If there is to be a true “partnership” between schools and families, between teachers and parents, if there is to be a genuine spirit of teamwork and cooperation for the good of the students, then parents need to be valued as team members, as partners in education.
Too often what I have seen and experienced is being shut down by administrators and teachers if I rock the boat by raising questions and concerns about policies that impact my children. Too often, parents who express valid concerns and questions – and, yes, even anger at unjust policies or policies that are just plain bad for kids – are quickly written off as “haters” and as problem parents. Too often, parents are told, “This is the way it is. These are the rules,” and no dialogue is welcomed. Too often, the teacher’s or the school’s word is gospel, and to question it is considered blasphemous. Too often, when parents express frustration with the educational system, it is chalked up to their problem, and not any problem with the way things are done.
If parents are shut down, shut up, and written off – or just as bad, paid lip service that has no follow-through – because they make waves with their input into their children’s educational process, the relationships between families and schools will continue to break down, and this serves nobody.
I am curious if there is any meetings (board or otherwise) regarding implementation of common core. I believe this is the first year of implementation and I have not heard great things from some about failure rates on benchmarking, even at the really good schools. We are in Fullerton and I want to stay involved as much as possible.
Tami, my understanding is that it is adopted by each individual state. I’ve read that individual school districts in “local control” states (of which California is one) have the option to opt out of Common Core even if it’s adopted by the state, but the FSD superintendent told me that this is not the case. I honestly don’t know what to believe. I do know that it all hinges on states, and therefore school districts, receiving grant money from Race to the Top – that’s the carrot that entices states to adopt Common Core. The FSD Superintendent has made appearances at various schools in the district to “discuss” Common Core (after it was already adopted), and he’s met informally a few times to discuss concerns with parents. I was one of those concerned parents at one of the informal meetings, and I wasn’t impressed. In all honesty, he seems very intent on selling Common Core to everyone and not really addressing concerns in a meaningful way. Common Core is here, like it or not. Pretty much the only way citizens can stage a revolt at this point is to opt their kids out of the standardized testing (which you CAN do). Everything about Common Core rests on the data that comes from the standardized testing that is now “Common Core aligned,” so if enough parents opt their kids out, then the testing data will be pretty meaningless.