Grand Boulevard Federation

A root problem that inhibits school quality is the lack of parent and community stakeholder engagement in the planning, development, operation, and life of the public schools. From the nation and from our leaders here in Chicago, we have heard over and over again that parents must be actively engaged in education if our children are to learn to their fullest. And yet here in Chicago, this is not being supported enough, particularly in our very low-income, African American communities.

Parents are often excluded from school decisions, planning, and opportunities because they lack the knowledge and experience which tends to leave them feeling behind when attending school meetings. They are also viewed and treated as the problem. These two factors help to explain why many of our community’s parents have historically stayed out of schools. However, research has shown that increased parent involvement often means increased learning opportunities and greater school accountability to the families they serve.

Thus, it is clear that parent involvement plays a major force in improving the quality of schools and has the potential to bridge the gap between what occurs in school and what happens at home. Meaningful parent involvement (i.e. such things as high quality schools, asking tough questions that parents are not penalized for raising, and creating supportive relationships between parents and schools) will contribute significantly to the improvement of academically struggling schools.

Many involved with the PPEN believe that our south side, low-income schools were set up to fail. Some argue that we need more resources, period. Others believe that even with resources, it will require strong parent leaders to understand what is occurring and how to ask tough questions, including those on spending or advocating for their child. Some believe we cannot achieve success until we address the social and emotional needs that our youth are bringing into the schools which hinder learning for everyone.

Many PPEN families have found themselves relocating their children into a new Renaissance 2010 school out of long-time frustration that they are not getting a quality education; that resources in the classroom are lacking; or out of fear for their children’s safety, all very real and very legitimate reasons for choosing new schools.

Our belief is that parents should seek out the best education opportunity for their children, parents shouldn’t have to work this hard to find a decent school, and their children should not have to travel nor compete to get into a high quality school. Our goals of the PPEN is to provide the information where parents can make the right choices and be involved in a way that continues to support neighborhood schools and parents no matter what their income or where they live, be treated with dignity and respect as a parent, and that our public schools all be high quality schools.