A statewide parents group called for wide-ranging reforms yesterday to improve family involvement in Maryland schools, from including parent satisfaction in teacher evaluations to mandating that at least two members of the State Board of Education have children in public schools.
The Parent Advisory Council presented state board members with recommendations to improve accountability, training, leadership, partnership and communication among parents and teachers and school officials. Implementing the recommendations could take several years, council members said.
According to a 2003 survey of nearly 1,700 parents, educators and community members by the state Department of Education, 60 percent said they perceived moderate to weak family involvement at their schools. In addition, 53 percent said their participation decreased as their children got older.
More than half of those surveyed said there were significant barriers to becoming involved in school activities, noting time and transportation issues. Thirty-seven percent listed cultural and language challenges as roadblocks.
The survey was conducted shortly before the council was established in 2003 to study the issue. About 80 percent of its 125 members are parents, said Esther Parker, who leads the group and is president of the Maryland PTA.
The council spent more than a year hammering out the recommendations and will seek input from local school districts during the next several months. The final plan will be submitted to the state board for approval in the fall.
Linda Hodge, president of the National PTA, said that the recommendations "put parents on an equal footing with educators." One calls for at least two parents to sit on all state and local committees and task forces. For larger groups, at least 25 percent of members must be parents. Another requests that local school boards start parent involvement advisory groups.
Educators as well as state and local school officials would be held accountable for boosting parent participation, Hodge said. The council would also set benchmarks for parent involvement to be included with test scores and dropout rates in the state's annual report card.
The council also recommended that schools conduct annual parent satisfaction surveys and include the results in teacher and staff performance evaluations. Maryland's family involvement policy should be written into state law, and school districts should include similar policies in their master plans required by the state as part of the Bridge to Excellence program.
"If they're held accountable for the parent involvement piece, all of a sudden, they're going to take it seriously," said Maureen O. Moran, chief of communications and strategy for state academic policy.
Parker said that the recommendations would take several years to implement. Requiring two members of the state board to have children enrolled in public schools, for example, would take legislative action not possible until at least next year.
However, she said, several of the council's recommendations are already in place in some school districts. She said the group's goal is to set a standard for participation across the state.
"We're saying all of us have to embrace it," Parker said.
