Action Research: Getting All Families Involved

Set in an elementary school with increasingly changing demographics, this case focuses on the difficulty of building community among educators and parents of widely disparate socio-economic levels.   What is the responsibility of principals and teachers to reach out to all parents, and to what extent? 

Discussion Questions:

1. What should Mae do next? Can she accrue the power to mobilize parents, teachers, the administration? Who are her allies?
2. What is a school’s responsibility to get all families involved?
3. What is the percentage of minority students needed for a school to initiate a family literacy program?
4. What is a school’s responsibility to close the achievement gap between low-income students and high-income students?
5. How do schools get teachers, parents, and administrators to become more sensitive and accommodating to all cultural and economic backgrounds?