I was very intrigued to read a recent three-part series in the Baltimore Sun (February 9-11), which chronicles the C.E.O of the Baltimore City Public School System, Andrés Alonso, and his work to transform the city’s school system to give its students the education they deserve. The third part of the series stands out in my mind as Alonso targets what he deems to be the biggest challenge of this transformation: “overcoming the community’s acceptance that things are always as they will be.”
I question if Baltimore City community members believe in the possibility of transformation with the kids it has. In the Baltimore Sun article, Alonso speaks of how he was shocked at the lack of parental/community outrage after a student at Lemmel Middle School was fatally stabbed. A friend of mine who works at the school said after the incident parents were allowed to vote on whether or not metal detectors should be placed in the school. Shockingly, the majority vote was no! The principal of Lemmel, appalled, overturned the parents vote and installed the metal detectors. It is disheartening that after such an event, community support was lackluster. How will transformation of our city schools happen without parental support and conviction?
Today, I had a parent tell me she was done with her son—that he can do whatever he wants and she washes her hands of it. She told me it was on me to figure out if he could be saved. Like Alonso, I am also determined to deliver for my students. I create engaging and effective lessons, I motivate my students to achieve high levels of success and I hold them to high and rigorous standards; but can I really save them? I find that quite the burden to shoulder. I reached out to this parent because I needed help—how do I help students when I can not engage their influencers in conversation? Parental involvement is an obvious challenge in city school systems where parents may have multiple jobs to hold down, where they do not understand the school system, and where they may have personal issues to deal with. The article in the Sun highlights that it is Alonso’s firm belief, a belief that I also support, that in order for the Baltimore City School System to truly change, parents and other influencers of our children need to step up and support the transformation. However, I must question what this means for our administrations and teachers. After sending home letters and making personal phone calls home to invite families to share in our school communities, when does it become part of North Avenue and Alonso’s responsibility to help us shoulder this burden? What ideas does he have to help us increase parental and community support in our schools?
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/k12/bal-alonso,0,3267664.storygallery
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I think you're really talking about two different types of parental involvement here - personal involvement with your child (e.g. getting them to do their homework, coming to conferences etc.) and general involvement with a school or a school system (e.g. going to PTA meetings, calling City Hall about funding etc.). To me these are two totally different things, and who needs to do what to increase parental involvement depends on which type you're talking about.
Personal involvement requires an understanding of how to be a supportive parent, which is pretty hard if you don't have any models. It seems to me the best person to work on this is the teacher through newsletters, phone calls and conferences. I think this needs to be clear communication of what you're looking for them to do and giving them a chance to communicate what they can and can not do. In the end, I think it'll be a compromise in many cases.
The generalized participation is harder and probably can be more of an administrative responsibility. Under-attended PTA meetings where the same few people monopolize the conversation and nothing ever seems to get done seem to be the norm to me. It's very hard to make time in busy schedules for these. I think what we need are innovative ways to tap into parental energy. Listserves, email blasts, letters asking parents to talk directly to elected officials, specific tasks that can be done with no meeting or lecture involved are some ideas that come to my mind. Given the low level of expectations for City Schools and a general level of hopelessness that goes along with poverty, getting a lot of this type of participation will be hard. On the other hand, a few committed people with a larger group supporting them could accomplish a great deal.
I'm very hopeful about this initiative.
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