Surveys show that few parents of teens see any incentives to enter secondary schools, and yet LA’s worst school reached out to parents and became the best. It turns out that many absentee adults disliked high school as their teens do, and tell you that not much changed since – regarding secondary school failure.
Interestingly, research also shows how teens improve their performance at school when caregivers participate in their learning community. Have you seen it happen? Alfie Kohn shows how schools can go far deeper with parents, by asking more relevant questions about homework, for instance, to gather and use more genuine input.
High schools that embrace parents benefit teens and the wider community from more adult presence at school. They also stem secondary school dropouts.
How can it happen?
1. Recognize that secondary schools failed some parents and seek innovative opportunities to welcome them back now that their teens attend. When the school community looks at families with empathy, rather than blame their absenteeism, they often discover genuine reasons for lack of past involvement.
2. Create meaningful entry points for parents to participate, based as much on parental talents and interests – as on secondary school needs. Survey parents’ intelligences on the internet to see what would attract them to school, and build on their ideas. Start with a fun competition – offer a pizza party for the senior class that gets most adults out to the first school-community gathering, and ensure the parents who attend find interest and meaning because they came.
3. Start with small roundtables rather than faculty talks, so parents’ insights are central. Expect a few dedicated parents, and build enthusiasm to spread this new-found wealth with others. Rather than expect large groups – in the beginning expect fewer and invite their help to build parental support at school functions.
4. Invite talented facilitators to draw diverse parents into key curriculum and assessment decisions. Parents enjoy keen opportunities to help create curriculum at any secondary school where skilled leaders link parental experiences to classroom content. It takes less jargon and more thoughtful questions about content, and parents and faculty find such discussions exhilarating when done well.
5. Collaborate a school wide knowledge celebration to draw together students and the wider community. Following parental and school collaborated learning tasks a celebration of learning allows for a museum of ideas, new exchanges with the wider community and further challenges to those who participated along the way. These celebrations can be student-led and interactive comments can follow on a web site for for a student, faculty and parent exchange.
How would you creatively move teens learning to new levels, by engaging more parental brainpower at school?
