Trabajo en equipo

Parent participants in the study spoke of a few specific things they did to collaborate with the school and to be involved in their child’s education. Sariyah Zimmerman described how she creates the time for her child to complete homework and how she extends her child’s learning at home after school.

There is no television during the week. You’re going to come in; there will be an assignment. There’s whatever school gives you and then whatever Auntie gives you. And what I’m giving you is probably going to have to do with either money management, because we don’t know enough about it, and consequently we’re not teaching our children that. So he’s eleven with a bank account, and you better be able to tell me what interest is and how it accrues.

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Zimmerman explained how other parents send their children to her for tutoring afterschool. “I have parents on my block that send their children to me for tutoring in a particular subject and I applaud them because there are other parents that just don’t.” Ruby Armstrong described how she goes to different functions at the school, serves in the Parent Teacher Association, meets the teachers and meets the principal, all in an effort to make her child feel comfortable at school and in class. She said parents need to “just be open and be aware of situations.” In the same conversation, Taraji House described times that she left work to sit with her child in class.

And it has been times when I have to come and sit in my son’s class, because my son wants to be a fool. So, I have to come and sit in his class for the whole period, just to make sure he’s doing what he is supposed to.

House also explained that she could not always come to the school because of her work schedule, so she relied on her mother to be a point of contact. House’s mother, Amber Owen, interjected, “I have three grandchildren, and I am 150%.” Evelyn Newman,

representing her grandson, came to the focus group alone. She explained that her grandson got in a lot of trouble because he finishes his work early and he is very active. She said,

I make them read when they’re at my house. I don’t know if y’all know I’m a Jehovah’s Witness. So, we’ve always got something to do. They’ve got to participate in my homework that I have to do for Jehovah’s Witness. So we just take turns reading, or knocking on the doors, and then we’re out in service.

Other parent participants spoke of their efforts in talking with their children about their day and their homework.

Faith Cooper described her efforts at being involved in her child’s education and school by communicating with her daughter’s teacher. She stated, “Parents should reach out; the teachers should reach out. It should be a two-way communication street.” She

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continued, “I communicate with [the teacher] as often as I can, and she’s very flexible with meeting with me, either via text or email, Facebook, which is convenient for me when I have to work.” Parent participants described several technological ways in which teachers

communicated with them, which allowed them to have firsthand information about their children. This communication allowed parents to have a direct conversation about what they did well or not so well during the day. Jasmin Watson described how she uses the Dojo communication system when asking her child about his day in school. “This Dojo point system that we can actually look at online all during the day, I know exactly what he’s doing when he’s doing it.” When Watson’s son gets in the car, she talks with him about it. Some parent participants at the elementary level spoke about their use of tools like Dojo to monitor their child’s progress in school. Other parents, like Faith Cooper, spoke about a more hands- on approach she used to support her high school age child.

Cooper has a child in high school and a child in elementary school. She says her efforts at being involved in her high school son’s education have heightened greatly over the years. As he went from elementary school to high school, her level of involvement in the classroom decreased, but she has not stopped helping him with homework and research methods during his high school years. “It’s my responsibility that he knows how to write a paper,” she said. She set high expectations for her son when it came to completing

homework and writing assignments. She stated, “Whatever your teacher accepts – no. They’re too lenient, in my opinion. So my son knows when he writes a paper, if it doesn’t pass my standards, it’s not getting turned in.” She does this because in high school “they don’t care. They are preparing you for college. So as a parent, I have to stay on him … ‘cause nobody else is going to hold him accountable.”

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Many parent participants spoke passionately about the things they did to help their children in school, and in some cases, how they helped other children. Not all parent participants shared the same sentiments for other parents in the school. They revealed that some parents in the school are not taking the same level of interest and active involvement in their children’s education and the school as they are taking. Jim Watson expressed that he felt parents “needed to be held accountable at some point” when they are not doing their part. “I’m not saying anything harsh, but you should, if you have children, want to be involved, but it’s sad that a lot of them don’t.” Some of the things parents felt other parents could do to be more involved were the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), Parent University,

extracurricular activities, and school events. They reported a low turnout of parents to many of the school events. Mya Brown talked about parents not attending events and how low the participation was when some parents did attend. She said, “And when they have the Parent University classes, there’s not that many parents that show up. Might be one or two. Definitely Open House. I mean, that’s the main thing they should come to, and they don’t.”

Some parent participants in the focus groups provided justifications for the lack of involvement. Mitch Brown linked the lack of participation to age. He said, “I think a lot of them, too, are young parents with children. You know, they’re young themselves, and they haven’t grown up yet, so they don’t know what to do.” Some of the other focus group participants agreed. However, Frances Watson said, “They just don’t care. They don’t take the initiative to find out. You can ask somebody – I’ll help anybody. But you know, you just have to ask. That’s the only way you’re going to know. Open your mouth and ask.”