I don’t mean to brag, but I was just handily reelected to an important public office. I’m talking, naturally, about a seat as a parent representative on my local school improvement team.
The campaign was mercifully short and mostly involved texting a few neighbors. But now I need to figure out how to be better at the job.
If you’ve never heard of these teams, you’re probably in good company. The concept dates back to 1989, when North Carolina began to offer school districts more freedom from state rules in exchange for taking responsibility for results. To get those waivers, you had to have a school improvement team.
Reforms in 1996 made these teams mandatory at every district-run public school in North Carolina, and the next year lawmakers added procedures to elect parents to them.
The intention of the law is for parents sit alongside teachers and administrators to develop a plan for improving the school, and state law says we’re supposed to have a “substantial role.”
But when I joined last year, I had virtually no idea what to expect. It felt like I’d walked into the middle of something and struggled to catch up. The goals were set, the plan was underway, and everybody else seemed to know what we were doing.
I learned a lot and appreciated the chance to ask questions. I had a harder time figuring out how to make an impact.
Sadly, there’s really not a whole lot for parents to go on. The state Department of Public Instruction and the North Carolina PTA put out a parent handbook in 1997. There hasn’t been much of anything since then.
That’s what I want to fix. But I need your help
It’s so easy for school improvement teams to become a box-checking exercise.
I’m working on a practical guide to help myself and other parents across North Carolina figure out how to make the most of the job.
That’s where I could use your help. Have you served on a school improvement team? What did you accomplish? What got in the way? What do you wish you’d known going in?
Parents, teachers, principals — I’d like to hear from all of you. Send me your experiences, tips and tricks, especially examples of something your team actually changed.
The end result will be a practical handbook that parents across the state can use to make their schools better. I’ll share it with you when it’s done.
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I am on the SIT for my child’s middle school. This is my 3rd year, 2nd Principal.
I realized that I really have no power.
If the school needs a Math Teacher, the parent can do nothing.
If the school has discipline issues, the parent cannot suggest anything.
What it did give me was insight into the bulls***. And with those insights, I was able to email our former (and effective) school board member and lodge a complaint with details, about our school’s former principal (I am sure it is not the first).
We are now in our second year with a calm and effective Principal. Discipline issues have been mostly addressed and teachers want to work for her.
What needs to be changed is really beyond even a Principal’s fix.
For example, there is no tracking for science and social studies teachers. Fine. But how effective is a classroom with 5 kids that can’t read, 5 who can speak English, and a few discipline problems - and no textbooks (only Chrome books - now on their last legs), and a new teacher?
Or on the Elementary level, the Illustrative Math curriculum is abysmal and required.
EL Education for ELA (K-8) has tough standards, I will give it that, but is so boring and politically correct.
Those issues cannot be changed on a parent/school level.