Week Three Discussion: Submission Preview

Jessica Frances Rumel Mirch

Wow. The Parent Outreach program at your school sounds great. It's impressive that their is a position (counselor) dedicated to spending 50% of their job reaching out to parents and making sure they are informed. When it was first implemented did your school see a significant increase in parent involvement?

Jessica Frances Rumel Mirch

All of these prompts have been interesting for me because my answers are drastically different when I think about the school I used to work in vs. the one I work in now.

When I taught at the charter school in Chicago (serving predominately low-income African-American and Latino students), parents enter into an agreement with the school to attend four parent-teacher conferences a year. These were held on a week-day (no school for students), and all parents were required to attend a 10 minute meeting with their child's advisor. They also had the opportunity to wait in line to meet with other academic teachers for 10 minutes. These conferences were a big deal and advisors were under a lot of pressure to make sure they meet with all of their parents. I would be on the phone making reminder phone calls several days before, and every year our school boasted of 100% parent contact. It was true; all parents were met with 4 times per year. (Note: interpreters were also on-site so that I could communicate with parents who did not speak English). However, that was really the only interaction I had with parents. Our school was in a unique setting (downtown Chicago high-rise), so I imagine that lack of parents on campus was often because of the challenging logistics to get to the school. We also did not have athletic facilities on campus so you could never run-into a parent at an after school game. There were never events hosted by the PTA or pot-luck dinners the way many other schools have.

At the school I'm at now (Los Angeles private school), we have all kinds of community events. There are pot-luck dinners, Diversity Day, Back-to-School Night, parents serve pancakes in the quad during finals week, etc. Academically, however, when teachers hear "parent involvement" they are likely to cringe. A quote from the article stood out for me, "the ability of parents to influence the actions and decision of school personnel is often directly related to their level of education, class, and status." Half of the times parents contact the school, they by-pass speaking with teacher and speak directly with the principal. This creates a culture of parent-involvement that is dreaded by teachers.

All of these prompts have been interesting for me because my answers are drastically different when I think about the school I used to work in vs. the one I work in now. 
When I taught at the charter school in Chicago (serving predominately low-income African-American and Latino students), parents enter into an agreement with the school to attend four parent-teacher conferences a year.  These were held on a week-day (no school for students), and all parents were required to attend a 10 minute meeting with their child's advisor.  They also had the opportunity to wait in line to meet with other academic teachers for 10 minutes.  These conferences were a big deal and advisors were under a lot of pressure to make sure they meet with all of their parents.  I would be on the phone making reminder phone calls several days before, and every year our school boasted of 100% parent contact. It was true; all parents were met with 4 times per year. (Note: interpreters were also on-site so that I could communicate with parents who did not speak English).  However, that was really the only interaction I had with parents.  Our school was in a unique setting (downtown Chicago high-rise), so I imagine that lack of parents on campus was often because of the challenging logistics to get to the school. We also did not have athletic facilities on campus so you could never run-into a parent at an after school game.   There were never events hosted by the PTA or pot-luck dinners the way many other schools have. 
At the school I'm at now (Los Angeles private school), we have all kinds of community events. There are pot-luck dinners, Diversity Day, Back-to-School Night, parents serve pancakes in the quad during finals week, etc.  Academically, however, when teachers hear "parent involvement" they are likely to cringe.  A quote from the article stood out for me, "the ability of parents to influence the actions and decision of school personnel is often directly related to their level of education, class, and status." Half of the times parents contact the school, they by-pass speaking with teacher and speak directly with the principal.  This creates a culture of parent-involvement that is dreaded by teachers.

Jessica Frances Rumel Mirch

I like your idea about hosting workshops to show parents how to navigate the class website. I put materials for my entire course online as well as grades and feedback. Unfortunately, my school limits the access that parents have to the site. I want them to have full access and know how to navigate it as well. There is no reason not to. We let parents see all of the great things we are doing in the classroom!