PARENTS HOLD THE EDUCATION KEY!

"If kids come to us from strong, healthy functioning families, it makes our job easier. If they do not come to us from strong, healthy, functioning families, it makes our job more important. by Barbara Colorose

This is the second of nine New Year’s resolutions cited in the December 27th blog.

"Develop a ten-year plan guaranteeing that 90% of graduating high school students would be college ready regardless of whether or not they choose to go on to higher education."

Impossible, you say! Overwhelming! Unrealistic! It is easy to get discouraged when one realizes the extent of the problem. However, my husband reminded me that when our country decided to put a man on the moon in ten years, we did it. We made it a priority, funded it, and it happened. Our children deserve the same commitment.

Recently we had lunch with Dr. Jill Wakefield, chancellor of the Seattle Community College system. The conversation ranged from roles of the colleges' foundations, to programs offered, and college readiness of entering students. The statistics she cited about the latter were sobering. Later I decided to check out the "readiness factor" of other states to see how we (Washington state) ranked with others. I discovered that the American College Testing program (ACT) is a rather complete source of information on this subject. Its web site overview states that it is an independent, not-for-profit organization that provides a broad array of assessment, research, information, and program management solutions in the areas of education and workforce development. (http://www.act.org/news/data/08/map/index.html) Although the percentage of students tested from state to state varied, the results reflected data similar to that shared by Dr. Wakefield. Scores were shockingly low. Why and what can be done?

There are countless articles and blogs devoted to airing opinions and supposed facts on the subject. The remarks and counter-remarks show the complexity of the problem. Each writer states a reason for why we are failing our children: Teachers who, for whatever reason, cannot teach effectively, financial inequity between schools, poverty of the stakeholders, out of date materials, run down buildings, and various out-of-school factors like family relations/stress, neighborhood characteristics, environmental pollutants, food insecurity, inadequate medical care and prenatal influences, etc.

Undoubtedly all of these things play a role, but you find fewer articles and blogs discussing the importance of parent involvement. As a teacher in an inner city school for over eighteen years I believe the biggest factor influencing poor achievement is a lack of parent involvement. This includes accountability by parents to support the work of the school, joining the PTA, overseeing homework, and following through with consequences when their children misbehave. Although single parents are often overburdened and trying to “keep it all together” they still should know the importance of spending a few minutes listening to their children and reading stories to them in the younger years. Often this lack of involvement comes from the parents’ own negative school experiences plus not knowing what to do. Most parents love their children and want them to succeed, but sometimes they simply don’t realize the negative impact their non-involvement can have.

Unruly children interfere with the learning of others, but sadly, support for the teacher is not always there. Sometimes a disruptive child is put in the hall or moved from one room to another for part of the day. This may temporarily break the disruptive behavior but can also cause havoc in the other room, with nothing in place to cure the problem. It’s a little like “passing the bad behavior buck”.

A principal friend and I were discussing a former student we both had in elementary school who should have graduated from high school last year. He was extremely bright, good looking, and had great potential. He was also strong willed and a bully. Phone calls home achieved nothing. There was no follow through in discipline. So now we mourn the loss of this young man who has since dropped out of high school, been jailed, and is running the streets.

In a first grade class last week I watched a little girl cheating on her spelling test. She had not studied – probably had no one to work with her at home. Without intervention she also risks becoming a dropout, leaving people to wonder what happened. What happened is that no one outside of school took care of business. My grandchildren are fortunate to be raised by parents who see parenting as a job. More parents need to make that a priority.The absentee father or father figure adds immeasurably to the problem. Little girls look for affirmation with boys who may take advantage. Little boys lose an important role model who should be showing them how to behave as well as to provide economic and emotional stability to the home. The remaining single parent, often discouraged and depressed, has to take on more responsibilities with less time and money. Not a scenario which leads to effective parenting.

Peer groups become the "new family" and the local 7-11 parking lot becomes the "new family room." High schoolers begin to skip classes, fall further behind, get angry at and in trouble with authority figures, and eventually find it easy to drop out. Some of these students take the road towards petty crime and jail like the young man mentioned above, while a few others manage to eventually return to families and family surrogates. These latter students often then use community colleges as the entry to a GED, high school diploma, and even a career. Bless the community colleges! They have to do more with less but still manage to save a lot of young people in the process.

The question now is this: Is this just more diatribe or can we actually do something to make a difference? Obviously we can’t cure these problems overnight and whatever we do is going to cost a lot of money. For the dropouts the answer is for the state legislature to recognize the severe funding impact on community colleges caused by returning dropouts. Another partial answer is for all schools to step up to the plate and provide ways to make a difference. Here are some ideas:

1. Educators should be paid extra to provide assistance to help students and parents after school or on Saturdays.

2. Taking disruptive children out of the classroom and helping them change their behavior must be a priority. This does not mean just sending them to the office or out in the hall for a time-out only to return later, momentarily chastened.

3. Fully fund special education classes including classroom assistants. We must realize that if we do not fund special education in the early years, we will often pay far more later in prison costs.

4 For parents who seem unconnected to school, engage them with "pizza, pop and child care" evenings where they can share their concerns and brainstorm solutions for kid-related problems.

5 If a child is failing or disruptive make it mandatory that the parent/s attend after-school programs to learn academic and social skills that will help their children be more successful.

6. Find a way to fund mandatory life skills classes for all children from middle school on. Classes like Second Step are taught now, but with no consistency. Topics should include dealing with peer presure, unwanted pregnancies and sexual diseases, poor nutrition leading to obesity, drug awareness and financial responsibility. Many of our teenagers are in a downward spiral that costs all of us in the long run. This vicious, destructive cycle must be stopped.

7. Teacher training programs need to add more intensive behavior modification classes.

8. Legislators NEED to find funding to help solve this escalating problem. "But we can't afford it," they say. "We can't afford not to," I say.

9. To help with #8, a massive public relations program on the state and national level needs to be established. The cost for this idea and all of the others is staggering. Why can't we think outside of the box? Perhaps we can take a page out of President Obama's "election book" and make an internet plea. If done correctly at $5.00 a pop or more, millions of people might climb on board.

In the meantime, I opened this article with a quote, and I’ll close with another.

“Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task”. - by Dr. Haim Ginott

Hats off to teachers!!!

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BOOK NOOK

The Relationship of Parent Involvement and Student Achievement by Bonnie Jerome deals with a study examining parent involvement strategies and school performance. It would be helpful to all those interested in reforming schools.