Hispanic Parent frustration with America’s High Schools.

Parents across America share high hopes for their children’s academic success and many know their involvement is vital. According to a national report released, Hispanic parents feel that they lack the information from schools about the requirements for graduation or how they can help their children meet those requirements. And parents with students in low-performing high schools are particularly frustrated that their schools don’t give them the tools and information they need to be more effective in helping their students succeed.

“One Dream, Two Realities: Perspectives of Parents on America’s High Schools,” by Civic Enterprises, and based on research conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, captures the views of parents of high school students in America’s urban, suburban, and rural communities from diverse backgrounds and income levels. The findings point to concrete steps that can improve parental engagement in schools and strengthen efforts to prepare all young people for success in college and the workplace. The report was commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“The critical role parents play in educating children is often a blind assumption or a target of attack,” said John Bridgeland, President and CEO of Civic Enterprises and co-author of the report. “The findings of this report call for a halt to the blame game. This report disproves the prevailing myth that low-income parents are not interested in their children’s academic success. The opposite is true. Parents, especially those with students trapped in low-income or low-performing schools, desperately want to be involved and want their students to succeed. What parents need is an access point — a way into schools, so they can become partners in helping students learn and achieve.”

Many parents surveyed believe that schools should do a better job of reaching out to them or engaging them as partners, particularly parents of students in low-performing schools. In fact, 80 percent of all parents surveyed, and 85 percent of parents of students in low-performing schools, believe parents should be involved as advocates for their children when it comes to picking courses and teachers.

The report reveals a stark contrast between the experiences of parents with students in low-performing schools and those with students in high-performing schools. According to the survey:

— Only 15 percent of parents with students at low-performing schools feel that their school is doing a very good job challenging students, compared with 58 percent of parents with students in high-performing schools.

— Forty-seven percent of parents with students in low-performing schools said that their schools were doing a good job in encouraging parents to be involved compared to 85 percent of parents with students in high-performing schools.

— Twenty-five percent of parents with students in low-performing schools say that their school informed them about academic and disciplinary problems compared to more than half (53 percent) of parents with students in high-performing schools.

— Less than 20 percent of parents with students in low-performing schools believe schools do a very good job preparing their students across four categories — preparation for college; helping students develop confidence, maturity and personal skills; developing a special talent; and preparing them for a good job. Half of parents with students in high-performing schools feel this way.

— Half of parents of students in low-performing schools said they felt welcomed in the schools compared to four out of five parents with students in high-performing schools.

Each year, more than one million students fail to graduate from high school on time. Research shows that when parents are involved, students perform better and are less likely to drop out. Yet studies have shown that as students grow older, parents tend to become less involved with their children’s academic lives due, in part, to unique barriers like difficulty in helping them with homework or lack of resources for parents of high school-aged students.

The report is a follow-up to the 2006 Gates-funded survey of high school students, “The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts.” The Silent Epidemic report noted lack of parental involvement as one of the key reasons dropouts gave for leaving school. Out of 470 dropouts surveyed around the country, only 21 percent said their parents were “very involved” in their schooling. More than 70 percent of dropouts said that one key to keep them in school was better communication between parents and schools, and increasing parental involvement in their education. “One Dream, Two Realities” suggests that parents can play a significant role in reversing this trend.

“Unfortunately, parents of students trapped in low-performing schools — those who need the most support — are the ones that are least likely to be engaged by their children’s schools,” said Geoff Garin, president of Peter D. Hart Research Associates. “But we know there is a clear pathway to help improve student achievement in these low-performing schools, and that is through schools and parents working together to create opportunities where parents can play an active role in their child’s academic success.”

The report includes parents’ recommendations to strengthen opportunities to support their children’s academic success. The report suggests schools meet with parents before high school starts to be clear on what constitutes success in school. Other suggestions include: providing a prompt notification of academic problems; establishing an ongoing dialogue, not just when problems occur; partnering with community organizations to offer parent involvement classes; providing parent information packets that give parents details about the school and the courses each child is taking; assigning a single point of contact within the school to allow each parent to address key questions or concerns regarding their children; recruiting parent volunteers to serve as liaisons between the school and other parents to help identify ways of including otherwise disengaged parents; and including parent perspectives in the America’s Promise Alliance 100 dropout summits in all 50 states over the next three years.

“We know that ensuring that every student is prepared for success in college, career, and life means keeping the doors of our high schools and communication lines open to parents,” said Vicki Phillips, director of education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “This report shows that we must do more to ensure that all parents, particularly those with students in low-performing schools, are given new and better ways to enlist their full participation and engage them as even stronger advocates for their children’s success.”

For more information at http://www.civicenterprises.net/>