Parents for Public Schools of Greenwood and Leflore County is continuing to spread its message of getting parents and other stakeholders more involved in education.
The group faces a number of challenges. Not only has the implementation of Common Core standards raised the bar for students and schools, but many are confused about what is now expected of them.
Lula Moore, a teacher for 32 years and program chair of the Parents for Public Schools chapter, says she believes that “many parents, grandparents and caregivers of the children do have an interest, and they do desire, emotionally, the best for their children.” However, she said, many “have not accepted the fact that they have the power and the responsibility to take the action that is so necessary to help facilitate the change.”
Parents for Public Schools tries to help with that by educating people about a variety of topics, including Common Core and test preparation — and about how parents and others can help.
“We welcome anyone that is a stakeholder in public education,” Moore said. “You do not have to be a parent. ... We do target parents, but we embrace anyone that has that interest and support of the cause.”
In its first two years, the chapter has received very positive feedback from the organization’s national office and from other chapters. But now its leaders are looking to increase their public profile.
“We want more visibility in our community,” said Tijuanda Beckworth, chapter president. “We tend to get rave reviews everywhere else, but we want to bring some of that here and let people in our community know who we are, what we stand for.”
And, Moore added, “we want to know who they are.”
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Parents for Public Schools, which is based in Jackson, was founded in 1991. It has chapters across the country, including Mississippi locations in Greenwood, Jackson, Starkville, Meridian and Philadelphia.
Beckworth said the state’s takeover of the Leflore County School District and the new stricter requirements for younger students have gotten parents’ attention. For example, third-graders must pass a literacy assessment to be promoted to fourth grade, and students in earlier grades must pass assessments to be promoted.
“That was an eye-opener for some parents, because I know they have an interest and care about whether their child is being promoted or not,” Beckworth said.
Then there is Common Core, which stresses analysis, synthesizing and creating rather than just comprehension and application — “a vast difference in terms of the level of thinking,” Moore said.
Last week, a representatives of the Mississippi Department of Education conducted a two-hour Common Core training session focusing on math from the sixth grade through the 12th grade. That meeting was hosted by Moore, who also led a session in September introducing parents to the Common Core standards.
About 25 people attended last week’s session. The number of parents was low, considering the amount of effort that was put into publicizing the event, Moore said. However, Beckworth added, at least some key people attended and will be able to pass on information to others.
Moore said that many teachers, from novices to more experienced ones, are struggling with Common Core because it requires a different approach to teaching. With the right training, they should adjust, but this makes it more crucial that parents do their part, she said.
“We must take the initiative to do something at home, because you cannot depend on what’s going on in the schools,” she said.
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Some parents and other stakeholders also are learning more about school involvement through the Parent Engagement Program (PEP).
Twenty-four people are participating in that program this year. Twenty-seven applied to participate in 2013, the program’s first year, and 24 graduated.
The participants first work in “learning communities” of three to five people to identify problems that affect student achievement — such as bullying, absenteeism or low motivation — and find ways to solve them. They research the issues, examine state testing data and develop action plans. Then each person must come up with a targeted plan of his or her own to be presented to leaders of a certain school — or to another segment of the community, such as a church or youth center — and work to make it happen.
“We do data analysis, aggregation of data, and we teach them how that is done,” Moore said. “They actually have to engage in it.”
Relying on data rather than emotion is key, Beckworth said: “We want to base our decisions on facts versus how we feel about a certain thing.”
Moore said the first PEP group was diverse — including some people with doctorates and others with GED certificates — but the people in it responded well to the task.
“When they come to the table, they may have a wealth (of knowledge) in one area or the other, but what we bring to them, they all say, ‘We’ve never had this before,’” she said. “And so when you hear it coming from the professors and you hear the same words spoken from the GED graduates, we know that this is something new and this is something different for them. And they embrace it.”
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Parents for Public Schools will hold an invitation-only community “mixer” Nov. 11 to explain to more people what it does. A spokesperson from the national office will give an overview of the group, and some PEP participants will give testimonies.
In only two years of operation, the chapter has regularly been written about in the organization’s national publication, and other communities have expressed interest in what it is doing in the Delta.
Alan Richard, practice director for the Education Communications Strategy Group, attended a session Sept. 27 and is writing an article abut the chapter that is to be published in The Washington Post.
Moore said she also was encouraged by a meeting she had with Robert Strebeck, the conservator overseeing the Leflore County School District. She asked that Parents for Public Schools be given access to after-school programs to provide one-on-one help for students who scored low on standardized tests. He agreed, and “that was a major milestone,” she said.
She is currently focused on Common Core education, but she is looking at offering more workshops in 2015, possibly including one on essay writing. Parents for Public Schools also is working with Guaranty Bank to offer classes for parents and stakeholders on managing money and building up credit.
The group is involved in a variety of areas related to education, but Moore said her focus is clear.
“I try to not deal with anything personally here. My drive is for the students and the parents,” she said. “And I do empathize with teachers as well, because I’m a teacher.”
- Contact David Monroe at 581-7236 or dmonroe@
gwcommonwealth.com.
