Parent Reform: The Next Movement In Public Education?

The Commonwealth Foundation (press release) | 2-21-03 | >Greg Moo, Ph.D

[Temple Owl]

COMMENTARY from The Commonwealth Foundation (February 21, 2003)

Parent Reform: The Next Movement In Public Education?

Greg Moo, Ph.D.

Lebanon sure isn't Lake Wobegon where, as Garrison Keillor tells it, all the children are above average. Heck, this Lebanon, Pennsylvania school district is apparently so troubled by children, it's decided to evaluate parents. Or at least that could be the way of things come next fall.

Seems that at a mid-January meeting, Lebanon's Superintendent of Schools proposed the district evaluate parents based on the level of involvement in their children's education. Seems, too, the district has had a "Parental Relations Policy" since 1996 outlining standards parents are to meet, indicators of success, timelines, and that sort of thing.

Not since the mid-1600s have educators, or their like, used such righteous purpose as grounds for intruding into homes to judge parental effectiveness. Back then it was the Massachusetts Bay Colony Puritans who were consumed with carving out a "community on the hill." As luck will have it, these things come full circle. Now after only 350 years, we're back to the ever-watchful selectman's knock on the door. Who would stand against such intrepid commitment?

But there's a clinker in the clockwork.

Let's begin by understanding the mindset here. In making her proposal, the district's superintendent explained, "We want to be able to say, 'Yes, this parent is fulfilling his or her responsibility by doing the things outlined in the policy,' or 'No, he or she isn't.'"

This is arrogance unrestrained. School districts have no charter to evaluate parents. It is neither their purpose nor their prerogative. Parents send schools the best kids they have. The notion that schools can turn down the thumbscrews and force parents to produce better children is fraught with ethical and legal questions.

Oh sure, some parents-regardless of income-are better at being parents than are others. And if schools could require all moms and dads to give their children four-bedroom Beaver Cleaver-style homes complete with a stay-at-home parent who devotes herself or himself to daily activities designed to support the school's curricula, well, district test scores might be a good bit higher. But this is not reality for many parents, and, therefore, it is not reality for schools.

And for many teachers the reality is confusion. Superintendents jump from one sure fix to the next, and then they jump to a bigger district. For teachers, the environment is ever-changing and unfocused. Involving teachers in parent evaluations further confuses their purpose and takes teachers far from their principal duty: teaching children.

If we look at the cause behind the cause of what is really a push for parent reform, we might find that this latest educational flight of fancy is an effort to shift blame, divert attention, and disrupt legitimate plans that would bring real accountability to public education. Why accept responsibility for student learning and go to the hard work of leading teachers and principals through the trials and tribulations of education reform when a simple change of focus-and rhetoric-can transfer responsibility to parents? Voilà, life is good again.

One wonders how it is possible for this almost unbelievable ploy to grow from what most surely began as a behind-the-door gripe to become this in-your-face proposal. How is it possible for public schools to take it upon themselves to evaluate parents? This is not only upside down, it's an assault on a basic premise of public education: educators work for and are responsible to the public (especially to parents), not the other way around.

This assault is possible because public education has no bottom line, and, therefore, there is no basis for real accountability. In this environment, where heaps of money flow automatically into the system and where there is no fear of going out of business and little fear of losing one's job, people inside the system are free to play politics with each other and with people outside the system. With few restraints and little accountability, sooner or later school district employees come to believe they should tell school boards what to do. Thus, through regulatory capture, school boards' powers and prerogatives are taken from them by the very people the boards are duty bound to direct, supervise, and hold accountable.

And troubling, indeed, is the unresolved question: What happens to parents who receive low evaluations or, heaven forbid, flunk an evaluation? Perhaps a new scarlet letter is finding its way into American life.

Dr. G. Gregory Moo, a former teacher, high school principal, and educational administrator of 20 years, is an adjunct scholar with The Commonwealth Foundation, a free-market public policy research and educational institute based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

For more information, visit www.CommonwealthFoundation.org.

CONTACT: Ty McCauslin, The Commonwealth Foundation, 717.671.1901

[Temple Owl]

Public schools need competition. We need school choice and vouchers.

[Izzy Dunne]

I have no doubt that some parents need a swift kick in the behind to make them look at how they (the parents) are affecting their kids.
But letting the teachers / administrators do it is like letting the crack addicts set hospital drug policy.
You ain't gonna get anything useful out.

[TxBec]

Homeschool bump

[Khepera]

Thanks Tex!

[PLOM...NOT!]

I say let them do it. They will see an instantaneous backlash so powerful they won't know what hit them. The straw that broke the camels' back kind of thing. The first foot in the door to breaking up the stranglehold the unions have on education. Have at us Mr. Superintendent.

[TxBec]

YW!

Finally got this computer working again (with my ping list on it).. I'll try to revive the daily threads :)

[Magoo]

School choice, Vouchers, Privitization. Bump

[RAT Patrol]

If we look at the cause behind the cause of what is really a push for parent reform, we might find that this latest educational flight of fancy is an effort to shift blame, divert attention, and disrupt legitimate plans that would bring real accountability to public education. Why accept responsibility for student learning and go to the hard work of leading teachers and principals through the trials and tribulations of education reform when a simple change of focus-and rhetoric-can transfer responsibility to parents? Voilà, life is good again.

I believe parents are key to a child's education too. But, as you said...

I have no doubt that some parents need a swift kick in the behind to make them look at how they (the parents) are affecting their kids. But letting the teachers / administrators do it is like letting the crack addicts set hospital drug policy. You ain't gonna get anything useful out.

It seems wrong to have the schools evaluating parents. Shouldn't it be the other way around? In many ways, however, parents have earned this through their apathy. I mean, when you have to take your five year old, as a lady I know did, to the school for "kindergarten readiness testing" and you haven't even taught your kid colors --GIVE ME A BREAK--you deserve to be embarrassed. Don't these parents ever TALK to the little ones living with them for five years? How can you not talk about color with your toddler? No wonder even good teachers have a hard time.

[ArGee]

I have no doubt that some parents need a swift kick in the behind to make them look at how they (the parents) are affecting their kids.

You can only be correct if there is some absolute standard defining the correct outcome of a child. In the absence of any standard your sentence is better stated, "I have no doubt that some parents need a swift kick in the behind to make them look at how they (the parents) are affecting my opinion of their kids."

Shalom.

[Between the Lines]

From the Lebanon School District website:
http://www.lebanon.k12.pa.us/Main.htm

When Marianne Bartley was named superintendent of the Lebanon School District last year, she made it clear to the school board that she intended to do things that would improve education and put the district on the map. Lebanon, she told the board, was about to make a splash.

Those who failed to put their raincoats on have only themselves to blame if they're all wet.

Following the broadcast Monday of a hastily arranged NBC "Today Show" segment live from Bartley's office at Lebanon High School, the district is officially "on the map." Lebanon schools are doing more than making a splash: They're making waves.

Bartley, however, no doubt finds all the hubbub over parental report cards somewhat surprising and faintly amusing. After all, as she has pointed out, the idea of holding parents accountable for their involvement in their kids' academic lives is nothing new; it's a logical extension of the district's 7-year-old parental involvement policy.

Those who pay attention to the city's public school system are aware that it's not the first time the district has made news since Bartley took the helm.

Foremost among the district's accomplishments during Bartley's still-infant administration has been the designation of Lebanon School District as a national "Following the Leader School." Lebanon's seven schools are among the first 70 in the country who are implementing policy and technology to ensure that every child meets the educational standards of the future.

"Following the Leaders" is a nationwide initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Education and coordinated by the Education Leaders Council in partnership with Project Achieve, AccountabilityWorks, the Milken Family Foundation and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. The project was developed to put promise into practice, providing states with the tools and resources necessary to implement the reforms of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act.

The district is also one of only 32 out of the 501 in the state to be chosen for the Pennsylvania Value-Added Assessment System, a three-year pilot program to help schools make better use of the wealth of information provided by standardized tests like the Pennsylvania System of Student Assessment to track the progress of individual students.

Bartley has also worked to improve the district by increasing community involvement in schools. She has done this by instituting a new volunteer policy and reaching out to various community groups.

All this has happened during the first seven months of Bartley's tenure -- time during which she's also been organizing her administration and healing wounds left by the untimely departure of her well-liked and highly respected predecessor, Dennis Tulli, who was let go by the school directors for reasons which they have never shared.

Bartley herself has credited Tulli for the framework of her programs, especially the district emphasis on asset- building.

Tulli also deserves credit for putting the latest technology in the district's classrooms, without which Lebanon would probably not have been chosen for the VAAS and the Following the Leader programs.

Clearly, Bartley's early successes are the result of building on solid foundations laid by her predecessor. It remains to be seen whether she can bring the promising beginnings to fruition.

But the comfort with which she is moving the process forward was clear in the self-assured, enthusiastic face she showed the nation Monday morning.

One thing at least is clear: Lebanon School District is on the map.

[ladylib]

If the parents buy it, they buy it; if they don't, she's out the door.

[Temple Owl]

Did I read it wrong? It sounds a little like "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest."

[shhrubbery!]

Our local school board briefly considered requiring all parents to attend "parenting seminars" before allowing their children to graduate.

That idea was quashed toute suite. But that was several years ago. Wonder if parents are more willing sheep now.

[Temple Owl]

The main problem appears to be that parent's don't wise up until their kids are out of school. Then it dawns on them. They are paying a lot and not getting their money's worth. We need vouchers.

[ladylib]

Little late in the day to "require" parenting seminars.

These people have more balls than a Christmas tree, and we're paying for their arrogance.

[bobg]

I taught my sons to read by phonics 35 years ago. Now they and their wives are teaching my grandkids. For example my 6 year old grandson Wesley was taught phonics at age 3. When he started kindergaten his mom told the teacher he could read. Teacher acted like all parents think their kids are special. To make a long story short he is now in first grade and helping the teacher teach others by reading to them... He was recently tested and he scored on fourth grade level with comprehension. He is still a little boy with little boy desires.

We need a crash course to teach parents to be parents and how to prepare their kids for school. I was on a school committee 20 years ago and preached the same thing and got no response from the school board. Many educators seemed to say, "Parents should not teach their kids....that is our job." BULL. But some teachers are very appreciative.

During the summer months Wesley's Mom gives her children a daily regimen of breakfast, 10 spelling words and 5 math problems. She also does a lot of volunteer work at the school. That is good parenting....

[Izzy Dunne]

Well, thanks all the same, but I said what I meant, and meant what I said.

[ArGee]

We need a crash course to teach parents to be parents and how to prepare their kids for school. I was on a school committee 20 years ago and preached the same thing and got no response from the school board. Many educators seemed to say, "Parents should not teach their kids....that is our job." BULL. But some teachers are very appreciative.

It's not a quick fix situation, but you said it right that teachers want parents out of the way. They think we are the problem, not a part of the solution. At some points a lot of parents decided that it was the school system's job to educate the kids while the parents were supposed to feed and clothe them, give them their shots, and optionally teach them right from wrong. The parents accepted this and turned everything over to the schools. Then the schools found they were ill equipped to do the job.

Education is a partnership between parents and teachers, with parents being the the responsible party and teachers providing a supporting role. Recently, here in PA, many legislators were wondering who would hold parents accountable for their kids education if we relaxed the home education laws. That is horse hockey. The real question is why haven't parents been holding the teachers accountable? And the administrations? And the school boards?

They are our kids, not the state's. Unless the state wants to claim that G-d gave them the responsibility, at which time I may purchase a firearm.

Once parents take the responsibility that is theirs, whether at a home, private, parochial, or public school, then schools will be able to teach our children. But I don't think I want the teachers teaching them how to take that responsibility. The teachers don't really want them to have it.

Shalom.

[ArGee]

So you're qualified to judge whether parents are doing their jobs correctly?

On what basis?

Shalom.

[Luna]

"Mrs. Smith, you failed to live up to your responsibility as a parent. To the blackboard with you and start writing!!!"

I will fulfil my responsibility by doing the things outlined in the policy
I will fulfil my responsibility by doing the things outlined in the policy
I will fulfil my responsibility by doing the things outlined in the policy
I will fulfil my responsibility by doing the things outlined in the policy
I will fulfil my responsibility by doing the things outlined in the policy
I will fulfil my responsibility by doing the things outlined in the policy...