11.28.07 A Report by Chicago Appleseed Identifies Opportunities for Funding and Engaging Parental Involvement Under NCLB
A Report by Chicago Appleseed Identifies Opportunities for Funding and Engaging Parental Involvement Under NCLB
A brief analysis of existing legislation and what state & local educational agencies are doing to encourage parental involvement while offering recommendations for funding mandated programs.
The logic is simple: Children whose parents are involved in their education do better in school. Today, Chicago Appleseed released a report, The ABC's of Funding Parental Involvement in Education: Opportunities Under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB or "the Act") recommending ways for improving collaboration between parents and educators while identifying opportunities for funding parental involvement as mandated in Section 1118 under NCLB.
The provisions of Section 1118 under NCLB mandates that schools, as well as local and state educational agencies create parental involvement policies and programs. Parental involvement plays a significant role under NCLB with many funding streams conditioned on educational agencies and schools making efforts to involve parents.
Building on Chicago Appleseed's parental involvement advocacy work in 2007, this report gives insight for policy makers, education officials, community organizations and parental advocates to view parental involvement funding beyond just the mandates of Section 1118.
Key recommendations include:
Given the mandates of Section 1118 and the call for parental involvement throughout NCLB, Chicago Appleseed recommends that district officials use this funding information in relation to their strategic planning.
Creating an umbrella outlook for parental involvement in policies and curriculum would allow districts to use some of the funds under section 1118 for capacity building of parents. Attention needs to be paid to increasing the capacity of parents to actively and effectively collaborate with school officials.
The capacity building of parents will enable districtsÂ’ efforts to include parents in the grant application process of the different titles for NCLB funds. This vision of parents working in a partnership with district officials would allow funds appropriated under parental involvement to be a focus of the entire educational budget.
Funds from the different titles could be allocated, combined and coordinated in order to maximize the investment in parental involvement activities.
In its entirety, parental involvement is a cornerstone of numerous provision of NCLB, often speaking of the need for education officials to involve parents in the policy making process for developing programs in order to request funding. Chicago Appleseed views the mandates of Section 1118 as a mere starting point to include parents in the decision making process of their children's education. All the other sections in which parents are sought to participate should be viewed as opportunities to engage them on how their children's education is shaped and funded.
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