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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A NPR story on the radio featuring this article:

http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2014/12/16/54797/pasadena-schools-experiment-with-charlas-to-help-students-by-coaching-their-parents/

"“We found that most forms of parental involvement yield no benefit to children’s test scores or grades regardless of their racial or ethnic background or socioeconomic status.”
Robinson found traditional activities like attending PTA meetings didn’t help.
But he said a few things can make a difference.
“The list of what consistently works is pretty short. That would be expecting your child to go to college, regularly discussing activities that your child engages in at school and requesting a particular teacher for your child,” he said."[/quote]

Really? So they extra teachers, books, resources and specialists that the PTA pays for don't help?[/quote]

Aristotle did fine without all of that and I have not seen extra teachers rain from the sky due to the PTA's spaghetti fund raiser. [/quote]

Wait, what? Aristotle? You mean the privileged ancient Greek who had personal tutoring until he went to the Platonic Academy at 17? That Aristotle?

Meanwhile many of the WOTP schools PTAs pay for extra staff.[/quote]

There are 111 DCPS schools. What happens at the 5-6 wealthiest elementary schools simply isn't possible, applicable or even advisable everywhere else.

Personally I wish DCPS wouldn't allow for staff supplementation with PTA funds as it sets up inequities and skewed expectations everywhere else. If classroom staffing levels are too low - fix it district wide by increasing funding for schools (and give the charters a few more per student too, while we're at it).
[/quote]

I see. So PTAs at rich schools are useful, but totally unnecessary for the other poor schools. For those, it is a waste of time.[/quote]

No one said it's a waste of time. But don't assume that what is needed / works best at a wealthy school is what's needed at a poor school.

IMO the single most important 'additional staff member' that could be hired at a poor school would be another social worker or counselor (getting it approved to be parent funded would be a challenge). This would not, however, necessarily be a staff person that your higher SES child would deal with very much if at all. But they could probably make a huge difference in the lives of his/her classmates and help ensure that some of the challenges they face at home aren't brought into the classroom and let the principal focus on academics more.

But that isn't the kind of stuff that high SES parents think to fund. Field trips, gardens, ballet and so forth are nice but aren't going to improve the schools' test scores, or the school culture and climate. [/quote]

Huh? You're mixing apples and oranges here. The rich schools are spending funds on the things that they believe matter to their kids- extra teachers, enrichment teachers-- which certainly do raise scores. (The PTA doesn't pay for field trips at our school.) A poor school might choose to spend that money differently. And that would be fine.

The point is, a PTA and its funds can make a difference if focused on the needs of the school. Our school needs enrichment-- so that's what our PTA has helped to address.[/quote]

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