tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post2120877777630390802..comments2023-04-24T23:09:57.655-04:00Comments on All Things Education: Teaching Quality Series Part V: Parental EngagementUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-41665856953274141282011-12-08T07:46:28.888-05:002011-12-08T07:46:28.888-05:00Kids have the best parents they can find. Having ...Kids have the best parents they can find. Having said that, we must never forget that the parent is the customer. It is our job to serve them not their job to serve us. It is important to first empower all parents not through having 4 or 5 on a committee but having those committee members continuously survey all parents to assure every voice is heard. <br /><br />No longer may we use the few to speak for all. Connecting with every parent, especially those who have been disenfranchised, is extremely important. This also gives validity to neighborhood schools where all parents are nearby and community learning centers resources bringing parents and community members into the school for their support or educational services.<br /><br />Every parent is part of the educational team because every parent knows their child better than anyone.Cap Leehttp://www.wholechildreform.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-33944861952088991682011-12-05T12:51:55.364-05:002011-12-05T12:51:55.364-05:00Victoria,
Thanks for your comment--I always appre...Victoria,<br /><br />Thanks for your comment--I always appreciate hearing your measured & insightful feedback. <br /><br />You bring up a very important point that I left out: Sometimes parents don't get involved because they've gotten bad advice from their children's educators or they've been told by educators, especially at the secondary level, to take a step back. <br /><br />I've seen that happen sometimes with the transition to high school from middle school. All of a sudden, there are no team-based interventions to reach out to struggling students, the logic being that high school students don't need that. I agree that high schoolers are ready for more independence and responsibility, but especially when they're struggling, they still need support from the adults in their lives.Rachel Levyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06844728669493681943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-71464964747834054972011-12-05T12:44:39.034-05:002011-12-05T12:44:39.034-05:00Michael,
Thanks so much for your comment. I'm...Michael,<br /><br />Thanks so much for your comment. I'm not sure about separating out the groups entirely (though I agree that rather happens in some cases already) but I certainly agree that conversations about tracking, grouping, etc, or not tracking, grouping, etc, are conversations well worth having. <br /><br />Otherwise, I agree completely with you: this is very complicated stuff and when it gets boiled down to as you put it, "education reform as the search for some single solution," we don't get very far at reforming or improving anything.Rachel Levyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06844728669493681943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-76239516868515499352011-12-05T11:29:20.958-05:002011-12-05T11:29:20.958-05:00Let us agree on your conclusion: teachers with stu...Let us agree on your conclusion: teachers with students who don't have a lot of domestic/family support (let's call them "unsupported students" for brevity's sake) still have to do their job, namely, educate those students.<br /><br />I think that's right.<br /><br />But I also think -- and it's not clear we disagree here, either -- that there are two very important facts about the job of educating unsupported students:<br /><br />1) First, educating unsupported students is a little more work. It takes additional effort. Now, given the fact that you're time-limited (usually one school year), you're not going to be able to make quite as much progress in a school year with an unsupported student as you will with a supported student.<br /><br />Just in case anyone misunderstands, I'm not saying that unsupported students are stupid or unmotivated or anything else like that. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. But the fact that they aren't getting the support that they could be getting at home means that their academic progress is going to be a little slower, because overall there's going to be less time spent thinking about school stuff.<br /><br />2) Second, while the goal is the same in each case, the techniques used to work with a student who has a rich, fertile home environment and lots of resources are very different than the techniques used to work with students who essentially have nothing but maybe the pencil they bring with them. As you pointed out, you don't assign big projects that require resources outside of class. <br /><br />Let me be perfectly clear: I'm not faulting you for this. I think you're doing the right thing. I'm just pointing out that the techniques are different.<br /><br />So with those two facts in mind, I think we can see that the business of working with supported students is substantially different than the business of working with unsupported students (assuming both groups are being taught at maximum efficiency).<br /><br />We might think that this is an argument for separating out these groups of students, so that each group (and, realistically, there's probably more than two) can be taught in an environment that is tailored to address their particular needs and to push them as hard as they can be pushed. It's the same argument that is used for GATE programs and differentiated instruction (which is really just tracking-on-a-budget). <br /><br />We might also think that this sort of segregation is already taking place through property values/school districting, and now even more through the rise of Charters. <br /><br />I guess what I'm trying to say is that I agree with what you say here, Rachel, and I think that it's a powerful argument for understanding that we don't have some unified education system that is in need of reform. What we have are several different educational systems, and the system that we have in place for the unsupported kids needs different reforms than the system that we have in place for the supported kids, which in turn needs different reforms than the system for the honors/GATE kids, which needs different reforms from the system for the Special Ed kids. It's not clear to me that Charter Schools are really designed to address the sort of problems that you're talking about, at least not the Charter schools that make it into the news. <br /><br />It's popular to talk about "Educational Reform" as if it were the search for some single solution to fix "the system". But it's both intellectually lazy and non-productive to think about education in those terms. And as I said above, I don't actually think we disagree on any of this. (Or maybe we do -- I'm sure you'll let me know if that's the case.) I just wanted to point it out for clarity's sake.Michael E. Lopezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09099375303426465228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-86418825898300814812011-12-04T14:40:38.138-05:002011-12-04T14:40:38.138-05:00Great post. If I had time I would read the rest of...Great post. If I had time I would read the rest of the series but being "just" a parent, this one caught my eye.<br /><br />When it comes to dis-engaged parents in middle school, one reason you may not have considered is the experiences these parents may have encountered previously. Unwelcoming elementary experiences due to staff and administration encounters of the worst kind do occur and you never know what "advice" parents may have been given by misinformed counselors, teachers , or administrators.<br /><br />I'll never forget sitting in a meeting and hearing the principal tell parents "your kids are at the age where they don't want you around!" Really?<br /><br />As far as "fixing" the problems, the original architects of ESEA did a fine job of considering and comprehending what needed to happen for school/community engagement and improvement to occur. There are no "new" ideas, just good 'ole forgotten ones whose time has come to be resurrected.Victoria M. Younghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12379851983405254363noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-31155977063112771932011-12-03T10:51:11.495-05:002011-12-03T10:51:11.495-05:00@lodesterre Thanks for the support! Yes, I just hu...@lodesterre Thanks for the support! Yes, I just hung my head when I started reading calls (especially from teachers!) for a parent accountability movement. No more blame game, please. I just don't believe we can legislate good parenting.<br /><br />@caroline As far as I know, the policies, outreach efforts, and population served can differ from KIPP school to KIPP school and to their credit, they do reach out to parents who might not come to them otherwise. It sounds like they make a real effort in that way. But they do all have that contract that parents/guardians must sign and their behavior and suspension/expulsion policies are overall much stricter than traditional schools. If I recall correctly, those things are non-negotiables and they do (openly) call themselves places of choice. I'm working on a brief follow-up to some of this. Stay tuned. . .Rachel Levyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06844728669493681943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-10094310947930336702011-12-02T22:38:43.840-05:002011-12-02T22:38:43.840-05:00KIPP and its spokesman usually DO deny that they e...KIPP and its spokesman usually DO deny that they exclude or counsel out kids they don't want. They're erratic -- sometimes they acknowledge it, and then they go back to denying it again.carolinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08127336930949752636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-3785144654702400732011-12-02T21:37:01.153-05:002011-12-02T21:37:01.153-05:00Excellent post, Rachel. People can blame the teach...Excellent post, Rachel. People can blame the teachers, or they can blame the parents, or they can try and find ways to help support both in their endeavors to educate children. The idea that parents don't want to help their children is as crazy as the idea that teachers would rather not teach in the classroom. We seem to move from one extreme to the other. What has been needed for some time is an end to the blame being passed around and some honest work towards providing meaningful support to schools, teachers and parents. As you point out, strengthening the outreach to parents would be a very good beginning. Your last paragraph is filled with the kind of sensible ideas and views that is sorely lacking in the reform movement. Well done.AVParodihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04875792642302052800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-37093024488424660532011-12-02T12:27:31.490-05:002011-12-02T12:27:31.490-05:00Great post; 100% agree!Great post; 100% agree!CCHhttp://www.uneducacion.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.com