As a result, he says, parents feel more comfortable at the school and are pitching in more. For example, when an asbestos removal project left the school dirty and in disarray weeks before classes were to resume, parents showed up one weekend to help staff clean up. Again, research confirms that cultural, racial, economic and educational differences between parents and teachers can lead each group to misconstrue each other, with teachers assuming parents don't care and parents assuming teachers don't want their input. For the past five years, the Quest Center has offered courses that teach teachers and parents how to work with each other. Parents get to be the teachers and visa versa so they see what it's like in the other one's shoes.
Teachers also learn from their principals.
The teachers, the clerks, the janitors, support staff, everyone has to buy into it. And I think once they find out how valuable parents can be, they do. David Peterson, assistant to the president at the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, agrees that principals set the tone. And while the pressure is on bringing up test scores, relationships are part of the bigger picture, and that can't be put on the back burner. Peterson says that next year, the Chicago Academy for School Leadership, the association's staff development arm, will offer classes on relationships between staff and parents.