Our school gives lip service to the complaint that parents won't get involved but the truth is the school does not want to communicate/cooperate with parents. The school Corp. has undergone explosive growth and now make quick and arbitrary decisions when it comes to dealing with parents and students. The worst part is that they treat all the students like criminals.

Here at the Edward Coles Language Academy we have always had a healthy school-parent partnership. 85% of our success is due to the parent/community partnerships that we continuously work on to keep strong. We have worked on computers, textbooks, programs and activities that promote academic achievement for our students. I strongly feel that a healthy partnership with parents and community together works to make an unbreakable bond towards success. Students are less likely to act out when the school and home have a positive working relationship.

The middle school I am currently employed at picks and chooses which programs different parents are actively solicited for participation. After 27 years in public education, I still see a real lack of effort on the part of local school buildings and definitely on the part of central administrations to 'actively' work to involve parents of color in the educational arena for children of color. Oh, there are times when 'gloss over' efforts are publicized; however, in this state, the lowest state required NCLB scores belong to children of color. Granted, I cannot put all of the responsbility on 'the system.' Parents, et al must step up and take an active role in the education of our children. Leaping over hurdles of entrenched negativity at all levels of the education - horizontal and linear - sometimes seem to be difficult for children, parents, teachers, etc. of color - but our BEAT goes on!

New Tech High School has the right idea, and I bet it is a lot of work, with great rewards.

The 'system' (pointed lack of curriculum integration) of education and cultural bias to command and control factory schools act as barriers to effective communication between educational establishments and communities.

Unfounded fear drives teachers and districts away from parents. Risk adverse attitudes frame all efforts at communication.

Large schools, as in large commercial bureaucracies, breed this fear through training and practice.

Small schools are the effective response to the need for meaningful communication between public schools and the community.

Here at Napa New Technology High School, we call ourselves "the public school with a private school mentality." This means that parents are expected to participate in school projects, especially in project evaluation panels and fundraising, and they do. One way is by establishing a network of "family mentors" who are the contact person for about 20 families each. These mentors offer support, service opportunities, and parent to parent communication each month.

We also have parent volunteer coordinators for each course subject. This is more comparable to a secondary "room parent" as the coordinator makes sure that each teacher or teaching team has the support it needs to carry out PBL.

We at New Tech High are happy to share more of our projects. Check us out.

My school avoids involving parents in the educational process. This is done because it is easier than involving them. There are other reasons given such as parents not being interested in their high school students, students needing to be responsible for themselves, or parents not knowing anything about education. The bottom line is that the school does not wish to deal with parents.

At my school its more the teachers who dont actively seek parental input or feedback. Most of them dont come to the PTA meetings. There are always more parents than teachers at the PTA meetings

From both perspectives...I am a parent who is often deliberately kept out of the loop by my kids teachers sometimes. We get sarcastic put downs....way to often. As a teacher, I am very pleased to meet parents. I like that they are concerned about my students education. My only complaint is when parents try to threatened me into changing school and classroom rules....saying they will go to administrators if I don't indirectly allow their kid to have special treatment and/or be given a better grade than the EARNED.

Overall, there is a lot of personal growth to discover for both teachers and parents....often, both sides are highly judgemental and think that their views is the right one. How dare someone disagree. :)~

PTA meetings are quite important to the educational process in itself. Unfortunately some teachers don't understand well how important it is. Some principals avoid having their teachers facing parents because they belive (wrongly I must say)they are the only ones responsable and that they should hold total control over the situation. Of course this fact doesn't contribute for a successful pedagogic political project of any school . The School is an important instituition that has, must, ought to be handled, planned by everybody in the society. We reach goals because someone helps us do it. Education is our tool to reach our professionals and social goals.