Parent Power: Will We Choose Pitchforks Or Partnerships?

Parent Power: Will We Choose Pitchforks Or Partnerships?

Parents and caregivers are asserting their authority inside the education system in a new manner after two traumatic years of school closures. It isn't always pleasant. Families have been arguing with officials—and each other—about mask and vaccination regulations, critical race theory, and reopening plans at recent board meetings around the country.

Remote learning provided parents with unprecedented access to their children's learning and needed caregivers to be actively involved in their children's daily training. Families are coming out in droves, energized and empowered, to express their views. Politicians, on the other hand, are capitalizing on parents' efforts and concerns to stir debates that only serve to further divide adults and do little to benefit children. We must decide as a society whether we accept that the confluence of home and school must be marked by the same partisanship and rancor that pervades so many other elements of contemporary American life. Alternatively, do we form collaborative relationships that benefit families, educators, and, most crucially, students?

Families have long been in the dark about their children's education. According to Learning Heroes study, nine out of ten K-8th grade parents believe their kid is performing at grade level in reading and math, despite just one-third of pupils fulfilling those benchmarks. It is very difficult for families to be knowledgeable and demanding advocates for their children's learning needs when they have so little exposure. School closures switched on the lights over night. Zoom and Google Classroom brought tens of millions of families into the classroom every day for more than a year. Parents are no longer oblivious to the fact that America's educational system is failing. It's there in front of us, and it's very personal. Our children's future is at jeopardy, and we are seeing it firsthand.