Strategy 5: Encouraging parent ownership
Many of the programs in our study sought to create an environment in which parents’ contributions to program initiatives were as critical as the contributions of program personnel. Trying to stave off passivity and isolation, these programs gave parents important roles to play in planning, managing, and implementing institutional efforts. While certainly not all parents were ready to take on a leadership role, program staff recognized that some parents were eager to extend their influence beyond the sphere of their homes. The parents who stepped up to the challenge often received valuable “on-the-job” leadership training, which served to reinforce their commitment to staying involved in their children’s education and in their community.
Exercising ‘Choosing Muscles’
In 2003, as New York City began an intensive restructuring of its high schools, a group of parents in the Bronx realized they and their neighbors lacked clear and up-to-date information about how to take advantage of the new educational options that were suddenly available to their middle-school children. In response to this need, staff from the Bronx Institute convened a group of parents who had successfully navigated their children’s transition from middle to high school, and began developing what would come to be known as Family-to-Family: The Guide to the Schools of Hope. The guide, aimed at families whose children are eligible to attend the 85 new small high schools in the Bronx, is the result of an action research project conducted by staff from the Bronx Institute in collaboration with a steering committee made up of ten parents with children in the Bronx GEAR UP and ENLACE programs.
Parents worked with program staff on researching the content of the guide and making decisions about its organization and design. The guide features an overview of the city’s high school admissions process, the research team’s findings about what Bronx families want in a high school, and information about the new high schools—all presented in a family-friendly and engaging format. Once the guide is published, the parents will facilitate meetings to introduce the guide to other Bronx families. Meetings will be held in middle schools, community centers, and in the parents’ own living rooms. “Our goal is to introduce the concept of choice to our Bronx families, many of whom have no idea what that’s all about,” explains Naomi Barber, a leader at the Bronx Institute. “We want them to exercise their choosing muscles now,” so they’ll be ready to use them again when the kids get to college, says Barber.
Reaching the Summit
Parents in Costa Mesa, California, also came together to respond to their community’s need for more information about their children’s educational options. To complement an existing college awareness conference aimed at Costa Mesa’s Latino youth, a consortium of community organizations launched an annual Parent Education Summit in 2002. According to Victor Becerra, director of the ALMA Program at the University of California, Irvine, the impetus for the summit came directly from the parents. “They said, ‘these issues that you’re talking about in the youth conference are great, but if you want parents to invest in what you’re doing with the youth, you’ve got to create an activity that speaks directly to our needs as parents,’” Becerra recalls.
Coordinated by the ALMA Program, the conference involves parents in all facets of planning how to the best provide information about college preparation. Parents participate in a planning committee that makes decisions regarding the summit’s content and structure. During the weeks leading up to the summit, parents also help to distribute information about the event in their neighborhoods. On the day itself, a crew of parents greets, registers, and provides childcare for close to 70 participants. When his program took over the coordination of the summit, Becerra says, they sought to provide expertise about higher education, “but we wanted the community to retain a sense of ownership of this activity.”
A Network of Help
Fostering parent ownership is also a key strategy of Chicago’s Hispanic Math and Science Education Initiative (HMSEI), a program run out of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) that seeks to increase the number of Latino students entering health professions. Parents with children in HMSEI automatically become part of the program’s Parent Network, which meets monthly during the school year and is entirely run by parent volunteers. As an incorporated non-profit organization, the group has an executive board that includes parents and program staff. It also has a number of committees that implement key functions of the program, such as scholarship drives, parent hospitality, and choosing speakers who can address parents’ pressing concerns.
Another committee is responsible for organizing parents to assist during the academic enrichment activities offered for students every Saturday. Parent volunteers serve as classroom aides or hall supervisors. Staff members realize that this type of involvement lends an important type of accountability to the program. Deborah Um’rani, director of the office that oversees HMSEI at UIC, recalls a time when it became clear that a teacher hired by the program “really didn’t care about the kids.” Parents saw what was happening, and the program quickly let the teacher go, Um’rani says.
Working under the auspices of universities or community-based organizations, parents can make unique and valuable contributions to the goals of college access programs. As the examples above illustrate, parents have the motivation, talent, and energy to work to improve the life chances of their own children, their neighbors’ children, and their communities at large. Perhaps the greatest benefit that parents experience through these opportunities is the sense of being able to act in the face of overwhelming odds—to be part of the solution. Whatever the nature of their contribution, parents are reminded that they are neither alone nor helpless.
