Conference

2008 Safe Internet Use

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Highlights of previous SSBA conferences :-

2007 Developing a Parent Council and Encouraging Parental Involvement

2006 The Way Forward for Parental Involvement

2005 Parents in Partnership

2003 Partnerships and responsibilities

2002 SSBA is fit for the future

2001 Roadshow

2000 International
and published book
available here online

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Workshops
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Encouraging Partnerships in Education

Summary

Full Details

Summary

The issue of active parent involvement in the education of their children has been an on-going public policy debate in America for generations. With the current majority of homes being supported by two wage earners, less time is available for school activities for countless families. Athletic teams seem to be a cause that registers with families, but doubtless the leisure hours when these are played, coupled with the fellowship thus engaged, assist in its support levels.

The single parent phenomenon that affects today’s society is an obstacle to parent participation to a great degree because of time constraints. Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meetings - and even the donation of cookies or a cake - are difficult to achieve!

Educators want parents to better prepare their children for the tasks of school, respectful of the order and discipline that must take place in ANY learning center, rather than have them AT the school, per se. There is a limit to how much educators really desire parents "underfoot" as it were. Many parents feel respectful of the teacher corps, suspect that teachers are better educated than they and maybe, not completely comfortable in their company. Countless educators encourage and appear elitist to a measure, thus, keeping parents at a distance.

Full Details

The issue of active parent involvement in the education of their children has been an on-going public policy debate in America for generations. With the current majority of homes being supported by two wage earners, less time is available for school activities for countless families. Athletic teams seem to be a cause that registers with families, but doubtless the leisure hours when these are played, coupled with the fellowship thus engaged, assist in its support levels.

The single parent phenomenon that affects today's society is an obstacle to parent participation to a great degree because of time constraints. Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meetings--and even the donation of cookies or a cake--are difficult to achieve!

Educators want parents to better prepare their children for the tasks of school, respectful of the order and discipline that must take place in ANY learning center, rather than have them AT the school, per se. There is a limit to how much educators really desire parents "underfoot" as it were. Many parents feel respectful of the teacher corps, suspect that teachers are better educated than they and maybe, not completely comfortable in their company. Countless educators encourage and appear elitist to a measure, thus, keeping parents at a distance.

Though government programs often insist on open houses and like type offerings for participants to view what is taking place, these events are often sparsely attended. Former Ohio Governor George V . Voinovich--now a U. S. Senator--early in his first term, launched the Ohio Families and Children First in an effort to define children and families as a major priority of his administration. In keeping with his interest in government reform and applying corporate management techniques to state operations, he envisioned the Ohio Family and Children First Initiative as a method for reforming entrenched state bureaucracies by devolving responsibility for service coordination to the local level. As a predominately county-administered state, Ohio has had a rich history of local government control. The Initiative has received little national publicity despite its steady growth from a pilot in a handful of counties to a state-wide effort with strong bipartisan support. In 1996, Voinovich re-energized the Initiative by expanding its staffing capacity six-fold (chiefly by reassigning e3dsting agency employees) and successfully sponsoring legislation for a Wellness Block Grant program to the counties. (Ohio Department of Education, Early Childhood).

Parent participation, per se, was only part of this initiative, but the process was valuable in identifying various means of implementing change that impacted on families. Ale 21st Century family has challenges to its stability that earlier generations could never imagine. WHO could have written a script that resembled the Clinton scandal of 1998-NO ONE!

Two programs in Ohio are being pursued, Family and School Partnership Initiative and Voinovich's Ohio Family and Children First Initiative.

Family and School Partnership Initiative

When John Goff was named superintendent of public instruction in 1995, he announced that under his leadership the Department of Education would engage in an intensified effort to increase the involvement of parents and families in the

education of Ohio's children. Within this new initiative, the Department's purpose is to provide leadership, knowledge, skills, energy, and resources to a statewide family, school, and community partnership initiative, ensuring that such partnerships become integral to all of Ohio's school communities and the ongoing work of the Department. Various activities have been implemented since the initiative began in August of 1996.

The State Superintendent's Parent Advisory Council comprised of persons active in their children's education as well as representatives of several parent organizations was established. The council is always available to review and comment on any activity and publication planned by the Department. In order to support the work of the initiative, a steering committee comprised of the initiative coordinator, one Department employee who has other primary assignments, two PTA volunteers, one person from the Ohio Parent Information and Resource Center, and a regional family coordinator with Family and Children First meet regularly to plan and undertake activities outlined in the initiative plan. Steering committee members are organized to focus on one of three broad purposes-program support, public awareness and professional preparation and inservice.

The most visible activity in the initiative to date is the creation of the Ohio Network of Partnership Schools. The Department provides planning grants from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation to schools that join the network. As part of the network, schools establish teams of parents and educators to work on Dr. Joyce Epstein's planning framework for setting goals and activities that win strengthen school-family partnerships designed to strengthen student achievement.

These schools are then encouraged to submit implementation plans, which can be funded with Goals 2000 dollars. Three hundred and seventy-five schools have joined the network. Twenty-one school districts identified district coordinators who have now been trained to provide orientation to parent/teacher planning teams, thus expanding the pool of partnership trainers.

Plans are underway to engage a professional public relations agency to develop a public awareness campaign. Preliminary thinking is that such a campaign can be focused on informing parents how they can use district and building report card information as a stepping stone for constructive dialogue with educators.

Primary Issue: Concerns include embedding the notion of family and school partnerships in all Ohio Department of Education (ODE) work that aims for improved student performance; providing effective tools to districts and schools that will assist them in including family partnerships as a continuous improvement strategy; deciding whether or not to limit the application process to schools with greatest need (continuous improvement, academic watch, and academic emergency) rather than to any school that desires to apply, as is now the case; and deciding how the initiative will continue at end of the four-year grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.

Present Status: The initiative is entering the third year of a four-year foundation grant; is in its second year of distributing Goals 2000 funds to Partnership Schools; is just beginning to establish ODE's membership in and active involvement with key parent groups--the PTA, Ohio Parent Information and

Resource Center and Ohio Family and Children First. The membership of the Superintendent's Parent Advisory Council has also been expanded to reflect these and other key parent perspectives.

Ohio Family and Children First Initiative

The Ohio Family and Children First Initiative marks a historic first. Never before have the state's education, health and social service systems and Ohio families concentrated on achieving the shared policy goal of ensuring that all children enter school ready to learn. This partnership is critical because no single system has the resources or capacity to meet this goal alone.

Oversight of the initiative is provided by the Family and Children First Cabinet Council. Members include the state superintendent and the directors of the departments of alcohol and drug addiction services, budget and management, health, human services, mental health, mental retardation and development disabilities, and youth services. The governor chairs this council. This cabinet council provides statewide policy leadership, directs efforts to streamline state government operations, and prioritizes funding for prevention efforts. The cabinet council meets monthly as well as the deputy directors from each agency. The initiative is staffed by individuals on loan from each of the agencies represented on the council. The Department currently has three staff members on loan. Preliminary discussions have been held regarding their possible return transition with the change in the administration.

All 88 Ohio counties have voluntarily created a Family and Children First Council. Local council membership includes family members (consumers), representatives of public agencies, schools, courts, and private providers. Each council determines a local course of action to achieve school readiness for their county's children.

Primary Issue: It is not clear at this point in time as to whether or not the new administration will maintain the interagency staffing of this initiative. therefore, the three staff members on loan will need to transition back to ODE with the expectation of bringing their special projects with them. Decisions will need to be made as to timing, location and staffing of the work.

Secondary Issue: Another related project of the Ohio Family and Children First (OFCF) initiative is the state Head Start Collaboration Grant. It is a federally funded project that supports the salaries of a director and secretary. Under the current administration the project is housed with OFCF and the funds administered by ODE. A newly hired director will start on January 4. We have been asked to house that person and provide the orientation pending the transition.

Present Status: In light of the change in administration, no new projects are being implemented. The Cabinet Council continues to meet monthly as well as the deputy directors. The work has been focused on drafting a transition document; processing waivers submitted by the local county councils; implementing the Netzley-Cupp amendment; and passing legislation to streamline the residential licensing.

Next Steps: Continue to work on transitioning the ODE staff back to the agency; support the current work being finalized under the current administration. Should the new administration choose to continue the initiative, consideration will need to be given as to ODE's role and staffing. (Ohio Dept. of Education, Education in Brief Fact Sheet).

My own home school district with 7,100 students has received two grants as a result of the federal Goals 2000 entitlement campaign. Eight Hundred Fifty Thousand dollars ($850,000) in total, much of which is start-up funds for consultants to train teachers in discipline matters! 1 can assure you, many of us well knew WHAT was expected of us in the way of behavior, we further knew our parents would support the teacher or school if we were out of line, and we expected to pay the price for misdeeds! I am led to believe far too many children in schools today CANNOT sit still, CANNOT pay attention, and WILL NOT maintain some semblance of decorum. Whether hours of TV violence, too much sugar eaten with "junk food", or a generation of parents who have been too indulgent or all of the former; we do have a generation of difficult to manage youngsters in many cases. 1 am not sure we have an easy way out by offering what I call the three R's of the nineties, namely: ritalin, remediation and rubbers! None of which is the answer to self-control or self-discipline!

The U. S. Department of Education--a Cabinet position with Richard Riley as Chairman--is funding a "Partnership for Family Involvement in Education" program with just a few skates having signed on so far (see enclosure). An indication that they too are an3dous to increase parent skills and interest. I suspect it is an effort to thwart the exploding "choice" movement of charter, vouchers and home school pursuits. These alternative avenues are too far outside the venue of those determined to dictate learning outcomes desired by collectivise gurus.

The Future of the Ohio Family and Children First Initiative

Romer-Sensky identified the three most important constituencies whose support

Will be necessary for the Initiative to succeed over the long-term:

The challenges the Ohio Family and Children First Initiative faces are certainly formidable: fostering the development of viable County Councils, changing the way entrenched state bureaucracies operate, coordinating with welfare reform implementation, and avoiding political landmines, not to mention hitting the ambitious outcome benchmarks the Governor has set.

Despite this seemingly impressive record of achievement, most of the stakeholders interviewed expressed disappointment with the Initiative's pace of change in 1995, particularly in getting the County Councils up and running effectively. The rapid expansion of councils at the county level--from 13 to 88 counties in less than three years --taxed the ability of the four-member staff to provide technical assistance and promote change within state agencies. Without an operational collaborative infrastructure in at least most of the counties and systems reform at the state level, the successes of the Initiative would be episodic --impressive pilots and little systemic change. The creation of the Action Team, the hiring of regional and family coordinators, and the stepped-up technical assistance they will provide are efforts to address these shortcomings and increase the pace of change. (ODE Early Childhood)

When the U. S. Supreme Court voted 8-1 November 9th, 1998 against intervening to stop Milwaukee's innovative school-choice program, it was widely interpreted as the latest sign that the battle for parental right to choose is fast gaining an almost irresistible momentum. But could this latest tactical victory for school choice signal something even bigger: the opening phases of the latest American taxpayer revolt?

Like California's Proposition 13, which 20 years ago brought sky-high state tax

rates earthbound through the ballot initiative, many courts and legislatures are now ignoring the contempt of sneering elites in order to empower parents to shop for responsive schools with their feet. Armed with vouchers, these parents are now freed from the plantation of schools run by the public-education Mafia, which for years has expended more effort on protecting its own perks than seeing after the needs of the children to which they ostensibly cater.

Still, even in light of the impressive string of heartening developments for the school-choice movement all across the country, we advocates of this newest American civil rights struggle are taking nothing for granted. Chalk that up to the residual power of the educational establishment's Iron Quadrangle, composed of school administrators, teachers' unions, building tradespeople and groups such as the PTA. For decades, their collective might has cowed even the most courageous politicians into lock-step conformity on the issue of public schools.

The Luddite mentality, which equates any change in the current funding system with blasphemous assaults on children themselves, has traditionally given these sentinels of the status quo the ability to block all forms of change. As National Education Association President Bob Chase has said, "Education is the modem world's temporal religion," and through their traditional domination of the political and media debates on education, these arrogant elites succeeded in painting anyone who disagreed with them as somehow unholy.

But that power to poison the wells of public opinion is palpably waning. As Americans be(,an awakening to the fact that their schools in many cases were not all that thy could be, they grew increasingly open--especially in the African-American community--to methods for sparking competition. That has opened the door just enough to permit school-choice programs such as those in Ohio and Wisconsin to take root even in the most hostile environments. These states have been in the forefront of reform, either because their school system situations were worse or their governors more willing to take the withering criticism, or both. In any event, their trailblazing has not gone unnoticed: counterparts in other states are now emboldened and energized by the Ohio and Wisconsin experiments.

Parental educational choice is an historical movement destined to succeed, powered by the same moral imperatives which made the civil rights movement's success inevitable. School choice is an authentic 90's grassroots movement which neither the courts nor the Constitution can deny, because school choice is an affirmative action and civil rights issue for the new millennium.

The education establishment acts as if they are anxious for parent input, but those who DO contribute to a measure are often made light of and treated in a cavalier fashion! "What do THEY know" is the mantra in far too many public funded schools. Alternative schools, church related or private institutions, pay more attention to the parents because they are paying customers, who can leave if not satisfied.

THAT is the failure of non-market schools, that have control over their charges, are insulated from market forces that would force a better attitude and greater interest in their client. Ohio legislators has established "community schools" commonly known as charter schools and our State Board has authorized fifteen of them around the State, and Lucas County (Toledo) has been designated to establish them too! Cleveland is experimenting with scholarship or voucher schools as another means of empowering parents, so parents' rights in America is an issue that is being respected!

Charles A Byrne, United States of America

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