In this article we critically examine how teachers and administrators in an urban high school identify and consider the challenges to parent involvement without either engaging in or disrupting normative constructions of the term parent involvement. It is in this unintentional misconstruction of the notion of parent involvement that school leaders…

This article argues that the current discourse surrounding parental involvement activity is severely limited. It begins with the premise that home-based knowledges, practices, and discourses are critically important and powerful and therefore ought to be privileged in school settings and educational research. However, authors argue that the…

There are few issues in education that get as much attention as the need for improvement of parental and community involvement in and support for local schools. School faculties want to know how to improve the way they work with families and community members to better meet the needs of their students and parents want to find how to best…

Purpose: This article examines the impact that a principal's community-leadership has on school-community relations and student outcomes. Comparisons are drawn between leadership behaviors that emphasize school-centered approaches and community-centered approaches. Research Methodology: Ethnographic research methodology was conducted over a 2-year…

High school band teacher, Mr. Alex Smith, received a request from the Republican presidential campaign for the marching band to perform at an upcoming local rally at which both the presidential and vice-presidential candidates would appear. With support from the principal and superintendent, Mr. Smith moved forward with plans for a Monday…

Background/Context: Parent involvement in education is widely recognized as important, yet it remains weak in many communities. One important reason for this weakness is that urban schools have grown increasingly isolated from the families and communities they serve. Many of the same neighborhoods with families who are disconnected from public…

School systems in America face many critical challenges pertaining to regulating cell phone use by students in today's schools. School executives and classroom teachers face challenges daily relative to how to effectively deal with student's using cell phones. There are many drawbacks and benefits for cell phone use by students. The authors…

Fictitious case study describes personnel problems in an attempt to provide an elementary school in a Mexican-American town in Texas with a community agent responsible for designing parent participation programs. Absence of any training causes the agent's rapid resignation. (MF)

The best way to overcome parents' anxiety and possible anger over new assessment methods is to use good teaching practice. This means knowing the teachable population's needs, setting appropriate objectives for them, providing instruction in an appropriate, engaging manner, and giving opportunities to practice and question instructors. A visual…

Summarizes a two-part study examining the role of the school brochure as a marketing tool for (British) primary schools. The 12 local education authorities sampled provided little guidance in preparing, presenting, or distributing brochures. In the four brochures studied, headteachers' attitudes toward using brochures as a marketing tool was…

No matter what the local district offers in the area of school-community relations, the principal can make or break a school's public relations program. Principals can win teachers over by giving them time off for brief, unplanned breaks or for attending their own children's special events. Friendliness toward students, parents, and support staff…

This article builds and explores the hypothesis that parent and community participation in school governance can have positive impacts on community development by fostering improvements in school performance and school-community relations and by acting as a catalyst for collective action around community-development issues. It does so through case…

Presents a one-day workshop format for initiating a solid community relations program. During the workshop, teachers and administrators work together to prioritize new and existing community-relations options and select adhoc committees to develop implementation plans. Typical options include school-business partnerships, teacher home visitation,…

The problems involved in explaining the school reading program to the community are discussed, and methods for effective communication are outlined. Mobility of the community population, disparity within programs and among educators, and confusion of educational terminology are seen as factors inhibiting communication. Methods of effective…

Schools cannot meet challenges of reform without first doing a better job of connecting with parents and the public. According to Public Agenda reports, educators are out of touch with typical views of parents and the public. Most people are doubtful about advocated practices such as detracking, holistic reading, early use of calculators, and…