WHAT IS ARKANSAS DOING TO CLOSE THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP?

Parental Engagement and
Community Organizing
Existing literature clearly shows that parental engagement
in education results in increased student achievement.
These positive outcomes are seen across a range of parental
involvement, from evening assistance with homework to
grassroots organizing aimed at reforming schools. More
importantly, the best results are achieved when effective efforts
to engage parents are “comprehensive in nature, with the school
consistently interfacing with parents at many points, in many
venues, over the course of the schooling years” (Redding 2004).
A dearth of academic reinforcement in the homes of lowincome
children is one of the root causes of the achievement
gap (Rothstein 2004: 153). Research by Lewis and Henderson
(1998) shows that achievement gap interventions not involving
parents are less likely to be successful. There are several effective
community-based parental training and assistance programs in
Arkansas that provide parents with the materials and knowledge
to complement their child’s intellectual development, and these
programs have shown positive academic outcomes. While these
programs have been successful and should be continued, a
more comprehensive approach is needed.
Community-based organizations in other states have
developed processes for empowering parents to become
change agents in educational reform. Beyond complementing
their children’s learning at home, when concerned parents
coalesce and form common goals they build social capital that
can be transformative. Community-based organizations of
parents have the potential to fundamentally reform schools
by questioning dominating paradigms in curricula, school
leadership, and other areas (Shiley 1996). In some cases, true
reform only occurs when community pressure reaches a critical
mass so that school administrators and policymakers have
no choice but to respond. The following programs show that
community organizing by parents can be a very effective and,
together with already successful home-based programs, can
form a comprehensive approach to parental engagement that is
capable of reducing the achievement gap.
Social Capital and Education Reform
According to political scientist Robert Putnam and other
social researchers, there has been a general decrease in civic
involvement and social trust in the United States over the past
century. As people have become more geographically mobile
they have become less invested in their local communities.
This has been exacerbated by more intensive work schedules
and an increase in participation in recreational activities
that are more solitary, such as watching television, instead
of group activities such as bowling leagues. He and others
refer to this phenomenon broadly as declining social capital.
People vote less often, volunteer fewer hours with community
organizations, and do not form the social networks necessary
to develop the leverage needed to create change in their
communities (Putnam 2000).
In keeping with this logic, parents have generally become
less involved in the education of their children. To combat
this trend, community organizers in the Texas Industrial Areas
Foundation (IAF) have developed strategies for fostering the
development of social capital among parents. They accomplish
this by using a multi-faceted grassroots strategy. Group
meetings are organized in individual homes and bring together
people from diverse backgrounds, such as blue-collar workers
and stay-at-home mothers, to discuss broad social issues that
may have been perceived as individual concerns. IAF organizers
also conduct one-on-one home visits of teachers, parents, and
other concerned members of the community to open dialogue
and evaluate the most common concerns about local education.
They also attempt to build social capital within churches
and other existing institutions by using new and creative
methods of facilitating discourse, setting action agendas, and
implementing change. This strategy for achieving education
reform changes the role of the parent from passive involvement
to active engagement without transforming school culture and
organization (Shirley 1996).
The strategies used by Texas IAF show promising results.
An African American principal of a low-performing school
known for disciplinary problems used clergy and community
organizers to recruit parent participation in homework and in
efforts to battle neighborhood blight. The Fort Worth middle
school went from a ranking of twentieth to second in school
district standardized test scores in the two years after the
parental-engagement campaign (Shirley 1996).
Successful cases are not limited to efforts initiated by
school officials. Parents in a primarily Mexican American
neighborhood in Austin started a drive to establish a schoolbased
health clinic after the closure of a community clinic.
Despite facing fervent opposition from local religious groups,
their effort was successful and catalyzed further parental
involvement. The school reported significant increases in
achievement following the parental-engagement boom. After
house meetings regarding an abusive teacher, a parent-initiated
effort in El Paso led to the reassignment of a school principal
and forced all teachers to reapply for their positions, with
parental involvement in the rehiring process (Shirley 1996).
Parental Engagement Programs
in Arkansas
The Home Instruction Program for Parents of Preschool
Youngsters (HIPPY) aims to increase the variety of intellectual
experiences of pre-school children in the home. HIPPY staff,
generally members of community organizations, come into the
home to train parents in one-on-one methods of developing
school readiness. Parents are given age-appropriate problemsolving
and artistic-development materials and lessons.
Language skills are developed through reading and questionand-answer
sessions.
Evaluations have shown that children from HIPPY homes
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