Parent Involvement, NCLB and Consequences
December 28th, 2007 by tsullivanI found this column from Education Week fascinating. Admittedly, I’m a bit odd. 
While many make the case that more and more effective parent involvement is an essential element of improving our schools, too many school leaders treat it as an after-thought to be nominally checked off a long list of “things I have to pay lip service to”. To some degree, that’s partially because there are so, so many things that administrators are asked to handle.
But it’s also because 1) there’s still a lack of understanding about how basic and essential parent involvement is (not a “nice to have”; a “must have”); 2) many leaders don’t know how to make an impact on involvement (they should check out Family Friendly Schools); and 3) laws like the No Child left Behind Act often throw parent involvement provisions in with no teeth. This column addresses all three issues really well.
If you’re a real involvement wonk, the same author worked on a comprehensive involvement report that can be found here.
January 2nd, 2008 at 2:15 pm
One of our eagle-eyed staff (BJ) noticed that you need to be registered to access the Education Week article. They have a free trial available and you can read the article if you sign up. I clicked on the link Tim posted above and followed the instructions to sign up for a free trial. After sign-up I was taken directly to the specific article. Took about 5 minutes and was pretty straightforward.
Thanks for the heads up BJ!