Reply to UMC parents in low income schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]What I have seen, is in schools with a high (over 65%) Spanish speaking population, there is NO PTA. Why is this? Because you could have all the translators in the world and they are not going to participate. I am not trying to sound racist here. What I have seen are parents living below the poverty line and struggling to put food on the table, much less run a PTA meeting.[/quote]

I agree but has anyone considered that maybe the PTA is not a good thing to have in the first place? Poor people shouldn't be forced to join it if they want to engage.

The solution is not having a PTA and finding other ways to build community and parent engagement without a PTA in low income schools. A PTA that is run by a small number of white people advocating for their needs over the majority of parents that are not involved in their PTA is not OK. The solution isn't to strong arm the poor parents into participating in the PTA but to make sure that the PTA has zero influence and there are other avenues for parental engagement. [/quote]

[b]This is truly the most bizarre post. Let's dismantle the PTA b/c the URM don't want to participate. But then create what?...a way to build community and parental engagement ... Hmmmm....oh! You mean...something like a monthly meeting where parents can gather and share concerns and meet one another and have discussions with teachers and administrators about various issues that affect their school and their kids' education??...Oh wait. I think there's already an "avenue" for that...it's called the frickin' PTA!!!! dumb@$$ post of all time[/b].[/quote]

+ 1
I have been a PTA officer at a high FARMS school with a very high Hispanic population.  There are two major problems with  the immigrant hispanic population - most of them are working their second job in the evening and most do not have access to emails on a computer easily.  However, these parents are very connected on FB and WhatsApp.  If the PTA can find a bilingual parent or teacher who can post on a  spanish language FB page and WhatsApp group - you can absolutely reach and engage these parents.  Another thing I found is that while they may not really understand the nitty-gritty of MCPSspeak (really, who does?) They are awesome in participating where clear course of action is set up for them.   We have to find creative solutions that are culturally sensitive[b] to engage these parents[/b].  It can be done. [/quote]

Of course it can be done. But why? Because it looks good to have engaged more parents?

Nowadays with the county managing most of the routine stuff, parental involvement on school matters are becoming less and less important. I am not saying it is BAD to engage more parents. But how much that can help the school, is yet to be seen.
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