Resources for Increasing Participation of Apathetic Parents

[Anonymous]

Many of you who are at top charters and WOTP schools have very involved PTAs, but most of the rest of us have little involvement, often none, from all but a few parents. I sometimes think - how can the PTA be only X parents if there are 400-500 students in my children's school?

Does anyone know of any resources or ideas or anything that could actually bring apathetic parents into the PTA at schools with anemic PTA organizations? Not just whole websites like ptotoday - something more concrete, like call this many people, have signs up in homerooms, etc.

I just look at this problem like, many many people have dealt with this problem since the dawn of time (or even the 21st Century, but whatever) and think - why am I/are we stuck reinventing the wheel on this?

And if it's been done before, why are there not efforts to get things moving at like 50 or more DCPS schools with practically no parent organization?

So, please don't bemoan, belittle or tell me to read a generic website. I want to get started without reinventing the wheel. Like today.

[Anonymous]

My first thought is that higher participation comes naturally with higher enrollment of families of higher SES that are under less pressure in their daily lives and can afford to devote more time and brain space to participating in a PTA.

I'm not saying that to belittle your efforts, of course, and there might be families in your school that do have the availability to participate and would love the opportunity if you reached out to them.

[Anonymous]

I would try reaching out to parents at Powell (Andy Rowe even posts his email on this site). The school didn't even have a PTA a few years ago, and now has an active one. Also, I remember hearing a former Ross parent at a Ward 2 Education meeting who was very involved in the school and is now (if I'm remembering correctly) working with other schools. I'm sorry I don't remember her name, but I was very impressed with her commitment to public education and helping others improve their schools. Perhaps someone here will remember her name . . . Or just contact Ross.

Best of luck to you!

[Anonymous]

Make sure when you reach out, you don't call them apathetic.

[Anonymous]

And try not to be too bossy like now that you have arrived, you're going to "save" the school.

This thread, especially about what happened to Payne's PTA - or rather it's demise - is a good example of how it's a lot more complicated than just increasing parent participation:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/30/295772.page

[Anonymous]

Is the goal to get parents more involved with the school or with their kids (the latter seems more important to me).

I've asked several parents why they don't participate in PTA. Each of them described such a hectic schedule and lack of time that I started feeling overwhelmed for them.

How about putting up a sign at drop off or sending an email that says...

Parents want to help. What do you need? Tutoring? Pick-up?

Parents who can help. What can you provide? Tutoring? Babysitting?

Why not make the PTA about helping the kids (thus helping parents who need it). Then, naturally folks will get involved.

I don't know. Crazy idea?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And try not to be too bossy like now that you have arrived, you're going to "save" the school.

This thread, especially about what happened to Payne's PTA - or rather it's demise - is a good example of how it's a lot more complicated than just increasing parent participation:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/30/295772.page

Starts with the last post on page 3 at the bottom of the page.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the goal to get parents more involved with the school or with their kids (the latter seems more important to me).

I've asked several parents why they don't participate in PTA. Each of them described such a hectic schedule and lack of time that I started feeling overwhelmed for them.

How about putting up a sign at drop off or sending an email that says...

Parents want to help. What do you need? Tutoring? Pick-up?

Parents who can help. What can you provide? Tutoring? Babysitting?

Why not make the PTA about helping the kids (thus helping parents who need it). Then, naturally folks will get involved.

I don't know. Crazy idea?

Love it! And love your empathy.

[Anonymous]

Yes, babysitting is a huge help. Our PTA has babysitting and pizza, and the meetings are only 1 hour, very strict.

[Anonymous]

I've noticed that parents participate more when they have more interaction with people from the school. Arrange popular social gatherings and form a community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would try reaching out to parents at Powell (Andy Rowe even posts his email on this site). The school didn't even have a PTA a few years ago, and now has an active one. Also, I remember hearing a former Ross parent at a Ward 2 Education meeting who was very involved in the school and is now (if I'm remembering correctly) working with other schools. I'm sorry I don't remember her name, but I was very impressed with her commitment to public education and helping others improve their schools. Perhaps someone here will remember her name . . . Or just contact Ross.

Best of luck to you!

Powell accomplishments are because new high-SES families are entering the school. There still is a lack of Hispanic family participation in meetings etc.

[Anonymous]

Also Hearst, they have built an incredibly active PTA that rivals the other wotp schools. Maybe ask around at Oyster since they balance mixed SES well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, babysitting is a huge help. Our PTA has babysitting and pizza, and the meetings are only 1 hour, very strict.

start with things like "Library night" where each kid gets a free book, there's pizza and babysitting for little kids. Add in 10 minutes of business and so on.

Everyone is crazy over LAMB these days but in the early years we had a very big fail with our initial PTA-- we spent months trying to figure out whether it was a PTA or PTO and what the mission would be. It collapsed from sheer exhaustion. So just something very small and targeted, then expand to one fundraiser (spaghetti night or pancake breakfast!). Go slow, make it easy and fun.

[Anonymous]

I worked with an after-school program for low-income kids with four sites that held workshops for families with literacy activities. The one that was most sucessful with parent involvement focused on creating events that busy families wanted to come to:

-serve dinner, not always pizza
-send kids home with stickers on their shirts with a reminder of the family activity that day
-have activities that anyone can do regardless of whether they can read--one family workshop was assembling small bookcase kits and giving the families a few books for their new bookshelves
-have meetings led by bilingual leaders or translate between Spanish and English (have announcements about meetings in both languages)
-understand that many low-income and immigrant families desperately want their kids to get an education, but don't think of it as something they can really help with. They often assume that teachers, as professional educators, are best able to teach their kids and feel hesitant about getting involved at school, especially if they didn't do so well in school themselves. This is in addition to the practical barriers of time and transportation
-many people do not like to come to evening meetings in high-crime areas, especially when it gets dark early, especially if they do not have a car. Meeting on Saturdays during the day may work better.

[Anonymous]

And they aren't apathetic, they're tired and working 2 jobs, or dealing with financial crap or family crap or illness or whatever. Like many of the rest of us.