NYCpublic.org’s

Parent Engagement Lab:

a parent-centered process to yield multiple ideas for genuine parent engagement in NYC schools

November 2013

NYCpublic.org used the following slideshow as part of its Talking Transition presentation (11/21/13).

***

A project of the Fund for the City of New York, NYCpublic seeks to connect parents:

to the issues they care about, to other parents who share their concerns, to ways of taking action, and to resources and organizations that can make their actions even more powerful.

3

Table of Contents

5-8 Overview

9 Why a Parent Engagement Lab?

10-19 The PEL Process: Step-by-Step

18-20 Research Basis and Reaction

22-53 Compendium of Ideas Generated at the

PEL

54-57 About NYCpublic.org

4

“The idea was that if you give parents better results, better service — 311 sorts of things — and more choice, then you don’t need politics, they don’t need participation, they don’t need to be involved because they’ll get what they want as a consumer,” Jim Liebman [former Chief of Accountability, NYCDOE] said. “And I think that’s true for some things, but it turns out that public education is something that parents really, deeply want to be involved in.”

-- Gotham Schools, 11/20/13

5

In December 2012, NYCpublic.org invited public school parents to come together to answer an important question:

What might “real” parent engagement look like in NYC’s public schools?

7

parents from all boroughs attended

160 “solutions” were generated

4 mayoral campaigns sent candidates or staff

4 mayoral campaigns sent candidates or staff

parents from all boroughs attended

160 “solutions” were generated

8

Three Goals of the Day

Model a new process for parent engagement

Re-envision parent engagement in NYC public schools

Present parents’ solutions to mayoral candidates

9

Why a Parent Engagement Lab?

The Parent Engagement Lab is NYCpublic’s version of the charrette.

The charrette, a structured brainstorming protocol with roots in architecture, invites full participation and collaboration between diverse stakeholders.

Parent Engagement Labs support parents as they move from identifying challenges to building solutions (together).

10

Step 1: A panel of experts spoke to participants about the current state of parent engagement in NYC and beyond.

Lisa Donlan, CEC 1 President

How has mayoral control impacted parents’ access to power and input into decision making?

Kim Sweet, Executive Director of Advocates for Children

Under mayoral control law, what powers are legally accorded to parents?

Fran Huckaby, Professor of Education at TCU

How are parents organizing & engaging across the country to improve schools?

11

Step 2: In breakout groups, participants identified the impacts of the current parent-engagement model.

200 post-its captured over 200 “impacts.”

12

Participants noted impacts anywhere that parents interact with the school system.

at the school level (e.g., language barriers make it hard to have in-depth conversations about their child’s progress, or to participate in the PTA)

at the district level (e.g., parents are not consulted for key district decisions like what kinds of new schools are needed or where to site them)

at the central level (e.g., parents are seen as a group to be managed and policies are rolled out without parents’ input)

13

Step 3: Groups brainstormed solutions that addressed the challenges identified in the first session and

suggested ways forward for the next mayor.

14

Some of the ideas that emerged

The mayor could adopt the following approaches to his new job:

See himself as working in service of the schools and not as someone who must control them;

Create policies that come from a variety of stakeholders, educators, parents, administrators, community members, and experts in the field;

Appoint an educator to the position of Chancellor.

15

Step 4: Breakout groups each selected one idea to flesh out and worked with a graphic designer

to illustrate and clarify their idea.

16

Step 5: Breakout groups present “big ideas” to mayoral candidates or their representatives.

17

Step 6: Every post-it and drawing was collected. Documentation of parents’ collaboration ensures

continued life for their ideas.

18

“…what is needed to improve schools is an active citizenry, invested in solving educational problems through public

deliberation.”

- Kenneth Howe and David Meens, Democracy Left Behind, 2012

There is a research-base for this method of engagement.

19

The feedback on the process was very positive, as well.

“This was a really authentic process where ideas and input came from the ground up from parents who are out there every day. [This is] a wonderful start...and the type of dialogue that needs to happen throughout the city and that I think will be really helpful … to all of the candidates.”

Jan AtwellCity Council Education Policy Analyst

20

We promised that we would share the day’s outcomes with the next

mayor.

21

COMPENDIUM

Answers to the question “What might ‘real’ parent engagement look like under the next mayor?”

All ideas* generated during the NYCpublic.org Parent Engagement Lab

(charrette)

December 2012

*These have been sorted and categorized. •

Create structures that prioritize/privilege parent

engagement.

Category 1

23

Strengthen the current structure to meaningfully include parents or work to change the structure.

“Accountability” should include how well a school or the system invites and listens to parents’ voices.

Publish a “report card” for parent engagement at each school determined by authentic parent surveys and input.

Create a citywide leadership team where all constituents (parents, students, teachers, principals, advocates) weigh in on policy issues.

Establish regular “town meetings” where the mayor just listens to issues. He or she can start the next meeting by recounting what he or she heard and what his or her progress is on each issue.

Establish office hours where reps or the mayor hears from parents.

24

Create a truly inclusive system that mandates real parent and community input in decisions at the school, district, or city level.

Provide for (parent involvement) as a line in each school’s budget to pay for trainers and technical assistance (same as DYCD and other agencies that provide services through CBOs).

Create a parent feedback system that is not attached to the Progress Report.

Each school could create a shared project with teachers and parents (this could be about any issue in the school, like how to create less waste at lunch) with the goal of fostering communication and collaboration.

Each cabinet member is given the task to meet with 100 parents, each year, to discuss and debate policies.

Create real/meaningful volunteer roles for parents and provide training support.

Train school personnel on the rights of children and parents, respect and friendliness.

Take steps to guarantee that parents on School Leadership Teams (SLTs) have a real voice in school level decisions.

Category 2

26

Implement the enforcement of legislated avenues for parent input.

Ensure real well-functioning SLTs.

Give SLTs members comprehensive training so they understand the potential of their role and can make meaningful contributions.

Principals should not chair SLTs.

Add evaluation of power sharing on SLT to the Quality Review.

Comprehensive Education Plans (CEPs) should be streamlined and re-evaluated, and should play a role in school/principal evaluations.

Take a close look at PTAs across the city and find ways to strengthen them all.

Category 3

28

Help PTAs get a sense of how well they are functioning in relation to other PTAs.

Offer those that are struggling or whoever wants it opportunities for support.

Institute Peer-to-Peer exchange between PTAs where they share:

Agendas

Outreach Fundraisers Newsletters

How to run meetings

New PTA presidents are mentored by seasoned PTA presidents: Check to see that PTA Presidents Councils are functioning. Presidents Councils should let parents know their rights.Empower PTAs to function as key partners in school community.

Re-examine the role of Parent Coordinator.

Category 4

30

Parent coordinators should not report to the principal (conflict of interest).

The parent coordinator’s focus should be on uniting and supporting parents.

Restructure so that elected bodies (Community Education Councils and the Panel on Educational Policy) act as checks and balances for the Mayor/Chancellor.

Category 5

32

Give Community Education Councils (CECs) authentic authority to impact decision making. Give CECs approval over co-locations and opening/closing/truncating schools. Elect CEC reps directly by all parents using cumulative voting.Empower CECs to roll call vote on Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) policies.Allow CECs to create job descriptions and supervise, inform, train and evaluate parent coordinators with input from PTAs.Re-make the PEP so that parent representatives are the majority and all members serve fixed terms. Put parents on the PEP -- should be like the School Leadership Team (SLT), where #Educators= #Parents Change supervision of Presidents Council to include PTA executive board.Give PEP appointees independence to not rubber stamp.Give up mayoral majority on the PEP.

Return power to superintendents.

Category 6

34

Let superintendents back in schools, supervising principals.

Superintendent reports to the Community Education Council (CEC).

Make the community superintendents the place where the buck stops for policy, budget, and complaints.

Air complaints in public monthly meetings.

Mayoral control -- consider giving it up.

Category 7

36

Allow parents to create a survey to assess mayoral control

Give power back to stakeholders and support the sunset of mayoral control

Run schools with an elected school board just as the districts in NY state do

Define a new role for City Council and other elected officials.

Category 8

38

Give more elected power for checks and balances (City Council)

Use local elected officials community-based expertise and invite them to influence policies

Create ways for parents to get answers and follow up.

Category 9

40

Create ombudspeople who can listen to complaints and direct parents to actual solutions. They should follow up (carry a caseload) too.

Make ads and post them everywhere in various languages to notify parents of a hotline site where parents can go with their problems.

Contact info should be posted clearly in each school office.

Set up an anonymous hotline where parents can ask or tell their problems without fear of retribution.

Require schools to post: name, address, phone # of troubleshooting offices in multiple languages.

Create a “road map” for where parents can go with their concerns.

Create more independent, parent-led support.

Category 10

42

Have Title I parent involvement money go to organizations controlled by parents, not the Department of Education.

Contract with multiple outside organizations with parent-advocacy expertise.

Use charrettes, or convenings like them, to solicit real input.

Category 11

44

Mandate cross-district communications and meetings, for Community Education Councils, School Leadership Teams, PTA.Solicit input from parents in a real way and use this to make policy.Create a system of roundtables to invite input and allow that input to influence policy.Use networks to connect parents – create facilitated discussions.Institute Chancellor meetings with parents in every district, with translators, and report back to parents on result of concerns – may break into small groups with deputy chancellors and report back to group.Invest resources in winning the participation of many, many stakeholders.Have frequent events, maybe monthly even, that involve parents within a district, within a community, to have their voices heard on the issues that concern them. Use highly inclusive, participatory models like the charrette to rethink school placements, closures, and new school development. Treat new school placement and development as something whose success depends on early/deep Community Education Council/community input in the design phase.

Opening doors at the top will invite open doors in schools too.

Category 12

46

Inspire/make principals truly open their doors to all parents.

Give parents greater access to their children’s classrooms so that they are able to observe how their children’s school is run.

Make it possible for parents who do not speak English as a first language to truly engage with their

schools and the system.

Category 13

48

Have translators/dual language support so everyone is heard equally. (Just try and incorporate us!)

Conduct meetings in the first language of parents and translate for English speakers.

Create “translation squads.” Students get credit and are trained to be interpreters at all events and meetings (similar to “mouse squads”).

Give grants to Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) for them to offer translation/interpretation services in schools.

Work with parents who are bilingual and offer workshops.

Hire staff (teachers, admin, etc.) who speak the languages of the community.

The Department of Education (DOE) needs to make training school leaders truly inclusive (in terms of language and culture).

Explore/create policies that will make the system more equitable.

Category 14

50

Put integration back on the table as a priority.Create schools in all neighborhoods that parents would feel proud to send their kids to.Ask communities about what school they might want to see in their neighborhood and then request proposals that can meet this need.Look at special needs as a diversity and treat it as a civil rights issue.Provide adequate resources to children with disabilities, making parents sign off as a legitimate part of the process. Parents evaluate Individualized Education Plan (IEP) process/service.sParents of children with special needs receive training that explains their rights.Leadership/parent development should include working across cultural differences. Make provisions for “Parent duty” (like the Family Leave Act). Require all employers in NYC to provide time for parents to participate in children’s schools. (Can be a voucher system.)

Create new web tools/social media outreach.

Category 15

52

Create/sponsor web-based tools for parent education and involvement for each school.

Create local wikis/blogs.

Create websites that allow parents to have a voice. Department of Education staff should monitor these and respond to questions and concerns.

Fund tools that allow parents to connect remotely via blogs, community forums; share best practices from all schools.

Provide innovative and concrete ways for parents to connect (for example, a group for kindergarten parents across the city).

Notify and encourage all parents of their options for engagement in decision-making.

53

NYCpublic.org’s projects enable public school parents to:

learn about education policy issuesconnect and collaborate with other parents across geographical, economic, social, and ethnic divides maximize the reach of parent-led campaigns through a variety of online and offline toolsbuild solutions and take action!

54

What is NYCpublic.org up to right now?

We are:

Building an online platform that allows parents to learn, organize, and take action,

Collaborating with CEC 1 to do a Parent Engagement Lab (PEL) focused on a new school space in their district, and

Designing “Parents Welcome Here.” Essentially a school-based Parent Engagement Lab, Parents Welcome Here has parents and school staff come together to tackle a challenge, such as what to do about food waste in the cafeteria. This common cause promotes community-building and a sense of allyship.

55

NYCpublic is proud to have received grants and donations from:

Gale Brewer (during her tenor as a City Councilperson)ElanceEstelle HarrisFour & Twenty BlackbirdsRenee RosenbergMaizie and Sue Schaffner

We are especially thankful to Jack and Helen Gorelick for their recent gift, to our fiscal sponsor, Fund for the City of New York, and to Talking Transition for providing us an inspirational space to share this report.

We invite you to add your name to this list.

Please stay in touch.

info@NYCpublic.org