Are Parents Making The Grade?

With American math and reading scores falling behind their global competitors, legislators are looking past their budgets to lay blame for academic underachievement somewhere else. First it was the allegedly “overpaid” teachers with their “undeserved” summer vacations and benefits and now the failure of academic underachievement is falling on parents.

Indiana State Rep. Linda Lawson introduced a bill requiring three hours of parent involvement per semester. Florida House Rep. Kelli Stargel recently proposed House Bill 255 to hold parents accountable for student performance by grading their involvement. Alaska has proposed fines on parents for habitual truancy and California has taken it a step further by adding charges from the district attorney.

Stargel’s bill, also known as the Parental Involvement and Accountability in Public Schools Bill, proposed standards and strategies for parental involvement. Parental performance would be graded by the child’s teacher, based upon the child’s physical, material and mental preparedness, as well as parent-teacher communication. The bill died in committee in early May but, it has generated enough enthusiasm to let educators breathe a sigh of relief and parents feel the pinch.

Consequently, the Florida bill lists strategies for parent-teacher collaboration that seem like common sense — establish supportive home environment for student, attend parent-teacher conferences, contact the teacher if a problem arises, monitor homework and test preparation and, finally, ensure student attendance. 

Has our family system broken down so much that we have to legislate academic support in the home?

In her most recent blog Whose Failing Grade is It?  Lisa Belkin, author of New York Times parent blog Motherlode, cited the Florida legislation, as well as the new laws in California and Alaska, as the trendsetters seemingly declaring the solution to the country’s academic crisis to be parental involvement.

“But the thinking goes like this,” wrote Belkin. ”If you look at schools that ‘work,’ as measured by test scores and graduation rates, they all have involved (overinvolved?) parents, who are on top of their children’s homework, in contact with their children’s teachers, and invested in their children’s futures.”

Not quite convinced by the logic, Belkin calls it a “well-intentioned but flawed reflection of a moment in time.”  What is the flaw and what is so well-intentioned about trying to find someone to punish for American academic underachievement?

The one thing that these well intended legislators assume is that the best schools have the most involved parents, but parent involvement might just be a byproduct of affluence – the real hallmark of student success.  

I don’t just mean schools or districts with better budgets, I mean households that can afford when mom or dad stays home to raise the kids, when one parent stays home to volunteer or when parents are home when their children get off the school bus.

As a guest on Monday’s NBC Today Show , Belkin and Michele Borba, educational psychologist and Today Show Contributor, discussed these very strategies and their correlation to academic achievement as well as parental accountability with Matt Lauer.

Borba said, Parents “need to step up to the plate because we do know the number one correlation between the kid that is going to succeed in school is parent involvement but also the kid that shows up prepared to learn.”

Is truancy such a difficult problem? Is making sure your child’s homework is done and tests are signed a difficulty? Is providing a good breakfast or lunch money an issue?

“When the kindergartener isn’t there, it’s because the parent hasn’t gotten them there … when the high schooler isn’t at school ... I’m not quite sure whose fault that is,” said Belkin, “and then there is the socio-economic difference.”

There is the issue; I don’t believe that most middle class families are having economic conditions that preclude them from sending their kids to school on time, feeding them, or getting them on the bus. There are socio-economic differences that contribute greatly to the academic success of students. The most successful schools are the ones where parents can afford to be involved. 

Of course, academic achievement starts with a great home environment, but when you have social barriers such as English as a second language or economic barriers like two working parents trying to tie their paychecks together from week to week, then, of course you might have an issue in creating an “educationally supportive environment” that “encourages academic performance.”

In the Bethlehem Area School District alone you can see the divide according to the Adequate Yearly Progress Reports (AYP). The AYPs are part of the No Child Left Behind policy aimed at achieving 100% proficiency in math and reading as well as grading schools according to attendance, graduation rate, academic performance and PSSA scores.  The AYP separates students into categories of population — White, Latino/Hispanic, Black/African American, Economically Disadvantaged, Asian and IEP.

The most affluent areas of Bethlehem are not being left behind and you can guess which populations of students don’t make the grade. The Latino/Hispanic, Black/African American, and Economically Disadvantaged categories are the most at risk for failure according to the 2009-10 AYP.

Of those schools without significant populations (fewer than 40 students) of Latino/Hispanic, Black/African American and Economically Disadvantaged, achieved their AYP in reading and math. 

Hanover, Farmersville and Asa Packer Elementary are predominantly white schools with fewer than 40 students in any of the at risk categories, and these schools consistently have a high academic record of success. 

Those schools with significant populations of Latino/Hispanic and Black/African American populations including Lincoln, Donegan, Fountain Hill and Marvine Elementary as well as Broughal Middle School did not achieve their AYP and were either on warning or listed as making progress because of failures in either reading or math among these populations.

By the time these children filter into either of the High Schools, Freedom or Liberty, all categories accept for White/Non-hispanic are struggling to achieve or meet the measure of academic performance, test participation and graduation. 

Are you seeing the trend?

The question is not why can some achieve and some students cannot?  The real question is what are the barriers that prohibit some populations from succeeding that other populations take for granted?  The answer is affluence. 

The failure, at least in Bethlehem, is in reaching the Latino/Hispanic, Black/African American Economically Disadvantaged populations at the elementary level. These are the parents and families that our educational system needs to reach, not punish. With budgets being cut, it’s hard to determine how to reach the economically disadvantaged but, that phrase “it takes a village,” comes to mind.

“Parents are teachable,” Borba said. Maybe it isn’t just the children that need to be reached. Yes, parental involvement does have a correlation to academic performance but it is easy to identify symptoms and overlook the causes of why parents might not be able to afford to be the involved parents that they would like to be.

Instead of the all the accusations flying about who is to blame about our failing educational system, we need to come up with methods to identify and fix the social and economic barriers that contribute to the failing system.

Before we start doling out failure notices to parents or micromanaging legislation for parent teacher-interaction, we need to address the larger systemic necessities that would enable all populations to have access to the same advantages and the same opportunities that lead to academic achievement.