Parents and Families in Schools 2.0

At the New School Venture Fund conference this week, it was exciting to see all of the energy, passion for great schools for all students, entrepreneurship, and innovation.

Yet, similar to many conferences within the educational reform movement, the absence of community groups and parents was striking.

No great social change has ever occurred without the active leadership of the population for whom the shift in paradigm is most necessary. This has been true of social movements from Women’s Suffrage to the Civil Rights Movement. Yet in the current education reform movement, itself a great illustration of social change, one of the most critical groups impacted by the current system, parents and caring adults, is often relegated to the sidelines. While encouraged to engage in the education of their own children, these adults are rarely asked to participate in the local, state, and national movement which seeks to radically alter the SYSTEMS which have failed to serve generations of children.

It is undeniable that the involvement of parents and other caring adults is an essential component of student achievement and success. Their involvement is critical to building their understanding of what steps children need to take to realize academic success. These adults are the guardians of this vision for their children. Thus, the greater their involvement and education regarding what makes a school successful, the more likely it is that they will be empowered to realize and maintain this vision in the future. Moreover, the involvement of parents in the political process and the broader education reform movement is an even more critical lever that schools and systems must capitalize upon if the achievement gap is to be eliminated within our lifetimes.

If we believe the above, that parent involvement and empowerment is a critical lever to our long-term success, and we are committed to great schools for all students, then it is clear that we must all revisit our current theory of change and how we are executing on that theory. Are we actively including parents in our schools? Are they empowered to know what a great school is? More importantly, if they are…then what are they doing about it and how are we as a movement enabling this to happen?

It is time for our movement to quit celebrating the long waitlists and lottery processes that have thousands of parents vying for a few spots. Rather, it is time to start celebrating organizations that mobilize thousands of parents—district, private, charter, etc.—in city-wide reform and advocating to close underperforming schools and establish only great schools—public, private, district, charter, etc.—for all children.