Parent and Community Involvement

> Photo 7.1 Principals have multiple responsibilities, but it is probably most important that they view themselves as leaders in curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Steve Hix/Somos Images/Corbis

In some districts, however, as explained in Chapter 2, The Teaching Profession, Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have provided principals and teachers increased responsibility for such matters as developing and aligning curriculum with instructional practices and assessments, participating in peer observations, and allocating time for professional development. Collaboration with teachers and other school staff to create school policies that improve student learning calls for a more participatory governance style by school principals.23

7-1e Parent and community involvement

Many collaborative school programs go beyond principals and teachers by giving important roles to parents and other community members, as well. In doing so, they build on a movement for increased parent and community involvement evident since the 1970s.

Many educators have promoted parent involvement for the most basic of reasons: research indicates that it pays off in higher student test scores on standardized tests, lower absenteeism, improved behavior at home and school, and higher motivation to study.24 Across the nation, polls indicate that the public overwhelmingly supports the idea of parent involvement and believes that parents play a major role in children’s education. As a result of this support, parent involvement was a key component of NCLB and is a major focus of the Obama administration’s New Family and Community Engagement Framework.25

Nevertheless, teachers perceive that parents are reluctant to take full advantage of existing opportunities to involve themselves with their children’s schooling. In a Department of Education survey of parents, 42 percent of parents claimed that they

23NASSP, Changing Role of the Middle Level and High School Leader: Learning from the Past – Preparing for the Future (Reston, VA: National Association of Secondary School Principals, 2007); and The Wallace Foundation, The School Principal as Leader: Guiding Schools to Better Teaching and Learning (New York: The Wallace Foundation, January 2013). 24Asnat Dor and T. Brooke Rucker-Naidu, “Teachers Attitudes toward Parents’ Involvement in School: Comparing Teachers in the USA and Israel,” Issues in Educational Research (September 2012), pp. 246–262. 25Jennifer DePlanty, Russell Coulter-Kern, and Kim A. Duchane, “Perceptions of Parent Involvement in Academic Achievement,” Journal of Educational Research (July 2007), pp. 361–368; and Family and Community Engagement (Washington, DC, April 2014) at www.ed.gov/family-and -community-engagement.

community participation Citizen

advisory committees at either the local school or school board level.

community control An elected

community council or board that shares decision-making power with the local school board.

charter school A public school governed by a community group granted a special contract (charter) by the state or the local school board. Charter schools often form to offer educational alternatives unavailable in regular public schools. volunteered at school, while 76 percent reported that they attended a parent-teacher conference.26 Some parents, according to research, avoid school involvement because of feelings of inadequacy, negative experiences in schools as students, and negative perceptions of administrator and teacher attitudes.27 However, in a survey of parents with children enrolled in urban schools, 83 percent of respondents indicated they felt respected by school personnel.28

The pressure for school reform has produced formal arrangements that give parents and other community members a voice in local educational decisions. For purposes of discussion, we can divide community involvement into three broad categories: community participation, community control, and community schools.

Community Participation The usual form of community participation involves advisory committees at either the neighborhood school or central board level. These committees are commonly appointed by school officials and offer the school board help and advice. Citizen advisory councils provide advice and assistance in many areas: (1) identification of goals, priorities, and needs; (2) feedback on developing district policy; (3) support for financing schools; (4) recruitment of volunteers; and (5) assistance to students in school and in “homework hotline” programs. Nearly every state has a parent involvement law.29

Community Control In a system of community control, an elected community council or board does more than offer advice—it shares decision-making power with the central school board.

Since the 1990s, Chicago Public Schools have practiced a form of community control, known as local school councils (LSCs), as part of local educational reform designed to improve academic achievement. Members of LSCs, which include the principal, six parents, two community members, two teachers, and one nonteaching staff representative, are elected to two-year terms. The councils are responsible for approving how funds and resources are allocated, developing and monitoring school improvement plans, and monitoring and evaluating the school’s principal. The LSC system recently marked its twenty-fifth anniversary and is still noted as an example for parent and community control of schools.30

A more recent development in community involvement in education is the establishment of charter schools (discussed in more detail in Chapter 16, School Effectiveness and Reform in the United States). In this arrangement, the local school board or state board of education grants a community group or private organization a charter (a contract listing specific rights, privileges, and expectations), which permits the group to establish and operate a public school. Specific arrangements about finance, school operation, physical location, student enrollment, teacher work conditions, and

26Larry Ferlasso, “Involvement or Engagement?” Educational Leadership (May 2011), pp. 10–14: and Data Bank – Parental Involvement in Schools (Bethesda, MD: Child Trends, September 2013). 27Lauri Goldkind and G. Lawrence Farmer, “The Enduring Influence of School Size and School Climate on Parents’ Engagement in the School Community,” School Community Journal (Spring/ Summer 2013); and Kantahyanee W. Murray, Nadine Finigan, Vanya Jones, Nikeea CopelandLinder, Denise L. Haynie, and Tina L. Cheng, “Barriers and Facilitators to School-Based Parent Involvement for Parents of Urban Public Middle School Students,” SAGE Open (November 2014) at http://sgo.sagepub.com/content/4/4/2158244014558030. 28Brian Perkins, What We Think: Parental Perceptions of Urban School Climate (Alexandria, VA: National School Boards Association, 2008); and Ann Bradley, “Poll: Urban Parents Find Schools Safe,” Education Week (May 7, 2008), p. 4. 29Gavin Shatkin and Alec Ian Gershberg, “Empowering Parents and Building Communities,” Urban Education (November 2007), pp. 582–615; Kavitha Mediratta, Seema Shah, Sara McAlister, Norm Fruchter, Christina Mokhtar, and Dana Lockwood, Organized Communities, Stronger Schools (New York: Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, March 2008); and “Parent/Family,” ECS – Education Commission of the States at www.ecs.org/html/issue .asp?issueid=85 (January 21, 2015). 30Denisa R. Superville, “Power of Parents Tested by Changes in Chicago Schools,” Education Week (October 8, 2014), pp. 1, 15; and Chicago Public Schools, Local School Councils at www .cps.edu/Pages/Localschoolcouncils.aspx (January 21, 2015).