PTA: Not For Parents Anymore

All the research proves it and you don't have to go far to find it. I'm talking about the fact that the number one factor in whether or not kids succeed in school is the amount of parental involvement.

According to researchers Karen Smith Conway (professor of economics at the University of New Hampshire) and Andrew Houtenville (senior research associate at New Editions Consulting), parental involvement has a strong, positive effect on student achievement.

“Parental effort is consistently associated with higher levels of achievement, and the magnitude of the effect of parental effort is substantial,” Conway said. “We found that schools would need to increase per-pupil spending by more than $1,000 in order to achieve the same results that are gained with parental involvement.”

(Click here for an excellent article by the Michigan Department of Education on the research-based benefits of strong parental involvement in schools.)

So after spending thousands of dollars and over 9 years attaining my BA and MA in Education and Psychology, after spending countless hours in workshops, classes and professional development seminars, and after spending days, weeks, months, years and my heart and soul teaching kids, I found myself at my school's monthly PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) meeting tonight. I am one of the teachers delegated to be a representative and I believe strongly in the positive affects that a strong PTA can have on a community. Especially one of our social-economic status.

I was exhausted: I've worked all day and Maelin has been having a hard time lately. There's been extra drama we've all been dealing with and she's been going through a "Mommy Stage" lately. Sandra literally had to yank her off of me this morning so I could get to work on time. She was grabbing my neck and screaming, "Momma...Momma...don't leave you!" and sobbing hysterically. Needless to say, I cried all the way to work.

But I digress. So there I was at the PTA meeting with 2 other teachers, the principal, the school secretary and the assistant principal. We have been advertising this meeting for weeks: it's on the school marquee sign, it's in the monthly and weekly newsletters, we put stickers on each kid on the day of the meeting to remind the parents and we send home PTA brochures in English and in Spanish at least 3 times a year inviting everyone and anyone to please come join us.

We have a school population of about 595. Guess how many parents were at the PTA tonight?

Three. There were 3 parents there. The President, the Secretary and the Treasurer. That's it folks. Not a single parent came besides the officers. Not a one.

Oh, there's many reasons for this. Lots of our parents work 2, 3, or even 4 jobs. We offer free baby-sitting so the parents know they could bring the kids and we'll watch them for you, so that's not the issue. Some parents don't have transportation to get there...but our school is smack-dab in the middle of a ton of houses where I know for a fact our kiddos live, so it's not that far of a walk. We also provide translation services so if a Spanish-speaking parent wanted to come, everything would be translated.

So what's the problem? I wish I knew.

It's really hard to get behind the government's push to create better schools, hire better teachers, raise test scores when I KNOW that if we could just get the darn parents to support their child and the school, our scores would skyrocket! There's nothing I can do about that...except to continue to provide food for the PTA meetings.

And then bring all the uneaten leftovers to the teacher's lounge for lunch the next day because even though we hoped and hoped that at least a couple of parents will show up...the teachers are the only ones there. That's right. We care about your child's education. We're there till 8pm even if you're not. We will continue to hope that maybe one day...all that food will be eaten.