Workshop Tools for Educators

This is a workshop focused on building relationships between educators, families and communities. As Oakland teacher and principal, Larissa Adams says, “Because of organizing, I realized parents care, community members care, organizers care. I feel less burned out and feel I can stick with teaching for a long time.”

1. When The System Fails

When children struggle in school, parents and guardians sometimes don’t recognize that the challenges are part of bigger issues facing the school or the school district. We sometimes blame ourselves, our children, or their teachers.  When the school or district conveys a culture of low expectations, a sense of hopelessness is sometimes created among students, parents, and educators.

Discussion Questions

• Do you feel there are structures or conditions at your school that need to change in order for the school culture to be more supportive?

• When have you made a difference in the life of one of your students? What enabled you to make that personal connection?

• What are the systemic barriers to developing a personal relationship with your students and their families?

• What programmatic changes would support more personal relationships between students and staff?

• How would resources and programs be different?

2. Changing the Existing School Culture

In many schools and districts, parents are not viewed as assets – equals with whom educators can partner to make positive changes for students.  Too often, the culture within schools is one that discourages parents from voicing their concerns and then collaborating with school and district staff to identify and implement solutions.

Discussion Questions

• What is the dominant culture with regard to parent involvement in the schools and districts where you work?

• Are parents welcome partners in your classroom or your school? What are indicators that they feel welcome? What are the signs that some parents may not feel welcome?

• Principal Dominic Amara shares in one of these segments that he was unaware of the messages he was sending to parents. What can you or your colleagues do to better understand how your actions and school policies impact parents?

• How do you think a community organization can communicate an alternative vision to better support educators?

3. Change Takes Time and Requires Trust

Often, the challenges facing our schools and our districts are so huge, and opinions and practices so entrenched that the pace of progress feels slow and the opportunities for long-term change feel bleak. Organizer James Mumm discusses the importance of being able to see growth towards desired goals, even if initially things seem to have fallen short.

Discussion Questions

• Do you have any examples where relationship with a community-organizing group enabled parents and students to create positive change in the district and to form a partnership with the school?

• How would your local school be transformed by such a partnership?

What’s Next? Taking Action

Identify a number of specific, shared problems in your school / district. Select one or two to work on in this session. Break into small groups to discuss potential solutions to the identified problem, and bring back to larger group. Before concluding the meeting, outline concrete next steps you can take — individually, and/or as a group until the next time you meet. Following meetings should review progress and plan next steps in reaching goal on one issue. Problems identified in first step can be re-visited as progress is made.

Workshop Tools for Parents

1. When the System Fails

As a parent, when our child struggles in school, we often don’t recognize that his or her challenges are part of bigger issues facing the school or the school district. We sometimes blame ourselves, our children, or their teachers.

Discussion Questions

• Have you ever found yourself uncertain about how to distinguish between a concern or challenge facing your child, and an issue that is the result of a problem with the system?

• What would help you to better understand the difference between a challenge facing your child and a systemic problem?

• How would your actions be different if you understood the problem you are experiencing to be the result of systemic issues with the school or district?

2: Change Takes Time and Requires Trust

Often, the challenges facing our schools and our districts are so huge, and opinions and practices so entrenched that the pace of progress feels slow and the opportunities for long-term change feel bleak. In this section, organizer James Mumm discusses the importance of being able to see growth towards desired goals, even if initially things seem to have fallen short. Both Mumm and Leadership Institute Principal Marta Colon speak to the need to develop relationships of trust and partnership as groups build power and create positive change.

Discussion Questions

• How has their relationship with a community-organizing group enabled parents and students in the Bronx to create positive change in the district and to form a partnership with the school?

• How would your local school be transformed by such a partnership?

3: Creating Schools Where Parents Feel Welcome

In 2005, Boston Public Schools, responding to the organizing work of the Boston Parent Organizing Project, created a pilot program to establish family and community liaisons in 15 schools. In this section, parent Jurett Weathers and school and district staff share their views on the critical role coordinators play in supporting parents and building their capacity to support their children and partner with the school.

Discussion Questions

• Do you feel welcome and supported at your child’s school?

• How would the presence of a family and community engagement coordinator, such as those hired in Boston, change the way you interact with staff at your child’s school?

• What characteristics would you want to see in a family and community engagement coordinator? What should their primary responsibilities be?

What’s Next? Taking Action

Identify a number of specific, shared problems in your school / district. Select one or two to work on in this session. Break into small groups to discuss potential solutions to the identified problem, and bring back to larger group. Before concluding the meeting, outline concrete next steps you can take — individually, and/or as a group until the next time you meet. Following meetings should review progress and plan next steps in reaching goal on one issue. Problems identified in first step can be re-visited as progress is made.

Workshop Tools for Organizers

1. Charting a Path to Graduation

Each year in schools and districts around the country, bright young people leave school without graduating. Boredom, the absence of strong adult role models, overcrowded classrooms, and teaching that is geared towards simply passing a test are just a few of the factors that contribute to a student dropping out.

Discussion Questions

• Have you or one of your friends considered dropping out of school?

• What kind of advice would you offer a friend who is thinking about dropping out of school?”

• If you were able to participate in an organizing effort like that of Sistas and Brothas United, how do you think this experience might change how you view school or how you think about your future and your ability to be a leader in your community?

2. “You Get What You Expect”

All students respond to the cues they are given by the adults in their lives. They know when parents and teachers have high expectations and when they doubt the ability of a young person to be successful.

Discussion Questions

• Have you had teachers who, through their words and actions, led you to believe you were not going to be successful in school?

• Think about one teacher who believed in you and your potential.  What did he or she do to demonstrate this commitment?  What difference did this make for you?

• How could you help adults understand the critical role their attitudes and beliefs have on your ability to succeed in school?

3: Creating Schools That Value the Student Voice:

In the Bronx, parents and community members have supported the work of a youth-led organizing effort to open and then try to find a permanent home for a new high school.

Discussion Questions

• Everyone is always talking in the name of the youth. How can we create space for the student voice to be heard and respected?

• What kind of school do you envision? How can the student voice shape what the school looks like?

• What unique perspectives and abilities do young people bring to organizing for school reform?

• How can adults – parents, organizers, and teachers – provide young people with the support they need to play a leading role in an organizing effort, rather than simply following a strategy defined by adult the opportunities to do well go to college, and be successful?

What’s Next? Taking Action

Identify a number of specific, shared problems in your school / district. Select one or two to work on in this session. Break into small groups to discuss potential solutions to the identified problem, and bring back to larger group. Before concluding the meeting, outline concrete next steps you can take — individually, and/or as a group until the next time you meet. Following meetings should review progress and plan next steps in reaching goal on one issue. Problems identified in first step can be re-visited as progress is made.

Workshop Tools for Students

1. Charting a Path to Graduation

Each year in schools and districts around the country, bright young people leave school without graduating. Boredom, the absence of strong adult role models, overcrowded classrooms, and teaching that is geared towards simply passing a test are just a few of the factors that contribute to a student dropping out.

Discussion Questions

• Have you or one of your friends considered dropping out of school?

• What kind of advice would you offer a friend who is thinking about dropping out of school?”

• If you were able to participate in an organizing effort like that of Sistas and Brothas United, how do you think this experience might change how you view school or how you think about your future and your ability to be a leader in your community?

2. “You Get What You Expect”

All students respond to the cues they are given by the adults in their lives. They know when parents and teachers have high expectations and when they doubt the ability of a young person to be successful.

Discussion Questions

• Have you had teachers who, through their words and actions, led you to believe you were not going to be successful in school?

• Think about one teacher who believed in you and your potential.  What did he or she do to demonstrate this commitment?  What difference did this make for you?

• How could you help adults understand the critical role their attitudes and beliefs have on your ability to succeed in school?

3: Creating Schools That Value the Student Voice:

In the Bronx, parents and community members have supported the work of a youth-led organizing effort to open and then try to find a permanent home for a new high school.

Discussion Questions

• Everyone is always talking in the name of the youth. How can we create space for the student voice to be heard and respected?

• What kind of school do you envision? How can the student voice shape what the school looks like?

• What unique perspectives and abilities do young people bring to organizing for school reform?

• How can adults – parents, organizers, and teachers – provide young people with the support they need to play a leading role in an organizing effort, rather than simply following a strategy defined by adult the opportunities to do well go to college, and be successful?

What’s Next? Taking Action

Identify a number of specific, shared problems in your school / district. Select one or two to work on in this session. Break into small groups to discuss potential solutions to the identified problem, and bring back to larger group. Before concluding the meeting, outline concrete next steps you can take — individually, and/or as a group until the next time you meet. Following meetings should review progress and plan next steps in reaching goal on one issue. Problems identified in first step can be re-visited as progress is made.