One of the most important alliances a school can foster is a partnership with parents. Yet despite these consistent findings regarding the important role that parents can play in the educational process, both educators and parents continue to struggle to define exactly what that role should be.
Educators often appear schizophrenic on the topic.
Teachers in urban and rural areas are likely to complain of parental indifference, while teachers in suburban areas tend to complain of parental overzealousness or undue influence. A recent survey of teachers and parents revealed confusing results. While 90 percent of teachers agreed that parent involvement was needed in their schools, only 32 percent of the teachers felt it was their responsibility to involve parents. Good partnerships are supposed to be mutually beneficial. Defining the possibilities and parameters of a meaningful, mutually beneficial partnership with parents certainly represents a significant challenge for schools, but schools that operate as professional learning communities will respond to that challenge.