Turning High-Poverty Schools Into High-Performing Schools

At the start of spring semester, a colleague in my doctoral program showed me a book that was just published by a couple of professors at our university, William Parrett and Kathleen Budge. While I have not been able to take a class with either of the professors, I have heard many positive comments about both as researchers, leaders, and mentors throughout my program. When I saw the title of the book, Turning High-Poverty Schools into High-Performing Schools, as well as heard what it was about, I could not wait to read it.

In the book Parrett and Budge synthesize research related to poverty and provide a framework for action in order to prompt high-poverty, high-performance (HP/HP) schools. Their framework is not a one-size fits all approach, but rather a foundation for building capacity and reflective practice in order to carefully meet the needs of students living in poverty. Various components of their book supported their vision, providing frequent self-assessments and questions to prompt a high level of reflection. Many of their figures provided continuums with descriptors to support careful analysis.

In order to consider the effectiveness of the framework, the authors conducted research of seven HP/HP schools in various regions of the United States. After providing a context for each of the schools in an early chapter, the authors continued to highlight specific examples of these (and other schools) while explaining ideas. Showing multiple possibilities of practice aligned to needs of the specific schools, communities, and students, strengthened the overall presentation of concepts in the text.

One of my favorite features in the book were illustrative examples of "Uncommon sense," framed by an explanation in the introduction, "Leaders in the schools we studied consistently considered the research base in the context of their own schools. They also used strategies that were uncommon but made sense in the school context. We call this out-of-the-box thinking 'uncommon sense,'" (p. 4). While reading I made frequent notes of ideas that I want to continue to consider and reflect upon as my colleagues and I continue to collaborate and think outside of the box for the benefit of the students in our school.

Bicultural Parent Engagement: Advocacy and Empowerment

With Bicultural Parent Engagement: Advocacy and Empowerment, editors Edward M. Olivos, Oscar Jiménez-Castellanos, and Alberto M. Ochoa compiled current voices considering parent involvement and engagement, through the lenses of additive multicultural perspectives, critical perspectives, and operationalizing transformative parent engagement to express concerns that frequently cited models of parent involvement do not meet the needs of bicultural parents. The contributors’ discussions prompt readers to carefully examine how we define parent involvement and who is in control when determining potential roles, and as a result, the messages that we send with the way that we encourage avenues for parent involvement. As the editors state, “One of the goals of this book is to raise critical questions that will problematize how the current conceptualizations about parent involvement in public schools serve to replicate the status quo,” (Olivos, Ochoa, & Jiménez-Castellanos, p. 4).   

While discussing terminology, the editors describe the intentional word choice of engagement, rather than involvement, in the title as they see a need for more than mere involvement when considering needs of bicultural families and students. They explain, “The generic term parent involvement therefore conjures up a passive, one-way connection that benefits the school and places the accountability of student success and failure exclusively on the parent/family. In contrast, parent engagement, in our view, is a school-community process designed to bring or construct an open relationship between school personnel and the parent community in support of the students’s social and academic development,” (p. 11). After framing the book with this distinction, as well as stating, “Our ultimate goal is the transformation of schools into authentic institutions of learning and tools for social growth,” (p. 13) various chapters present research of a range of communities and interactions between families and schools. 

The text provides an excellent resource for school communities to consider their own conceptions, considering whether structures are in place to support parent involvement or parent engagement and then determine whether avenues in place are sending unintentional messages based on the inherent values of those systems. As contributors explore underlying issues in depth, educators may be considering some aspects mentioned for the first time. For example, those who have frequently heard Epstein’s Model mentioned with high regard, might be surprised to hear about its shortcomings with relation to bicultural parents. 

However, the text does not just point out limitations of popular models, it explores and provides solutions. One team of contributors, Moreno, Lewis-Menchaca, and Rodriguez (2011) propose, “In addition to emphasizing parents’ role as teachers, we propose adopting a parallel model of ‘teachers as compadres,’ or teachers as co-parent. If schools embrace the notion of teachers as compadres, then the caregiving role of the teachers become explicit. Just as the notion of ‘parents as teachers’ implies a particular teaching role for parents, ‘teachers as compadres’ implies a specific investment in the well-being of the child,” (p. 34). They emphasize that parents and teachers work as a team to focus on the well-being of children. I appreciated this role, and in particular, I instantly pictured one of my colleagues, who is already living the role of "teacher as compadre". In addition to the overarching theme of democratic schooling ideals, contributors provided suggestions focusing on specific aspects, such as cultural proficiency (Lindsey & Lindsey, 2011) and parents as action researchers (Montero-Sieburth, 2011). 

At times, contributors portray a sense of schools vs. parents, a distrust that schools are not working in the best interest for all of their students, but rather seeking to maintain certain aspects to the benefit of White cultural groups. For example, Johnson (2011) states, “The empowerment of working-class parents of color often makes school authorities, including classroom teachers, uncomfortable, as is the case in our work,” (p. 149). Referring to one program that UCLA offered to educate and support parents in being able to advocate for their children, Johnson (2011) explained that one principal expressed that she would not have supported a program had she realized the content of the trainings. Johnson (2001) stated, “These are the attitudes parents of color often face when they try to become advocates for their children. As long as we are humble in our demeanor, meek in our requests, and obedient in our relationships with school ‘experts,’ we are accepted in the schools. When we ask hard questions, demonstrate frustration, and make demands for basic educational rights, we are often rebuffed, repressed, and resisted by school personnel,” (p. 150). As a result, at times there is a sense of fostering collaborative relationships among educators and parents, while at other times contributors describe a sense of organizations outside of the school empowering parents in order to hold schools accountable.

When carefully analyzing existing systems in place based on ideas presented in the text, it is vital to consider which layers of support are feasible for both educators and parents, specifically with balancing other responsibilities and roles. However, it would be unfortunate to use time constraints as an excuse to disregard the concepts. Instead, educators and parents can carefully examine parent models, aims of the models, and alignment to the needs of parents represented in the school community in order to work toward continual growth. 

Anytime educators are called to consider a paradigm shift, much discussion and debate is necessary to truly engage in reflective practice and thoughtful decision-making. This text provides teachers with multiple lenses and angles from which to consider the way that we conceptualize the roles of parents in contemporary education in the United States. Each school will need to determine where they fall in relation to the contexts mentioned in the text; however, educators will have plenty to ponder in relation to the various perspectives that the contributors present. By expanding our own understandings, we can then consider the specific context of our schools and the needs of our students, in order to think of means to work as a team with parents to foster collaborative efforts to work toward the overall well-being of children (not just academic success) as the text suggests. By critically analyzing our school communities, both teachers and parents can expand current capacity together.

Chapters Specifically Mentioned:

Johnson, M. (2011). A parent advocate’s vision of a 21st-century model for bicultural parent engagement. In E. M. Olivos, O. Jiménez-Castellanos, & A. M. Ochoa (Eds.), Bicultural parent engagement: Advocacy and empowerment (pp. 145-158). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Lindsey, D. B. & Lindsey, R. B. (2011). Culturally proficient school communities: Connecting Bicultural parents to schools. In E. M. Olivos, O. Jiménez-Castellanos, & A. M. Ochoa (Eds.), Bicultural parent engagement: Advocacy and empowerment (pp. 39-57). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Montero-Sieburth, M. (2011). Bicultural parents as transformative change agents through action research in schools and in the community. In E. M. Olivos, O. Jiménez-Castellanos, & A. M. Ochoa (Eds.), Bicultural parent engagement: Advocacy and empowerment (pp. 159-185). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Moreno, R. P., Lewis-Menchaca, K, & Rodriguez, J. (2011). Parental involvement in the home: A critical view through a multicultural lens. In E. M. Olivos, O. Jiménez-Castellanos, & A. M. Ochoa (Eds.), Bicultural parent engagement: Advocacy and empowerment (pp. 21-38). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Olivos, E. M., Ochoa, A. M., & Jiménez-Castellanos, O. (2011). Critical voices in bicultural parent engagement: A framework for transformation. In E. M. Olivos, O. Jiménez-Castellanos, & A. M. Ochoa (Eds.), Bicultural parent engagement: Advocacy and empowerment (pp. 1-17). New York, NY: Teachers College Press. 

Write Like This

Kelly Gallagher's Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing Through Modeling & Mentor Texts made me even more excited to be going back to my 6-8 language arts classroom next fall. As with his other books I loved his voice and convictions related to teaching. This is a nice complementary text to Penny Kittle's Write Beside Them, one of my favorites. Both of the books heavily focus on the value of teachers writing with their students.

Gallagher organized Write Like This by starting with a rationale chapter highlighting the importance of writing instruction, followed by six chapters explaining how to scaffold specific writing purposes, a chapter about revision and editing, and a concluding chapter. Each of the writing purpose chapters provided multiple layers of support in order to familiarize students with writing related to the purpose that students would be able to connect to in their everyday lives (as well as in their future lives as productive citizens). I loved that the ideas will provide me with a lot of different ways to explore in my own writer's notebook over the summer.

The final chapter highlighted Gallagher's ten core values that have emerged over time throughout his teaching career. Gallagher stated, "If I sit and think about how daunting it is to walk into a classroom with the intention of teaching wave after wave of adolescents how to become better writers, it can be overwhelming. One way I avoid becoming overwhelmed is by consciously returning to my core beliefs--the philosophical underpinnings, if you will, of my approach to teaching writing," (p. 223). I agree with Gallagher, it is energizing as a teacher to return to core beliefs, to think about our convictions and our students and focus on what really matters in education. I continue to be inspired by Kelly Gallagher and am excited that I still have another one of his books, Teaching Adolescent Writers, on my TBR shelf.