Workshops aim to educate parents

By Zoe Sullivan
Contributing Writer

Navigating the New Orleans Public School system is complicated. There are two school districts, and both have direct-run schools as well as charters that they supervise. Moreover, so many schools in the city perform poorly that parents need to know how to understand what is happening at their child’s school and how they can advocate.

The Urban League of Greater New Orleans and New Schools for New Orleans have partnered with JP Morgan Chase and Baptist Community Ministries to offer an extensive series of parent workshops on dealing with the city’s public schools. The workshops have an awkward title that translates into the acronym for PRIDE (Parents Ready to be Involved to Deliver Excellence). The three core sessions focus on school performance data, parental involvement, and the school system’s structure and other sessions deal with topics such as English as a Second Language programs and special-needs students.

Participants receive a $100 stipend and child care is available for those who need it. The courses will be offered until mid-May.

One mid-April evening, Rashida Govan, director of policy and Research at the Orleans Public Education Network, led a group at Clark High School through the curriculum for understanding school performance data. She pulled no punches about the harsh reality facing many public school parents.

Govan told the dozen participants flat out where the system was inequitable or lowering standards. “The PRIDE workshops are really a good tool to get parents the information they need to advocate for their children more effectively,” Govan told The Louisiana Weekly. “What I’ve noticed every time we’ve come is the parents say things like: “if we didn’t come here today, how would we have known this?” And that is really startling and troubling because all parents want to advocate well for their children, they want the best for their children. So if we’re not doing what we need to do as educators and non-profits and stuff, what’s going to happen?”

During the workshop, Govan pointed out that the standard for being classified as an “A” school, had been compared to the previous system based on a five-star rating. She also noted that roughly 80 percent of the city’s public schools are Recovery School District (RSD) schools, but the RSD is ranked second to last in the state, and since the standard for failing is going to be raised, “if we don’t move up about 10 points as a district, or a little bit less than 10 points, we will be failing next year,” Govan told the group of parents assembled in a Clark High School classroom.

The interactive session also gave parents an opportunity to ask questions and offer their own views on what has happened in the New Orleans school system in recent years. One parent commented on the change in the ranks of those teaching in New Orleans Schools. “You have a lot more of Teach for America teachers who want to pay their student loans off, versus the seasoned teachers who really want to see the kids grow and prosper.”

In spite of charged topics such as this, the discussion was open and friendly. While Govan pointed out some of the inequalities in the current system, she also told parents how to get involved, explaining that School Improve­ment Plans are a tool for them to use. “They have to have parents on the school improvement plan or school improvement team,” Govan told her audience, “so you should be asking ‘who are the parents on the school improvement team?’ Because lots of times, people count on you not knowing.”

Govan’s honesty about the issues and things parents should know made her presentation a success. At the end of the session, the participants praised her work. Rhonda Butler has two children, one finishing at a private high school and another at Ben Franklin Extension. Butler told The Louisiana Weekly that not only did she enjoy the presentation, but also that she would share the knowledge with those connected to the Head Start program where she works.

Butler said her daughter was in private school because that was the only option right after the storm, and while she sees the improvement in the city’s public schools, she lamented that so few of them are serving the children well.

Rachel Johnson, who is a Parent-Teacher Organization member at Joseph S. Clark, contributed actively to the classroom discussion. “It was good to just be able to sit down with a group of other informed parents and discuss the issues,” she said to The Louisiana Weekly after the workshop. Demonstrating the commitment that Govan praised in parents, Johnson stated that “as long as my child is a student here, I’m going to be here, and whatever I can do to help make things better, I’m here. I’m one phone call away.”

This article was originally published in the May 14, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper