Reply to SWS -- Atmosphere and Leadership

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This analysis makes a lot of sense to me.  For what it's worth, same story at Maury and Brent.

Apparently, this is what happens in troubled urban school systems.  The best schools are built via strong parental involvement.  If you can't or won't contribute much to a school community (in terms of time, money or both) forced to lean heavily on PTA support for everything from paying a science teacher to installing a sound system on a stage, you won't probably feel as welcome as those who can and do.   It's unfair and unreasonable but true.

[/quote]

I think your characterization and oversimplification is a bit unfair.  If you want to feel welcome then you need to find a way to integrate yourself into the larger school community.  You don't need to attend every PTA meeting, volunteer for every event or donate $1000 to the school.  You do need to do something more than double park when you're dropping off and picking up your kids or attending a concert twice a year.  It's a two-way street.[/quote]

I think some AA parents, particularly if lower SES, definitely may be less likely to volunteer if they feel less welcomed by the school community.  It's a complicated issue, but consider, for example, this passage (emphasis added):

"One key factor that may contribute to the lack of
clarity in this body of research is the weaker connections
between African American parents and the educational
system. Not unlike White parents, some African American
parent involvement tends be influenced by affiliation or
relationships with school staff, a sense of power to
influence their children’s learning, and by the belief that
educational success can provide opportunities and personal
success for their children (Huang & Mason, 2008; Tyler,
Boykin, Miller & Hurley, 2006). [i]Indeed, connections for
African American parents are compromised when they
encounter “personal, cultural, and structural barriers that
may cause them to be isolated or alienated from the school
system”[/i] (Brandon, 2007, p. 116; see also Huang & Mason,
2008). Finally, educators who do not respect parenting
styles that differ significantly from those practiced by
middle-class White parents may communicate their
disapproval and alienate parents (Ferguson, 2001; Lareau,
1987, 2003; Lareau & Horvat, 1999; Thompson, 2003;
Tyler et al., 2006)."

Cousins, L., & Mickelson, R. A. (2011). Making Success In Education: What Black parents believe about participation in their children's education. Current Issues in Education, 14(3).
http://cie.asu.edu/ojs/index.php/cieatasu/article/viewFile/784/243

There's a bunch more out there on the topic, but suffice it to say it's not as simple as AA parents being lazy or uninterested in their children's education, IMO.  I recall at my own child's school an AA parent (who I guessed was from a low SES background) emotionally proclaiming at a school meeting that she didn't feel heard by other parents involved in the school.

There also may be a cultural component to parental involvement.  I'm likely outing myself, but my husband, an AA pediatrician, has worked at hospitals with a high SES, predominantly white and highly educated population, and also at hospitals with a low SES, inner city, less educated and predominantly AA population.  He's stated that in the former hospitals, the families are much more likely to be very engaged by questioning diagnosis and treatment plan, wanting second opinions, etc.  In the latter type of hospital, he says families often are very grateful but are less likely to question his recommendations or ask very many questions at all.  This isn't quite a apples-to-apples comparison between healthcare and education, but I wonder if something similar could be operating as far as parental involvement in schools.  I seem to have read somewhere that AA parents, even middle class families, are less likely to question authority figures in an educational context (can't find the link right now).

That said, at my child's school there are many (mostly middle/upper SES) AA parents involved in the PTA, recruitment, regularly meet with the principal, etc.--so while the data from the article above may be true in the aggregate, it certainly doesn't apply to all AA families.

[/quote]

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