By Nick Anderson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 5, 2006

To improve schools, Maryland aims to raise parent power.

That's the message behind a series of moves, from the cosmetic to the practical, announced this fall by Maryland Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick at a state PTA meeting in Ellicott City.

Grasmick's actions came in response to a two-year task force known as the Maryland Parent Advisory Council. She told the Maryland Parent-Teacher Association that she would convene a permanent parent involvement advisory council to help guide state education policy.

She also said the Maryland State Department of Education's Student and School Services Division would be renamed to acknowledge the role of parents. From now on, an aide said, it's the Division of Student, School and Family Services. And Grasmick said two full-time staff members are being assigned to family issues.

According to state education spokeswoman Linda Bazerjian, that is an increase from the one staff member who had worked on the issues part time.

In addition, the department will survey Maryland's 24 school systems about how they help promote family involvement and will seek funding to begin training parents, teachers and administrators. Bazerjian said the training, expected to start in the next school year, would help parents navigate the often bewildering educational system and become effective activists. As for educators, she said, the sessions would help them recruit parent allies.

"The time is ripe in Maryland, and nationally, for parent involvement to be seen as the critical element that it is, not as an add-on," Grasmick said in a recent letter to education reporters.

Grasmick said the state also would begin to consider family involvement when it gives awards to principals, teachers and schools. And she said the department would redesign its Web site, http://www.marylandpublicschools.org , to make it more friendly to parents.

How parents affect the educational equation is a subject of debate. Some experts say rigorous academic programs and a quality teaching force are more important.

But it seems to be widely accepted that parents, guardians and other family members are vital to reaching and motivating students who have multiple academic hurdles as well as those who are high performers.

"My husband and I have three children," said Tonya Miles of Mitchellville, in Prince George's County. "We tell them they have one job: Go to school, and do well."

Miles, president of the Woodmore Elementary School PTA, served on the state's 125-member Parent Advisory Council from 2003 to 2005. She praised the state's move to implement the council's final report, which was issued in August.

"It makes a difference," Miles said. "This puts teeth into parent involvement, which is only spoken about in some school districts."

In another matter, Grasmick announced that Maryland had secured a three-year, $5.7 million federal grant to help develop systems to track individual student achievement over time. The first batch of funding will go toward improving information about special education students.

According to state education officials, nearly 60 percent of Maryland schools that failed to meet achievement standards under the federal No Child Left Behind act fell short because of stagnant test scores among disabled students.

Maryland was one of 14 states to receive federal funding for the "longitudinal data" project.