necessitated the hiring of a bilingual parent advocate and a bilingual administrator. The school district sends parents letters and phone messages in Spanish. More classes are offered to Spanish-speaking parents, and translation software is available to schools across the district, Amey said.

"Everybody is more aware (of Hispanic families), and at every level in the school, the personnel and staff seek to support our students and parents now," Amey said.

Midland Park has earned a reputation for welcoming all cultures, and school Principal Robert Candillo said that was one reason the school's Hispanic population has shot up.

Anything that goes home to parents is sent in Spanish and English, whether it's progress reports or homework for kindergartners. The school provides educational games for families with the directions in Spanish, and it holds its PTA meetings in Spanish and English. It employs a translator, three full-time and 2 part-time ESOL teachers as well as bilingual teachers, psychologists and speech pathologists to work with its Spanish-speaking students and parents.

Although students must learn English, the school values their ability to speak Spanish. As a result, the school plans to pilot the district's first dual immersion program next year with a kindergarten class. Students will receive half of their lessons in English and half in Spanish.

"We don't want them to lose their native language," Candillo said.

Bilingual art teacher Brenda Reyes said schools need to go beyond meeting students' needs and help their parents. Hispanic parents often don't understand the English language or schools' expectations because they are unfamiliar with both, she said.

"Parents need to be helped more," she said. "We're doing what we can. If other schools do the same, that would be great."

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.

Court: Parents can't sue to enforce 'No Child'

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal appeals court says parents cannot sue school districts to force them to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act.
The ruling Thursday comes in a case filed against the low-performing Newark School District in New Jersey.

Parents say the district failed to notify them of the right to transfer out of failing schools and of other provisions required under the law.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says enforcement of the act is up to state educational agencies.

Lawyers in the case did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press.

Report Reveals High Parent Frustration with America's High Schools

This study has some interesting findings although it's important to mention that parental involvement in this study and the other cited in the article appear to define involvement based on few criteria (showing up to school).

What might be useful is how schools can also partner with parents outside of school and make use of opportunities to engage with them during events and activities where they are involved and supporting their children in diverse ways.

Research on low-income high-achieving youth reveal the impact of non-traditional methods of parental involvement that played a significant role in not only the confidence to do well in school, but the positive constructions of self (an understanding of their culture, history, retaining of a second language, etc) that were also key to their success. All of these factors combined with a supportive contact (teacher, counselor, mentor, etc.) in and out of school can/ should be viewed as a potential model that would help youth be successful in school.

Schools need to first recognize and place value on those diverse methods of involvement, then see how they can learn from and build upon parents' efforts so that they're stronger and more well versed on how to be advocates for their children's education. To see parental involvement efforts as a dichotomous phenomenon (present in school or not) really undermines those things that parents do for their children, and when schools (and research) promote this model it can create walls that make it difficult to forge reciprocal relationships between schools and parents.

Check out the full report

-Patricia

Oct. 23, 2008
WASHINGTON, Oct 23, 2008

-- Parents wish to be more engaged by schools, but need better tools and information
Parents across America share high hopes for their children's academic success and many know their involvement is vital. But parents with students in low-performing high schools say their schools don't give them the tools and information they need to be more effective in helping their students succeed, according to a national report released today.

"One Dream, Two Realities: Perspectives of Parents on America's High Schools," by Civic Enterprises, and based on research conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, captures the views of parents of high school students in America's urban, suburban, and rural communities from diverse backgrounds and income levels. The findings point to concrete steps that can improve parental engagement in schools and strengthen efforts to prepare all young people for success in college and the workplace. The report was commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The full report can be accessed at: www.civicenterprises.net.

"The critical role parents play in educating children is often a blind assumption or a target of attack," said John Bridgeland, president and CEO of Civic Enterprises and co-author of the report. "The findings of this report call for a halt to the blame game. This report disproves the prevailing myth that low-income parents are not interested in their children's academic success. The opposite is true. Parents, especially those with students trapped in low-income or low-performing schools, desperately want to be involved and want their students to succeed. What parents need is an access point - a way into schools - so they can become partners in helping students learn and achieve."

Many parents surveyed believe that schools should do a better job of reaching out to them or engaging them as partners, particularly parents of students in low-performing schools. In fact, 80 percent of all parents surveyed, and 85 percent of parents of students in low-performing schools, believe parents should be involved as advocates for their children when it comes to picking courses and teachers.
The report reveals a stark contrast between the experiences of parents with students in low-performing schools and those with students in high-performing schools. According to the survey:



-- Only 15 percent of parents with students at low-performing schools feel
that their school is doing a very good job challenging students,
compared with 58 percent of parents with students in high-performing
schools.
-- Forty-seven percent of parents with students in low-performing schools
said that their schools were doing a good job in encouraging parents to
be involved compared to 85 percent of parents with students in
high-performing schools.
-- Twenty-five percent of parents with students in low-performing schools
say that their school informed them about academic and disciplinary
problems compared to more than half (53 percent) of parents with
students in high-performing schools.
-- Less than 20 percent of parents with students in low-performing schools
believe schools do a very good job preparing their students across four
categories: preparation for college; helping students develop
confidence, maturity, and personal skills; developing a special talent;
and preparing them for a good job. Half of parents with students in
high-performing schools feel this way.
-- Half of parents of students in low-performing schools said they felt
welcomed in the schools compared to four out of five parents with
students in high-performing schools.


Each year, more than one million students fail to graduate from high school on time. Research shows that when parents are involved, students perform better and are less likely to drop out. Yet studies have shown that as students grow older, parents tend to become less involved with their children's academic lives due, in part, to unique barriers like difficulty in helping them with homework or lack of resources for parents of high school-aged students.

The report is a follow-up to the 2006 Gates Foundation-funded survey of high school students, "The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts." "The Silent Epidemic" report noted lack of parental involvement as one of the key reasons dropouts gave for leaving school. Out of 470 dropouts surveyed around the country, only 21 percent said their parents were "very involved" in their schooling. More than 70 percent of dropouts said that one key to keep them in school was better communication between parents and schools, and increasing parental involvement in their education. "One Dream, Two Realities" suggests that parents can play a significant role in reversing this trend.
"Unfortunately, parents of students trapped in low-performing schools--those who need the most support--are the ones that are least likely to be engaged by their children's schools," said Geoff Garin, president of Peter D. Hart Research Associates. "But we know there is a clear pathway to help improve student achievement in these low-performing schools, and that is through schools and parents working together to create opportunities where parents can play an active role in their children's academic success."

The report includes parents' recommendations to strengthen opportunities to support their children's academic success. The report suggests schools meet with parents before high school starts to be clear on what constitutes success in school. Other suggestions include: providing a prompt notification of academic problems; establishing an ongoing dialogue, not just when problems occur; partnering with community organizations to offer parent involvement classes; providing information packets that give parents details about the school and the courses each child is taking; assigning a single point of contact within the school to allow each parent to address key questions or concerns regarding their children; recruiting parent volunteers to serve as liaisons between the school and other parents to help identify ways of including otherwise disengaged parents; and including parent perspectives in the America's Promise Alliance 100 dropout summits in all 50 states over the next three years.

"We know that ensuring that every student is prepared for success in college, career, and life means keeping the doors of our high schools and communication lines open to parents," said Vicki Phillips, director of education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "This report shows that we must do more to ensure that all parents, particularly those with students in low-performing schools, are given new and better ways to enlist their full participation and engage them as even stronger advocates for their children's success."

Civic Enterprises

Civic Enterprises is a public policy development firm dedicated to informing discussions on issues of importance to the nation. www.civicenterprises.net

Statement from America's Promise Alliance President and CEO Marguerite Kondracke on "One Dream, Two Realities: Perspectives of Parents on America's High Schools"

"Our Cities in Crisis report revealed the stark contrast between the graduation rates of high schools in our nation's largest cities and their surrounding suburbs. This new report by Civic Enterprises shows that there is also a stark contrast that exists when it comes to providing opportunities for parents of students who attend low-performing high schools to be fully engaged in the academic success of their children compared to those whose children attend high-performing schools.

"This report makes clear that parents of students at both high- and low-performing high schools want to play an active role in their children's education, but there is more work to be done to ensure that parents in all communities have the resources and the support to be as actively engaged as they want to be. Research tells us that their involvement is essential to our young people's success, and the lack of it is a tragic, but real factor in young people failing to graduate on time.

"Two years ago, Civic Enterprises released a watershed report revealing just how dire the high school dropout crisis was in our country. Appropriately titled, 'The Silent Epidemic,' this study illustrated for the first time the true depths of an educational and social catastrophe that was jeopardizing the financial security and future of our nation. Each year, more than one million students drop out of high school--that's one teenager every 26 seconds and 7,000 each school day. The cost of this crisis is equally staggering as dropouts from the class of 2007 alone will cost the nation more than $329 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetimes.

"America's Promise Alliance's national Dropout Prevention Campaign is working hard to reduce the dropout rate. In the next two years, we will sponsor 100 Dropout Prevention Summits in all 50 states and parental involvement in education is a key element of this campaign. In addition to parental involvement, we need curriculum reform, after-school programs, efforts to improve health care and nutrition programs, increased resources and greater accountability. Most of all, we need to recognize that no one entity can solve this crisis alone, but working together, we can make enormous strides to ensure our children succeed."
SOURCE Civic Enterprises, LLC

http://www.civicenterprises.net/

Parents, Community Holds Key to Hispanic Education Achievement

Wow, parents as the No. 1 obstacles to student success - sounds pretty harsh.
-Patricia

by Victoria Yue | Diverse Issues in Higher Education
September 12, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C.

"Parents and family are the No. 1 enablers, and the No. 1 obstacles to student success," Sara Martinez Tucker, the undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Education, told a group of educators, parents and community organizers at the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans on Thursday.

During the daylong summit, held to discuss education reform and Hispanic education attainment, speakers tackled topics from Hispanic high school dropout rates to parental and family involvement in education. Tucker encouraged the audience to "take some of these best practices and give to communities," to help the children.

Greater community involvement was often cited as a key component to decreasing high school dropout rates and promoting higher education, and thus, a better quality of life. Some promoted educational services to children outside of the classroom, while others lauded community-based programs.

The vice president for children's programs, Clara Lopez, and development director, Maria Lopez, of a multifaceted program designed to help Hispanic students and parents get involved in education from pre-school to college presented on the subject.

Eduardo Cancino, assistant superintendent from Hidalgo, Texas, applauded community programs and also noted the efforts of public schools. Cancino has implemented a variety of programs focused on increasing the number of college-bound students in the community, as well as promoting adult literacy, financial literacy and parental empowerment. He said that it was important to "strengthen the home environment."

Other speakers also emphasized the importance of families.

"Parents need to know what's going on in their child's school, and they need to know what options they have, whether it's good or bad," said Doug Mesecar, assistant deputy secretary for the Office of Innovation and Improvement in the U.S. Department of Education. Like many of the presenters, Mesecar is a strong advocate of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policies. He said that there is a need to break down the walls of communication between parents and schools to improve the engagement of parents in their child's education.

It is programs like the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE), said the institute's president and CEO David Valladolid, that enable parents to be more active. The training program to help parents work collaboratively with their children's K-12 schools has graduated over 400,000 parents and has implemented its program in 16 languages. Initiated in 1987 in California, it has proliferated eastward and has recently established a chapter at George Mason University in Northern Virginia. Valladolid said that it was crucial to bring schools, parents, communities and businesses together as equal partners for a child's education.

Ana Burns, a parent graduate of PIQE with five children, expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to learn how to approach and prepare her children for the American school system. Parents also learned important practical functions, such as how to ask questions, talk to counselors and apply for federal aid.

Keynote speaker Margaret Spellings, secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, echoed the need for continued efforts to close the achievement gap. Hispanic students "deserve all that it takes to achieve the American dream," said Spellings. She warned about the "soft bigotry of low expectations" and flatly stated that "we cannot stand for that attitude." She praised NCLB for focusing its resources on underachieving student groups, but added that there was a long way to go.

"Accountability is only as effective and lasting as we make it," said Spellings. Together, we can and must do better.

To NAACP, Obama Stresses Parental Theme

By Alyson Klein | Ed Week
July 15, 2008

Cincinnati

Parents and the federal government each have an important role to play in boosting student achievement, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois told the nation’s oldest civil rights organization on Monday.

In a speech at the annual convention here of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president said that, if elected, he would increase funding for the No Child Left Behind Act, invest in training teachers, and expand prekindergarten programs.

But those policy prescriptions won’t succeed unless parents are committed to becoming involved in their children’s education, Sen. Obama said. He said parental participation is key to realizing the goals of the civil rights movement.

Read on...

Do Hispanics have a voice in North Forest?

A notable statement made in this article: "Hispanic parents' silence should not be read as apathy."

I would add to Mr. Gallegos' elaboration on this subject the fact that many of these parents, especially immigrant, are not welcomed and attended to in some schools on equal grounds as their white, or middle-class counterparts. Considering how some of the teachers appear to be responding to students according to this article, I think this unwelcoming treatment may be happening in these schools.

-Patricia

They are 30% of district's students but aren't part of board, administration

By ERICKA MELLON | Houston Chronicle
Aug. 10, 2008

During more than a decade of attending school in North Forest, Christian Perez, a first-generation American, had one teacher who looked like him.

"I just remember the Spanish teacher. The Spanish teacher was Hispanic," he said.

In June, the 18-year-old graduated from Smiley High School, where the student population mirrors the district — predominantly black but with a growing percentage of Hispanics.

Last year, Hispanic students made up nearly 30 percent of the district overall.

As politicians, parents and alumni rally to save the northeast Houston district from state takeover, they often tout its importance as a historically black school district.

A few of the district's trustees have decried the Texas education commissioner's move to replace the elected board with an appointed one as racist.

With North Forest facing possible closure, advocates worry that the Hispanic parents — many of whom are immigrants with limited English skills — do not have a voice, though some hope the serious situation inspires political activism.

State Sen. Mario Gallegos, the first Hispanic senator elected to represent Harris County, said the North Forest school board should have at least a couple of Hispanics to reflect the makeup of the schools.

"Once this North Forest issue is on the table and at the state level, some of those parents out there will be looking at it," said Gallegos, a Democrat who represents part of North Forest. "I would hope one or two — or as many as want to — get involved."

All seven of the elected North Forest trustees are black, and longtime observers say that no Hispanic has served on or even run for the board in recent memory.

None of the district's top administrators is Hispanic, and the board voted last spring, as part of a cost-cutting plan, to lay off the coordinator of bilingual and English as a second language programs. Most, if not all, the students in those programs are Hispanic.

Gallegos said the Hispanic parents' silence should not be read as apathy.

"They're low-income to moderate-income workers," he said. "They raise their families. They pay their bills — a lot of them are paycheck to paycheck — but they want their kids to have a good education. That's what the American dream is all about.

A look at test scores

"They might not be political right now," Gallegos added, "but when 30 percent (of the student population) comes to 50 percent, they will be. That's not too far in the future."

In the last decade, the percentage of Hispanic students in the district has nearly doubled. Enrollment is declining across the board, but last year the district had 5,890 black students, 2,418 Hispanics, 54 Anglos and seven Asians, according to state data.

Hispanic activist groups have been quiet when news has surfaced in the past couple of years about the serious academic and financial problems in North Forest.

But the Hispanic students, based on 2008 test scores, are ahead of their peers, performing significantly better in math and science and about the same in other subjects.

At a school district meeting last week, Houston City Councilman Jarvis Johnson, who is black, told those in attendance that they need to rally to help "our little black boys and girls" and "our Hispanic boys and girls."

Later, he asked, "How do we save this school district? How do we save this black school district?"

Jose and Ana Alanis, Mexican immigrants who have two children in North Forest schools, said some teachers and administrators seem to show preferential treatment to the black students.

Racial divide

"There is favoritism," Ana Alanis said in Spanish after a shopping trip for groceries at Fiesta.

Her oldest son, Kevin, a seventh-grader at B.C. Elmore Middle School last year, said his cousin has complained to him about a teacher's unfair treatment.

"She would pick on the Hispanic kids and not the black kids," he said.

Kevin Alanis said he doesn't think his own teachers are necessarily discriminating against him, but when he has asked for help in math, he said, "They just told me, 'I already taught you.' "

Linda Maze, the district's former bilingual and English as a second language coordinator, has filed a federal lawsuit against the school board and interim Superintendent William Jones.

She claims she was discriminated against because she is Anglo and was laid off as revenge for raising concerns about the programs for non-English speakers.

'Everything was wrong'
Maze has said that the district may have broken the law, accepting federal funding for teachers who were not certified and for students who were no longer enrolled in the special language classes.

"Students who were in the program should have never been in the program ," she said, according to a transcript of a May hearing.

"Just everything was wrong about the program."

Jones denied discriminating against Maze and said she and two other coordinators were laid off for financial reasons, according to the transcript.

Of the 586 teachers in North Forest last year, about 83 percent were black, while less than 4 percent were Hispanic, state records show.

Jones declined an interview request for this article, but North Forest spokeswoman Nakisha Myles said the district offers stipends for ESL and bilingual teachers and recruits at local job fairs and in Mexico.

Role models

In any district, educators say, students can benefit from having teachers of their own race or ethnicity.

"When I was in elementary school, I didn't have one single Hispanic teacher, and that bothered me," said Luis Cano, the principal of Juan B. Galaviz Charter School, a high school that caters to Hispanic immigrants in Houston. "Role models are important. That does affect a kid's self-esteem."

Perez, who graduated sixth in his class at Smiley, said he did not feel different as a minority in the district.

"I've been in that community all my life. I got accustomed to it," he said. "It wasn't that difficult for me to make friends with whomever. It was a nice experience."

Asked if he had thought about running for the school board someday, he said, "After college, maybe I will."

Parent and Family Involvement in Education, 2006-07 School Year, From the National Household Education Surveys Program of 2007

While an overwhelming majority of the parents surveyed were white, English speaking parents there were was one interesting finding I thought I would highlight:

Parental satisfaction levels on teachers,academic standards, discipline, and the ways that schools interact with parents decreased as school size and grade level (HS) increased.

Check out the full report

-Patricia

National Center for Education Statistics
August, 2008

The National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences has released the report "Parent and Family Involvement in Education, 2006-07 School Year, from the National Household Education Surveys Program of 2007."

This report presents initial findings from the Parent and Family Involvement in Education Survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES). The NHES data were collected from January to May of 2007 through interviews with parents of students in kindergarten through grade 12. Selected findings include: approximately 54 percent of students in grades K through 12 had parents who reported receiving notes or e-mail from the school specifically about their child; some 83 percent of students had parents who received information about how to help with homework; 89 percent of students in grades K through 12 had parents who reported an adult member of the household had attended a general school meeting or a meeting of a parent-teacher organization or association (PTO/PTA) since the beginning of the school year; and 59 percent of students in grades K through 12 had parents who were "very satisfied" with their child's school, and 64 percent of students had parents who were "very satisfied" with their child's teachers that year.

'Enough is Enough;' LULAC Rallies Parents, Communities to Reverse Dropout Rates

Reuters
July 9, 2008

National Parent Involvement Initiative Challenges U.S. Education Policy

WASHINGTON, July 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- More than 40 percent of Latino
students drop out of high school each year, in large part because of the
education policies that do not hold high schools accountable for graduation
rates. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) - a founding
member of the Campaign for High School Equity (CHSE), a leading coalition of
civil rights organizations striving for stronger education policies - said
"Enough is enough" today during a town hall meeting at its National Convention
& Exposition. At the meeting, LULAC launched its national Parent Involvement
Initiative to engage Hispanic parents in education reform.

"The inequalities that exist in the current U.S. education system are
appalling at best," said Rosa Rosales, president of LULAC. "In our
communities, with the full support and involvement of parents, is where we
will see change happen so that more of our young people graduate from high
school prepared for college, work, and life. Working with CHSE, LULAC will
engage its strong grassroots network to create a future for Hispanic students
that is based in academic success."

The Initiative will be piloted in 18 cities, including several that are home
to "dropout factories" - schools where no more than 60 percent of entering
freshmen make it to their senior year three years later. These include Los
Angeles; Philadelphia; Chicago; Kansas City, Mo.; Dallas; Houston; and
Milwaukee. Dropout factories make up only about 12 percent of all high
schools, but they produce approximately half of America's dropouts and
two-thirds of all African American and Hispanic dropouts.

In each city, the Initiative will enlist a core team of parents and family
members who are already active in their schools and districts and prepare them
to take their efforts to the federal level, advocating for substantial reforms
to education policy. In turn, this group of parents will empower others to
join in a rallying cry to take charge of the situation and change the course
of federal education policy for Hispanic students and all students of color.

At the town hall meeting, Rosales was joined by federal, state, and local
policymakers, as well as education advocates, to discuss and identify
community-based solutions to the challenges in education policy that leave
many Latino youth without academic opportunities.

Panelists, including Dr. John Arnold, chair of the National LULAC Education
Commission, and CHSE members Peter Zamora of the Mexican American Legal
Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and Hilary Shelton, director of the
NAACP's Washington Bureau, addressed strategies for strengthening the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act to better serve students of color. CHSE
members called for federal policy reforms that: 1) make all students
proficient and prepared for college and work; 2) hold high schools accountable
for student success; and 3) redesign the American high school.

Other panelists at the town hall meeting included Holly Kuzmich, deputy chief
of staff for policy, U.S. Department of Education; Dr. Joel Gomez, associate
professor of educational leadership, The George Washington University; Roberto
Rodriguez, senior education advisor, Senate Health, Education, Labor and
Pensions Committee; and Dr. Emma Violand-Sanchez, a parent and candidate for
the Arlington County School Board. The group addressed necessary policy
changes that will ensure equitable learning conditions, as well as federal
program initiatives that will encourage parental and community involvement in
U.S. high schools and strategies for redesigning high schools so that all
students graduate prepared for college, work, and life.

The Campaign for High School Equity is a diverse coalition of national civil
rights organizations representing communities of color that believe high
schools should have the capacity and motivation to prepare every student for
graduation, college, work, and life.In addition to LULAC, MALDEF, and NAACP,
members of the Campaign include the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Education Fund, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed
Officials Educational Fund, the National Council of La Raza, the National
Indian Education Association, the National Urban League, The Alliance for
Excellent Education, and the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center.

SOURCE Campaign for High School Equity

Lizette Olmos of LULAC, +1-202-365-4553, ljolmos@lulac.org; or Laura
Rodriguez, +1-202-331-4323, lrodriguez@vancomm.com, for the Campaign for High
School Equity

Bilingual child-development center serves Latino families

José Martí Child Development Center, an accredited bilingual Spanish and English preschool at El Centro de la Raza of Seattle, will receive $16,500 for the impact it has made on Latino families.

Aria Shepard
Seattle Times staff reporter
July 7, 2008

Four-year-old Victoria Garcia likes learning English and is not looking forward to leaving her preschool.

"I want to stay here; I don't want to go to kindergarten," she said. "I like to listen, and I like to stay here. I like to read more."

Victoria attends José Martí Child Development Center, a bilingual Spanish and English preschool at El Centro de la Raza of Seattle on Beacon Hill.

El Centro, which offers support services to Latino families, was recently named winner of the 2008 National Council of La Raza/Annie E. Casey Foundation Family Strengthening Award for the positive impact the José Martí center has had on Latino families.

"It's been a big help," Victoria's mother, Cecilia Martinez, said in Spanish through a translator. She was one of four parents who provided testimonials about the day-care center to the National Council of La Raza, the largest Hispanic civil-rights group in the United States.

Martinez and her husband moved here in 1997 from Mexico, where their friends and extended family live. When they began looking for a preschool for their son, Victoria's older brother, Tomás, they found what they needed at José Martí.

"For myself, for people who come from other countries, we can find it all here, from immigration to lawyers, all the information I need," Martinez said.

When Martinez was pregnant with Victoria, she turned to El Centro again for resources and information. Now she is more engaged with her community; she participates in immigration rallies and visits legislators in Olympia. She credits her increased involvement to El Centro.

José Martí, the first accredited bilingual early-learning program on the West Coast, according to El Centro, serves 68 preschool students, whose progress is tested regularly as they prepare for kindergarten.

Hilda Magaña, director of José Martí, has been working at El Centro for 23 years.

Children from all backgrounds attend the center, she said, and some come in with little knowledge of English or Spanish.

Because children learn languages at their own pace, one challenge for the center is meeting the expectations of parents, some of whom "want the children to learn English quickly because it's a survival skill," she said.

When the center first started, lessons were taught only in Spanish. When students began to fall behind in kindergarten, Magaña said, the center re-evaluated its goals and now emphasizes dual-language learning and maintaining a cultural heritage.

"Every family is unique," she said. "Sometimes the children carry on messages of their culture, and some don't. Hopefully we've given the tools to the children to learn from their culture, but we cannot control them."

The award comes with $16,500, which Magaña said will be used to enhance several programs and for materials and toys.

Eight-year-old Tomás Garcia says he is better at speaking English but likes speaking Spanish.

"When I talk Spanish to my grandma, she gives me money to buy Popsicles," he said.

Tomás misses the preschool but enjoys the after-school programs available at El Centro for 5- to 12-year-olds. "I want to come here until I die," the soon-to-be fourth-grader said. "It's really a good place. They take care of you."

Why do Asian students generally get higher marks than Latinos?

This is worth reading. I'd have to agree that expectations play a pretty significant role in students' lives - as you see this can go in many directions, some better than others.

I think the comment that Latino families value work over education should be looked at closer -- how were questions asked is a good start. One of many comments here that should be looked at more critically.

-Patricia

Trying to bridge the grade divide in L.A. schools: Lincoln High students have candid ideas.
By Hector Becerra
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

July 16, 2008

The eight students walked into a room at Lincoln High School prepared to discuss an issue many people, including some of their teachers, considered taboo.

They were blunt. Carlos Garcia, 17, an A student with a knack for math, said, "My friends, most of them say, 'You're more Asian than Hispanic.' "

"I think Carlos is Asian at heart," said Julie Loc, 17, causing Carlos to laugh good-naturedly. Asian students who get middling grades often get another response, she said.

"They say, 'Are you really Asian?' " Julie said.

"It's sad but true," said Eliseo Garcia, a 17-year-old with long rocker hair, an easy manner and good grades. "I had an Asian friend, but he didn't necessarily get that great a grades. We used to say, 'He's Mexican at heart.' "

What accounts for such self-deprecating humor? Or the uneven academic performance that prompts it?

The state's top education official, Supt. Jack O'Connell, called for that kind of discussion last fall when he decried the "racial achievement gap" separating Asian and non-Latino white students from Latinos and blacks.

At The Times' request, the Eastside students gathered to talk about this touchy subject.

Lincoln Heights is mostly a working-class Mexican American area, but it's also a first stop for Asian immigrants, many of them ethnic Chinese who fled Vietnam.

With about 2,500 students, Lincoln High draws from parts of Boyle Heights, El Sereno and Chinatown.

Both the neighborhood and student body are about 15% Asian. And yet Asians make up 50% of students taking Advanced Placement classes. Staffers can't remember the last time a Latino was valedictorian.

"A lot of my friends say the achievement gap is directly attributable to the socioeconomic status of students, and that is not completely accurate," O'Connell said. "It is more than that."

But what is it? O'Connell called a summit in Sacramento that drew 4,000 educators, policymakers and experts to tackle the issue. Some teachers stomped out in frustration and anger.

No Lincoln students stomped out of their discussion. Neither did any teachers in a similar Lincoln meeting. But the observations were frank, and they clearly made some uncomfortable.

To begin with, the eight students agreed on a few generalities: Latino and Asian students came mostly from poor and working-class families.

According to a study of census data, 84% of the Asian and Latino families in the neighborhoods around Lincoln High have median annual household incomes below $50,000. And yet the Science Bowl team is 90% Asian, as is the Academic Decathlon team.

"Look at the statistics. It's true," said George De La Paz, 17, whose single mother works as a house cleaner.

Asian parents are more likely to pressure their children to excel academically, the students agreed.

"They only start paying attention if I don't do well," said Karen Chu, 15, whose parents emigrated from Vietnam. "They don't reward me for getting straight A's. I don't get anything for that. But if I get a B, they're like, 'What's this?' "

If her grades slipped, she said, her parents laid on the guilt extra thick. "My parents are always like, 'If you don't do well in school, then it's all going to be worth nothing,' " Karen said, laughing nervously.

Julie Loc, the daughter of a seamstress and a produce-truck driver, said that if she gets a B, her parents ask whether she needs tutoring. She said her father used to compare her to other people's children, noting their hard course loads or saying, "They have a 4.3 [grade-point average]. Why do you only have a 4.0?' "

Julie said her mother, Kin Ho, finally told her father to stop making comparisons. Ho, in an interview, said with a slightly embarrassed smile, "My daughter has embraced American culture, where she expects my reassurance and approval. Our children, if they did something well, they would ask us if we were proud of them, if they did good. They ask if we love them."

George said his mother, a Mexican immigrant, has high expectations for him too, but she is not so white-knuckled when it comes to school. She wants him to do well -- he's now thinking of college -- but the field of endeavor is up to him.

"She said, 'I came here to do better for you,' " he said. "But that's about it. Being happy and getting by, that's what she wants."

For Carlos Garcia, the one with the knack for math, the message from his parents was to focus on school. Neither got to finish grade school in their native countries.

His mother, Maribel, from El Salvador, is a homemaker; his father, Santos, a Mexican immigrant, is a drywall finisher who once took Carlos and his older brother to work with him -- to scare them away from manual labor. Two of their children have college degrees, one is still in college and Carlos, the only Latino on Lincoln's Academic Decathlon team, wants to attend Caltech.

Ericka Saracho, 16, an A student, said her Latino family did not push her to do well in school. When she got a rare B, "they're like, 'Oh, wow, Ericka finally got a B! How do you feel about that?' " she said. She is one of the few Latina students on Lincoln's Science Bowl team.

The students talked not just about parental expectations, but also about those of peers. Karen drew laughter when she said of other students, "They expect me to be smart. Even if, like, I do everything wrong on purpose, they still copy off of me -- as if I'm right just because I'm Asian."

She said expectations came into play in an even odder way in Lincoln High's hallways.

"In our school we have tardy sweeps, and normally the staff members let the Asians go," Karen said. "They don't really care if we're late."

The group, nodding, erupted into laughter. "They don't even ask them for a pass sometimes," George added.

"Generally speaking -- like it's stereotypical that Asians all do better -- I also think there's a stereotypical view that Asians are usually late," Julie said. "They'll come to school late, but they'll get to class and do their work."

This drew more laughter.

Many factors influence academic performance: class size, poverty, and school and neighborhood resources. But as the discussions at Lincoln show, expectations loom large.

Fidel Nava, a coordinator for English learners at Lincoln, said some Latino students say that Asians get higher grades simply because, well, they're Asian.

"In a sense, they have come to believe that it's OK for Asians to be smart and not for Hispanics," said Nava, who immigrated from Mexico at 14.

Nava, the only one of six siblings to go to college, said he was once like many of his students. His parents wanted the children to finish high school, but there also was an expectation that they get jobs and help the family.

"A lot of my relatives don't see my job as a stressful job at all," Nava said. "If I tell them I'm tired, they say, 'Why? You're not doing any labor. You're not doing anything.' "

Rocio Chavez, 18, said that even though her older sister graduated from high school, their mother didn't really expect her to go to college.

"I guess she didn't expect that from me, either," Rocio said. "And now that I'm going to move on to college, she's kind of scared. She gets kind of sad I'm leaving. She's like, 'You're supposed to graduate from high school, go to work and help me out.' "

Frank D. Bean, a professor of sociology at UC Irvine's Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy, has studied the Mexican work ethic and found that work and education occupy the same pedestal, and in some cases, work is even more valued.

Bean said his research shows that children of Latino immigrants, if they drop out of school, are more likely to be working than most other students who leave school.

"In Latino families, being able to work to provide defines your manhood, your worthiness," said Min Zhou, a UCLA sociology professor who has studied working-class Korean and Chinese communities.

Latino and Asian families in Lincoln Heights were essentially in the same socioeconomic boat, she said, but Asian immigrants were more likely to have been more affluent and had better education opportunities in their native countries.

Of course, there are exceptions to stereotypes at Lincoln. "My mom just wants me to pass," said Thin Lam, 17.

But Thin said counselors assumed he wanted to take a slew of AP classes, and a counselor urged him to take AP calculus.

"I said, 'Yeah, sure, I want to take it,' " he said. "In the end, I dropped it."

A few hours after the eight students concluded their discussion, some teachers gathered in Principal James Molina's office.

"I feel a little bit uncomfortable talking about racial and ethnic generalizations," said Cynthia High, a 20-year teaching veteran now in charge of teachers' aides and other programs.

"In some situations, it sparks a good conversation. In others, it's more taboo-ish to talk about it," said William Olmedo, who teaches AP physics.

Barbara Paulson, who coordinates Lincoln's magnet program and teaches AP biology, said it had been understood for a long time that teachers needed to try harder to recruit Latino students for AP classes because "the Asian kids come on in droves."

Gilbert Martinez, who teaches AP government, said he didn't think the school did as good a job as it could to raise expectations among Latino students and to get them into AP classes.

"But I do," Paulson said.

"I'm not saying you, Barbara. I'm saying all over."

Olmedo said many capable Latino students refused to take AP classes or join other academically rigorous activities.

Teachers said they were saddened by self-defeating attitudes.

"I think the thing I always hear from the Latino kids is, 'Oh, well, Miss, he's Asian, she's Asian. Of course they do well,' " said Alli Lauer, who teaches English. "It's frustrating to hear them do it to each other."

But as one student said in a separate interview, many Latino students are responding to cues. Johana Najera, 17, said the Academic Decathlon offers a not-so-subtle cue about who belongs.

"We already know that it's Asian, and they kind of market it more for Asians," Najera said. She noted that the shirts for the Academic Decathlon team have a logo done in the style of anime, Japanese animation. "It appeals more to Asian students," she said.

Martinez turned the conversation toward parents' attitudes, summarizing a discussion from one of his Chicano studies classes.

"Let's say a Latino student is studying and an Asian student is studying," Martinez said. "The Latino parent will often say, 'Hey, come help me out real quick, then you can go back to your studying.' Where the Asian parent will say, 'Oh, you're doing your homework. OK, you finish, and then after you're done, you come help me.' "

High recalled a good Latino student she had a few years ago. He also was a gang member.

"He would wear baggy pants, and he would load up his pants with books," she said. "He looked around to make sure no one was seeing him so he could look like the baddest kid in the block."

The teachers were then asked about tardy sweeps, the topic the students had found so amusing. Was it true that Asians could wander outside class without a hall pass?

"My Asian kids laugh at that," Olmedo said. "I say, 'Take the pass.' They say, 'I'm Asian. Who's going to ask an Asian student for a pass?' "

"Oh, you're kidding!" High said with a gasp.

"I'll send one of my [Latino] boys out just to get water, and here comes the security, 'Please make sure you send him out with a pass,' and I'll say I will," Olmedo continued. "And the Asian kid will walk around the whole campus, the whole day, the whole week, for a whole month!"

Don Brewer, an English teacher, said some Latino students were allowed to slide by without hall passes, including athletes and others involved in school activities.

"But you know," Brewer said, "when you're looking down the hall and you see that one kid pop out, you go, 'OK, he's Asian. I can go back in.' You know, I think that happens. It's obvious it happens."

High shook her head. "But I must say I don't feel comfortable with that. And if we're doing that, that's not OK. That's just not OK."

"Oh, it's happening," Olmedo said. "It's happening."