AISR Speaks Out: Commentary on Urban Education
Engaging Parents and Students in ESEA Reauthorization
Published on
Printer-friendly version
The recently released “Blueprint” for reauthorizing the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act states the Obama Administration’s plan for transforming schooling in this nation. Education stakeholders across the U.S. are now engaging in the great process of democratic participation — issuing responses, releasing their priorities, and sharing testimony with Congress and the U.S. Department of Education.
Some of these stakeholders are individuals — an academic with expertise in a specific area, a superintendent who succeeded with a particular strategy. Others are well-organized policy advocates — professional associations, the national teachers unions, civil rights organizations. But missing from the chorus, for the most part, are the people who will have their futures defined by the results of the debate — the students and parents who are served by our nation’s schools.
A paradox of education politics is that the foundation of our democracy is an educated citizenry, yet the process of education politics is not always democratic. In an increasingly complex political process, people need to acquire knowledge about policy issues, develop the skills to communicate in sound bytes, and feel empowered to enter the debate. So it is not surprising that when it comes to federal education debates, the people most impacted by federal education policies — low-income students of color and their parents — have not had an organized voice inside Washington.
Fortunately, this is changing.
The last decade has witnessed a rise in grassroots education organizing. Low-income students and parents of color are forming organizations that insert their collective voice and power into school reform decisions. A national study by Annenberg Institute researchers — Organized Communities, Stronger Schools: A Case Study Series — documented how this increasing activism is having positive impacts on schools, communities, and individual student achievement. These organizations — led by parents, students, and community members in the communities most affected by underperforming schools — have won real policy changes in their local schools and school districts and, in some cases, even in state education policy.
As these organizations work in their local communities, they realize that many of the policies, resources, and potential school changes are dictated not by local school boards, but by the federal government — especially as the federal role in education continues to expand with initiatives like Race to the Top and the Investing in Innovation Fund. Thus, organizations are turning their eyes on the Obama Administration and the process of reauthorizing the largest federal education law.
This work is relatively nascent: a network of youth organizations — the Alliance for Educational Justice, building relationships and engaging in joint actions around the country; and national philanthropic initiatives like Communities for Public Education Reform, a collaborative of 50 funders focused on supporting education organizing, and the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign of the Schott Foundation for Public Education.
Though new, these efforts bring a unique perspective to the federal debate. Across these initiatives, students and parents are making real demands:
- Focus the debate on increasing opportunities for students to learn rigorous and rich material, not on blaming students and parents for a failing system.
- Ensure that plans to turn around low-performing schools strengthen and engage, rather than further erode and alienate, the communities and students they serve.
- Create school environments that attract, retain, and support the most qualified and committed teachers, particularly in the schools serving students with the highest needs, rather than focusing only on mechanisms for removing poorly performing teachers.
- Ensure that the federal government remains focused on educational equity rather than competition; make sure that schools are social institutions aiming to provide high-quality learning for all students and that federal money remains committed to ensuring that schools serving the highest-needs children have resources to meet those needs.
As grassroots engagement in federal policy continues, it will take more than just good ideas, however. These groups will not likely be automatically invited or have the resources to participate in every high-powered Washington meeting or Congressional session. Thus, they will have to rely on their entire toolkit — from creating powerful ideas, building collective power, demanding public attention, and committing to monitor the equitable implementation of federal policies. The question for all of us to answer is, What is my role as a scholar, educator, policy-maker, or citizen in helping the communities most underserved by the current education system get the opportunity to meaningfully engage in changing our education system?
RELATED AISR WORK
This Web page describes and provides links to the Institute’s projects that aim to build understanding of education issues in urban communities and develop their capacity to advocate for and participate in efforts to improve local schools.
> Read more
This Web page describes the Institute's work to support youth and adult community organizing for school improvement in New York City and provides links to research reports and partner organizations.
> Read more
This Web page describes a group, including Institute researchers, that works to advance research on community and youth organizing, particularly in low-income communities and communities of color.
> Read more
PREPARED BY
Michelle Renée
Senior Research Associate, Annenberg Institute for School Reform;
Assistant Clinical Professor, Master’s in Urban Education Policy Program, Brown University
michelle_renee@brown.edu