Principal Karen Morris even holds formal sessions where parents can register concerns or complaints about their children's education. And she follows up with the children's teachers. She credits the school's parent initiatives, which draw hundreds, in part for an increase in student attendance and a decrease in mobility. Barbara Buell, executive director of the Chicago Panel on School Policy, says schools sometimes think they're welcoming parents when they're not. You can't say we have this program, come to us.
Schools have to go to parents.
The Panel has made parent involvement one of its top priorities, conducting workshops, creating a clearinghouse of resources and petitioning the School Reform Board for increased attention to parent involvement. Charles Payne, chair of the African-American Studies Department at Northwestern University, stresses that in going to parents, schools must show respect. Connee Fitch-Blanks, an assistant director at the Quest Center of the Chicago Teachers Union, agrees. Sometimes teachers are unknowingly disrespectful, she says. They do it when they speak 'Eduspeak,' which amounts to talking above a parent's head.