Yesterday, I reacted very strongly to an article about parental involvement in schools. Here’s why.

In grad school, I worked for many years at a policy institute that specialized in education policy and public administration. My boss (and my dissertation adviser) was one of the architects of the community control movement in New York City schools in the 1960s. She strongly believed that local communities should have a voice in their local schools. They would act as a check on the bureaucracy. Also, she believed that by giving  parents involvement in their schools, it would lead to great empowerment and involvement in other aspects of politics. Schools were a stepping stone to greater political activity.

Community control over schools in New York City had a rocky history. In some communities, a handful of individuals took over the school boards and made some very self-serving decisions. Laws without a real tradition of parental involvement led to corruption, rather than empowerment.

Right now, I’m in a community with high levels of all the various forms of parental involvement. Parents volunteer to arrange for art shows, science shows, spelling bees, and even the traditional bake sales. They speak up at PTA meetings and tell school administrators that they like this policy and hate that policy. They vote in school board elections. They attend Back to School Nights. They vote to increase the school budgets. Administrators, in turn, try to make the parents happy. They send parents surveys. It’s fascinating to witness all this activity.

Does all that activity raise the educational achievement of the kids? Can we separate that activity from other variables? Is this activity more important than middle class culture or the wealth of the community? It’s probably impossible to separate parental involvement from wealth and culture. It all goes together. But instead of throwing out parental involvement as important factor in explaining academic achievement, I think we should encourage more of it. If it is an element of all successful school districts, then let’s assume that it matters.

And my former boss really drummed into me that notion that parental involvement in schools is the most basic of all political activities.