- checking login information
The Education Cause
376,017 people care about Education
Loading...Chicago Parents File School Lawsuit, Los Angeles Parents Pull the “Trigger”
Two specific schools that aren’t performing, two different states, and two ways parents are reaching for a solution.
When things go wrong at your kid’s school, you as a parent have very specific rights that vary by state and may be extended by state laws. For example, if your child attends a school that receives No Child Left Behind funding in Illinois, you can participate in Parent Advisory Councils and also have the right to fully participate in Local School Councils under state law.
In California, parents can gather 61% signatures among themselves and petition school districts to let a charter school take over your child’s struggling public school. This is the result of a new January 2010 “trigger” law that’s now being tested in one low-performing Los Angeles elementary school. Let’s take a look at the different approaches.
In Chicago today, a grassroots group called Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE) filed a lawsuit against the city’s school system. Their grievance lies in a decade-long battle to have the CPS follow a fair retention policy so failing and repeating a grade will stop having a disproportionately large impact on African American and Latino children.
PURE seeks these kinds of changes:
- use class attendance, grades, a portfolio of classwork, and other work the children have produced throughout the year to assess the student, instead of performance on a single, high-stakes statewide test
- stop ineffective retention that harms children and is often a reason why they drop out
- stop relying on costly and ineffective retention and remediation (the policy has been contested for 14 years; for one year, 9,000 children repeating a grade in 2008 cost $11,000/child to educate, or nearly $100 million, not counting another $50+ million for summer school)
PURE specifically asks for Chicago Public Schools to redirect money spent on existing retention/remediation programs to these areas instead:
- test for learning disabilities and other problems well before 3rd grade
- develop Student Learning Plans for all children showing signs of difficulty
- bring back successful, proven Child-Parent Centers that helped low-income families with preparing very young children to enter school
- make class sizes smaller/bring in more specialists
All these demands are a re-allocation of existing resources to areas that have been productive in the past. PURE is a parent-led grassroots group that started in 1987 and has been helping parents organize and advocate on behalf of their children.
The Los Angeles parents, part of a group called Parents Revolution, pulled the “trigger” on a school where 75 percent of fifth graders lack proficiency in reading or math. School administrators expressed concern that they’d had no forewarning until asked for a response from the media. A representative from the teacher’s union questioned whether the charter school management company they hired had undergone a competitive bidding process (it had not). Some critics of charter schools have even gone on to cast Parents Revolution as an astroturf group funded by companies that run charter schools with mediocre Academic Performance Indexes similar to the schools they’re meant to replace. And there’s additional concern over Parent Revolution staffers’ connections to Green Dot, one of the most prominent charter school management organizations in Los Angeles.
A report from the scene unearthed questions about the collection of signatures from the primarily Spanish-speaking parents in the neighborhood:
[Parent Revolution] provided staff to gather signatures, presented parents with a short list of charter school operators to choose from and facilitated tours of those charters. Parent Revolution also organized and paid for publicists, catering and transportation for the day’s event.
That’s not grassroots transformation, California Federation of Teachers president Marty Hittlelman told KPCC’s “AirTalk.” He said he’s watched how the Parent Trigger law is working in Compton Unified. “We hear reports that parents are being harassed at their homes in order to sign petitions, that they’re going after specifically, they’re targeting non-English-speaking parents. They pulled away from the African-American community when people started asking questions.”
McKinley Elementary parent Karla Garcia pulled up as buses readied to drive toward school district headquarters. She said she’d signed the petition, but she changed her mind and hoped to withdraw it, because the signature gatherer asked her if she wanted the school improved.
Garcia said that’s not the same as agreeing for it to become a charter. Besides, she added, the new principal is turning the school around. “The kids have more homework, my daughter is reading more. She is better in math. They have tutoring programs so I see a lot of better changes at McKinley.”
In these two differing approaches lies some of the complexity of the problem and solutions. Are parents “on a different clock” than school district staff, as Parent Revolution organizer Ben Austin likes to say? Or is slower but more authentic organizing by parents looking to improve, not push the re-set button on their children’s schools the way to go?
Watch for “trigger” laws in your state–the movement to have state legislatures pass similar laws is growing.
Read more: education, failing schools, grassroots parent groups, law, low performing schools, parent groups, pure lawsuit, struggling students, trigger
Photo credit: By Motown31 (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
![Romney Ad: It's My First Day! [VIDEO]](http://dingo.care2.com/pictures/causes/2945/2944483.medium.jpg)
Recent Comments from Causes
Sono molto contento per Jessica.
I'm glad to see these people taking responsibility and keeping their adult pig. So many get piglets…
This is crazy!
meet our writers
81 comments
+ add your ownI have always believed in public education. it is a great concept, and COULD be effective in this country, again. When parents complain about schools, I don't think they are doing enough as parents, to send to school, children who are eager and ready to learn. Children are spoiled these days, and parents give in too easily to their demands and complaints. Part of parenting is BEING THE ADULT when dealing with one's children, and parents have a responsibility to to help their children with homework, and to monitor the schools, and to support teachers (THE ADULTS).
Great lawsuit
To Ms. Richmond: The so-called "stupid rules of the city or unions" are there, by-and-large, for the protection & safety of the children & staff in schools. One of the biggest problems teachers face are PARENTS. Not interested in their child enough to pick them up on time, read to them, help them with their homework, ect. I have lost count of the number of times I have been told by different parents that "Just because I have kids doesn't mean I have to stop partying. They (the child/ren) have to adjust to what I want to do, not the other way around. Another Mom, who lost custody of her children to the state, told me "I don't care if they take away my kids. I'm not gonna change the way I live my life!"
As a teacher I have seen & heard it all. Hungry kids, tired kids, abused kids, sick kids, homeless kids, you name it! I even had a Dad take him very young son out to learn how to shoot AUTOMATIC RIFLES!
Before ANYONE points the finger of blame at overworked & underpaid teachers, maybe they should take a good long HARD look in the mirror!
signed
i'm reallly glad i don't have kids in school any more...the problems seem to start with the home, the parents...so many expect the school to do everything for them...and we end up graduating idiot students who cannot read, write or speak...i find it tragic...and it's always the same old excuse...no money...yet...government entities and government employees certainly have enough money to attend various confereneces... spend all kinds of money on their own pet projects to ensure their own re-election...manage to give themselves raises that they have neither earned or deserve....i think if some of the money were re-distributed from the political side...our kids would be better off and our society could even help some of the families....and yet...we still look for the quick fixes...the micro portion of the problem...i think we need to look at the larger picture...the macro problem...otherwise...we just trying to apply a little patch to a sinking ship...
Charter schools allow teachers to teach. They are not bogged down by the stupid rules of the city or unions.They main objective is to educate the students.
Also: Pay close attention to the childs psycological well-being before labaling them "learning disabled". They could just have a shitty relationship with neglegent parents. Children who are withdrawn, ie: would rather stay inside alone than go out for recess, who often opt to be placed in lunch detention to avoid being in contact with classmates, often act out just to obtain this goal. This is just sad, not a bad kid.
these plans will only work when parents accept their responsibility in educating their children instead of giving it to the nanny state who only wants them (children ) to become good little slaves who will work just to feed the Banksters and their minions.
The parents need to take responsibility. Teachers teach in the short hours they have the students but parents are responsible for making sure that the kids who are not getting it practice at home. Also, discipline is a problem and this is NOT the teachers' fault - it is absolutely the parents' fault. When I was a kid (I'm 49), if I got in trouble at school - there were no questions asked - I got it when I got home. I stayed away from trouble and kept my grades up because my parents expected it.
No more excuses and pass the buck attitude... Let's begin with parents/guardians teaching responsibility and accountability. Let's start with the child desiring knowledge and finding value in an education.
login to add your comment
use your care2 login
add your comment
20