For a good number of years I have been following a neighborhood association that has successfully advocated for its public schools to open its doors to parents. Their project is now a national success example of parental involvement, especially among immigrant and low income parents. I shared the news and the project with those in the Plainfield Public Schools District awhile ago, when I was still a parent at PPSD, but there was, and still is, resistance to accept that parental involvement in Plainfield public schools needs more than talk. I must say that the district seems to be moving -whether on its own or because it has been mandated- towards parental involvement policy as the last couple of Board of Education agendas had announced the adoption of parental involvement policies at individual schools. I have yet to request copies of such policies-shouldn't these policies be posted at the school's website? I think they should. Will they?
Anyway. The below clip is from the Logan Square Neighborhood Association. This neighborhood is not much different than some of our own neighborhoods here in Plainfield and the schools they have seem to have pretty much the same challenges ours do, yet, they approach parental involvement in a different way, so different, that is changing the life of parents and children alike. Can we aspire one day to the same here in Plainfield? I think we can. No. I believe we can.
5 comments:
I usually agree with your concerns with the school district, but I think the schools have been doing a lot for the community lately. Just last Saturday, the district hosted a whole day of parent workshops and on this board agenda (Jan) on the PPS web site) a parent academy to teach parents is listed for one of the schools. I think this is getting better and hope it continues.
6:28,
Thanks for usually agreeing with my concerns. I too agree that the schools, some schools, not all, seem to be embracing their parents a bit better. But one thing is to embrace and other to inform and empower them, this needs to happen district-wide. Anyway. How was Saturday? Was it well attended? It is hard to judge the success of the event by the pictures posted at the district's website. Thanks for reading and hope you can share how was Saturday.
Saturday was a good event with many parents in the sections I attended. The topics were related to how to help kids in school. Several schools had information present about ways to get involved. Recent board agendas approving parent involvement policies and some schools hosting parent workshops and holding parent academies shows the schools are listening to years of concerns about more information and support.
Thanks for sharing! You know? Even if only a handful of parents showed up it would had been a good event. As an concerned resident for the education the kids get here in Plainfield I appreciate those schools that I see making an effort. As for the parental involvement policies goes, these are mandated so I am guessing the district and the schools are playing catch up with these. It is encouraging to see these policies finally in place. Can we now have the district-community wide teams that are mandated? It would be encouraging to see the community being invited to join these mandated teams. What do you think? Will it happen? Thanks again for sharing!
If the school is doing such a great job, why are we still in the lowest 10% of schools in NJ?
They are NOT doing a good job. They are throwing away generations of childred because of power and contracts. Plainfield glosses over things because it appears the truth is too painful. Well, keep quit and have crummy schools.
In my opion the school system including the BOE should be ashamed of themselves.
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