Filed under: corruption, education, failing, illiteracy, no child left behind, parental apathy, parental involvement, poverty, teacher accountability, title 1
My school district is coming out of a 5-year haze of corruption. The school board, the superintendent, the central office were all involved in embezzlement, laundering, etc, etc, etc. For five years…they padded their pockets while the students suffered. Thankfully, in April, a new school Board was elected, the superintendent and most of the central office staff were fired. We are coming out of the haze.
The new regime has requested that all teachers and administrators within the school district list out all of the problems within the school district. I’m on page four and not done…but i keep finding myself wandering onto the same question and the same rant over and over….
Is the educational system designed to fail Title 1 school districts?
The structure of the educational system relies on a set of assumptions surrounding the role parents will take in continuing education outside of the classroom. These assumptions, that form the basis of the educational system, are typically made by well-educated, affluent white men raised by more than one parental figure. I shall call them the “governing men.”
The governing men assume that the parents will monitor and insure the success of homework and studying and act as “tutors” if the student does not understand a concept. They assume that the parents will be home to insure that the homework is done. They also assume that the parents will take an active role in their child’s education.
People living in poverty do not fit into these assumptions. Many parents have some level of illiteracy that does not afford for them the skill set to tutor their child. Many parents work long hours that leave the children at home alone and without the supervision needed to monitor work habits. Many parents, due to their own lack of adequate education are apathetic towards their child’s education….and often times hostile toward the educational institution that failed them.
There is a buzz surrounding “parental involvement”…afterall, it is one of the many tenants of No Child Left Behind. Yet, there is no adequate protocol and guidance given to schools for parental involvement with parents that don’t fit into the foundational assumptions. Schools are left hanging when looking to involve a parent with a 7th grade reading level, that works three minimum wage jobs, has no car, has her two kids, her daughters baby and her sisters two children living with her in a two bedroom apartment that she can barely afford and is hostile towards school administration…
The above description is for the majority of the families I teach. We are failing to involve these parents. A school cannot succeed without some level of parental involvement….How do we reach out to them?
