I attended an annual parent meeting for one of BSD’s innovative programs recently. It was an informative meeting covering the history of the program, recent developments, current growth of enrollment, ideas on upcoming initiatives where parents could have an opportunity to be involved on a policy level for the program and then of course, information about the upcoming Referendum.
Towards the end of the meeting, a parent provided input that they thought it was a “sneaky” way for the district to talk about the Referendum. I thought, “Wow, for as smart as this group of parents is perceived to be, that comment demonstrates that some of them just don’t get it!” How do they think this wonderful program that they are utilizing gets paid for? How do they think that future progress and continued advanced training is going to be covered to keep this program “cutting edge” like they expect? Plus our tax dollars that go towards education pale in comparison to what our neighbors in Pennsylvania pay, yet mention of how great their school system in key counties is seems to come up consistently in our district since they’re right next door.
To me there seemed to be such a disconnect. And I see it all around as public school parents have “checked out” from being an accountable part of the overall process of educational reform. Yes, there are very dedicated parents out there – especially when it comes to THEIR STUDENT- who are involved with getting information from the school, attending a PTA meeting every once in a while, making sure their student gets their homework done in order to get good grades, supporting school fundraising efforts when they come up, attending any school function when their student is directly involved, yet that doesn’t change education for a 21st Century need. That just supports the status quo and looks out for “Numero Uno” but it also sets up our system for limited resultsYes, we are all busy and the demands of job and family seem to be greater than ever before, but have we set our priorities. If we’re not willing to support the bigger educational picture, how can we expect great things and changes in our classrooms that we’re all expecting for our 21st Century children? There is so much going on in educational reform right now and parents need to be a strong voice in the process. We need to push their comfort zones, we need to provide real-world perspectives and we need to make sure our schools deliver a multicultural, global perspective that provides the overall life skills for our students to be great contributors of American Leadership. A country doesn’t remain a global leader by neglecting its educational base. If you want great leadership at the top and paradigm changing results for society, it takes a team effort and accountability by ALL to set a higher bar for public education.
It takes a complete perspective of all aspects of running a school district from paper and crayons in the Elementary schools to high tech computer labs in the Middle Schools to strategic curriculum development leading to consistent graduation rates in High School. That takes money, dedicated and talented teachers, multifaceted principals and district leaders with a vision – and it takes parents being informed and taking action at various levels. Reform and fiscal accountability happens when a strong partner sets the tone and follows through in action. Parents can be the strongest voice in that partnership!Are you going to take ACTION on March 28th …. and know why you are doing it…
keep ripping parents for having divergent opinions by saying they don't get it....maybe BSD needs to do a better job...
ReplyDeletethat'll work for ya. not.
So what does BSD need to do to do a better job? Not explain the financial impacts of being able to deliver services of this nature. If the Referendum doesn't pass, every program including the one being presented will be impacted one way or another. It wasn't "sneaky", it was laying the cards out on the table.
ReplyDeleteAnd this blog is to air different, divergent opinions - to start an honest dialogue amongst parents because it doesn't seem to be happening anywhere else. Divergent and honest discussions should lead to solutions, not just complaining. So in that sense, you are right to call me out. But I'm looking for ways to be less frustrated by the lack of parent involvement & feel like I'm not wasting my time. I want to be supportive and make the time to go to PTA meetings, district presentations or workshops but only 10 other parents show up if you're lucky. (Out of a possible 300-500 on average. That's frustrating. Cause you know nothing will change unless there's a louder voice/greater presence demanding change and helping to define that change.) So if BSD needs to do a better job, we need to tell them what that job is that we want them to do better.
I'll bite here. The event was the gifted education forum. Last one was held last Sripng - at that point Holodick and Honisch said they'd be regular event. I guess annual is a better descriptive. Parents are happy w/ the K-8 system we fought for it and support it for the most part. There has always been issues with the extent of rigor in the program - I'm one who would like to see more. Parents are concerned about high school opportunities for these kids. Red Clay did not accept ANY out of district kids for Charter. That is very scary for us. IB is a good programme maybe even great BUT is is not a fit for all kids. The three BSD high schools DO NOT offer what Charter does. I don't know if they can - you need a significant number of kids with interest and ability in one place to offer what it does. What parents wanted to talk about was THAT. Concord has the better AP offerings and recent history also suggests better success rates on the test than Brandywine or Mount's AP program. Concord is CLOSED to choice. We wanted to hear and ask about what will be there for the kids who had counted on getting into Charter - IB can't be the only alternative. Could we create a BSD "Charter" at Concord? We wanted to hear why our kids aren't being served by the DCAS and what BSD is doing about that. He ALREADY had our votes for the referendum! We already knew the where the program's been talking points. We wanted a clearly spelled out future AND time for questions AND answers.
ReplyDeleteI too am tired of your "where are all the parents" ! If we only can expect the same speech from Honish and Holodick each year and have a few minutes for questions why bother to come out when you've worked a 10 hour day and would like to spend some time with your family - maybe even learning something.
Last Gifted forum was 1/31/11.
ReplyDeleteThe last Gifted Parent Forum was earlier this month on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at the PS duPont MS Auditorium at 6:30pm. An Evite went out to the 609 Gifted Program families with registered email addresses with the district (Dup's or those with multiple kids should only have gotten a single Email.) Then flyers were sent home (half page golden in color) and an additional email directly from Honisch went out 2 days before the event as an additional reminder (It was the second in a series of emails from her.) Of the Evites delivered 396 didn't even bother to open the email.
DeleteThe presentation presented that evening is now on the district website under the Gifted Program. (It is this event that was mentioned in this posting about being "sneaky".) Holodick & Honisch were presenters and there were key district representatives in the audience available to answer additional questions. The Q&A portion went on for well past 45 minutes with a few staying even later. Additional questions received via comment cards from the evening should also start to be posted on the Gifted website as well.
If you are really interested in helping with the future of the program, a Gifted Task Force II will be formed sometime next year. (That marks 10 years since the last Task Force reviewed the program.) And I'm not sure if EVERYONE knew "where the program had been" as some key developments have only happend in the last 10 years based on that previous Task Force.
So 396 parents didn't even open an email from the district and/or a district representative. That's where the frustration begins. The educational landscape is changing, but the strongest voice - PARENTS - aren't even aware of key opportunties to provide a critical voice to improvements.
The comments above about IB, Charter, the type of classes at the 3 HS, DCAS, choice challenges, etc. are all worthy of discussion, but if we don't even have half of these very focused parent involved....how do we reach a variety of the other families across the district in order to have a comprehensive dialogue? It has to be a 2-way dialogue.
If a parent discussion were to be set-up about DCAS and/or HS curriculum, how would we get parents to come to an important event like that?
The invitation for the forum was vague and I suspected that it was a plug for the referendum. I'm sure many people didn't open the email because they already had the flyer and knew what it was about. I had been to many other meetings about the referendum already so I did not bother to overcome some obstacles to attend the meeting. If there is a discussion to be had about the high schools, then it should be indicated on the invitation. I am sure that many parents would be interested in coming out. Parents will come out if they think they are going to hear information that will help them make good decisions about their children's education or if they think they can have an impact on what happens in the schools. Frankly, the district's assurances that the latter can happen is starting to fall on deaf ears. Particularly when the parents have given recommendations for one thing and the opposite have occurred. Or the superintendent immediately shoots down parents' suggestions (e.g. foreign language in elementary school!!!) at the meetings.
ReplyDeleteYour frequent voicing of frustration about parental involvement is not an effective way to increase involvement as parent liaison for the district. The district needs to be willing to hear the parents' frustrations and work to fix them instead of saying, "Sorry, but it's the law," or "Sorry, we don't have the funding to do that." For example, many of the district staff are frustrated with the DCAS just as much or more so than the parents, but when parents ask questions about the DCAS, the district does not give us answers. Parents have to go trolling through DOE and blogs to get the answers. Instead, BSD should be helping parents get educated about the DCAS (and not just how to make our children better test takers), explain the pros and cons to the test, and help parents become advocates for all of the students to demand a better test from the state. BSD does not need to lead the charge, just educate us! E.g. How do those stupid scores work? How many questions are off grade level? What can teachers really do with the scores? How does the DCAS compare with the NWEA MAP? Instead, we just keep getting platitudes and political happy faces. BSD does not really seem to want a dialogue, it just gives the appearance that there is a dialogue. That's why many parents are not biting anymore.
E.H. Thank you. it is definately food for thought for looking at ways to be more effective in identifying information that parents need and constructive ways of looking for solutions together. It's spring testing season so DCAS seems to be back on the forefront with many parents as to their levels of frustration in not understanding the nature of DCAS. Definately a topic for future blog discusssions along with the foreign language topic. I'll try to find more effective means of working "out side the box" for parent involvement and solutions. More to come....
ReplyDeletef you want an honest dialogue then here is a brutally honest response. I have made a conscious decision to ignore anything from Ms. Honish. She is simply the most unimpressive administrator I have interacted with at BSD. I think her work is a disservice to the gifted program. Over the many years that we have been a part of Gifted, I have never attended a forum run by her when she provided useful, direct information. My experience is that she responds to questions with derision, obfuscation or simple cluelessness "gosh, no has ever asked that before...". As long as the district continues to treat parents, especially those are passionate about their kids' education, with such condescending attitude then I feel no obligation to continue to support it's goals.
ReplyDeleteBSD Dad, Check out the content of the Powerpoint Deck from the Annual Parent meeting and let me know if you think that content is useful, direct information. Keep in mind that the majority of parents who attended that meeting this year and last were fairly new to the program and also represented the early elementary years. Tried to give targetted detailed information to the group and provide background info so that all could come away with a more indepth perspective. Did this hit the mark and start to present the level of direct information you are looking for?
ReplyDeleteThe PowerPoint deck is on the BSD district website under the Gifted Program.
ReplyDelete