Parent Panels

By Lorna Gilmour, Issaquah School District Equity and Family Partnerships Specialist

The Issaquah School District is becoming more and more culturally diverse. In 2001, the District was about 85% white students and 15% students of color. Currently, we are about 50% white students and 50% students of color. In recognizing this change in student demographics, the Issaquah School District is committed to ensuring that the staff is culturally competent through trainings to heighten awareness, knowledge and skills. Since about 90% of our classroom teachers are white and primarily have education experiences in the US, the district has been providing teachers with the opportunity to learn more about school systems in other countries.

One of the many opportunities for teachers to gain more cultural awareness and knowledge has been through professional development (usually on Wednesday for all teaching staff) at the schools. Parent Panels have presented at various schools in the ISD. Parent Panels are composed of parents who had K-12 education in another country such as China, India, Korea, Mexico, Columbia, Denmark, and Ukraine.

During the Parent Panel, the parents answer questions about and discuss what school systems are like in other countries, how parents and teachers communicate with each other, what are norms regarding classroom and school behavior; and what homework, testing and grading looks like in other countries. Such information has been very helpful for our teachers on their cultural awareness journey.

For example, very few teachers (unless they grew up in another country) knew about the ranking system that is very common in many Asian countries. As a result, when talking to parents about “how is my child doing?” or “how does my child rank in class?” there were cultural disconnects as to the why such a question would be asked. In the US, students are not ranked by a cumulative percentage from all classes and individual student performances are not made public.

Another example is how classroom participation in viewed differently in the US versus many other countries. In the US, students are encouraged to actively participate in the learning, to question, critique and discuss the content being presented. One of the goals of this type of interaction is to help students learn how to learn. In many other countries, however, education is about gaining knowledge, learning facts and information and then testing that knowledge on final exams. Classroom discussions and questioning material presented is not common in other countries. In some countries students are expected to be quiet and not ask questions. In fact, questioning may be considered a sign of disrespect.

Parent Panels have resulted in teachers having a better and deeper understanding of many of our culturally diverse families. This knowledge and awareness has helped them gain skills to teach our students and communicate more clearly with families. It has also helped build trusting relationships between parents and teachers as they communicate with each other.

Parents who have participated in Parent Panels have reported that the opportunity also helped them better understand the US schools system, identify what disconnects they have had with schools in the US and communicate better with teachers.

Parent Panels

Grand Ridge - Jan. 20 at 2 pm

Beaver Lake - Feb. 24 at 8 am

Creekside - Mar. 24 at 2 pm

Newcastle - Apr. 14 at 2 pm

If your child's school is not listed here but you would like to be a part of one of these discussions, please send an email to Lorna Gilmour: gilmourl@issaquah.wednet.edu.