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Public–private partnerships (PPPs) have a growing presence in U.S. public schools in activities ranging from standardized testing to after-school programs to charter schools. A smaller scale mode of collaboration between public schools and private actors not typically described as a PPP is fundraising by parents and community members through parent–teacher associations or organizations (PTAs or PTOs) and school- or district-level foundations. These organizations have dramatically expanded fundraising in reaction to several trends. This article describes case studies of 2 districts in which school board policy was modified to address concerns that such fundraising produces inequity. In Newton, Massachusetts, and Bellevue, Washington, policy limits fundraising benefiting individual schools in favor of approaches to benefit the entire district. Drawing on interviews and public documents, the article examines how these policies were adopted and what approach they take to address inequity. It concludes by considering this phenomenon in relation to urban inequality and describing policy concerns on the horizon related to philanthropy of this nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the types of family-school relationships that promote academic, socio-economic, and social and emotional well-being of black African immigrant children in the United States. The data are ethnographic, drawing on one year of participant observation and interviews at two elementary schools. The findings are also set within the context of an analysis of data from the New Immigrant Survey. The article identifies mechanisms by which relationships between black African immigrants and schools are created and argues that intersections between demographics and school culture are central, particularly as related to the possibilities for relational power, which can allow parents and school staff to transcend persistent inequalities of race and discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been observed that forays into public education finance resemble Russian novels--"long, tedious, and everybody dies in the end." On any given day, dozens of news stories describe schools nationwide struggling to make ends meet. And, just as "each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," each underfunded school is underfunded in its own complicated way. Funding for public education comes from many places, chief among them local property taxes, at least historically. States--which bear primary responsibility for administering their education systems--and private litigants have struggled for over sixty years to produce funding formulas that weaken the link between a community's wealth, as measured by property taxes, and the quality of its education. Alongside that trend to develop more equitable public funding, another trend began to emerge, in the form of increased public school reliance on sophisticated private fundraising organizations. Studies show that these organizations are unequally distributed along socioeconomic lines, leading many to conclude that they foster exactly the sort of inequitable public school resources that states have been trying to stifle. Although there is not enough data to claim that this disrupts equitable funding efforts statewide or nationwide, these organizations continue to grow rapidly, and the existing anecdotal evidence of neighboring schools with dramatically different resources is troubling. Calls to prohibit such private donations are also troubling, however, as these donations are well intended and provide schools with necessary resources and community support. Currently, no state-level regulations exist to provide guidance for how private donations might equitably exist within a publicly funded school system. This Note argues that it is time for state legislators to break this silence and proactively determine a statewide protocol for private donations that comports with their state's mission to provide a high quality public education to children from all socioeconomic backgrounds. In doing so, this Note emphasizes that it is critical to avoid characterizing private donations as inherently good or inherently bad because solutions permitting unlimited private donations are as undesirable as solutions that completely eliminate them. State legislators are equipped to find an appropriate point on that spectrum, one which protects the valuable goal of providing public education to all children equitably but does not discourage the valuable benefits of local community support for public education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the intersecting strands of the movement for desegregation in public schools and in the National Parent Teacher Association ( PTA), the largest volunteer organization dedicated to youth and education in the twentieth century. The PTA underwent a slow, contentious transition in at least two significant ways. First, while the National PTA office at first supported the rights of state and local chapters to dictate their own affairs, eventually it asserted control on all policy (including desegregation) for its branches. Second, the unification of the PTA's membership did not occur until 1970. While the PTA suffered from internal divisions along racial lines, black women wished to sustain their guidance on school policies and programs for young people in their communities. Eventually, PTA members enacted a policy that guaranteed inclusion and authority for black members. Leaders in the PTA, therefore, guided a significant shift in policy over time away from acceptance of segregation to an overt insistence on inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of parents-particularly middle- and upper-middle-class parents- are working to fill budgetary gaps through their fundraising, grant writing, and volunteerism in urban public schools. Yet little is known about how this may shape norms and practices related to parental engagement within particular schools. Drawing from a case study of an elementary school undergoing demographic shifts in its student population, this article examines the scope and consequences of middle-class parents' collective engagement. The research reveals that parents brought new resources and educational opportunities to the school, yet their engagement through the parent-teacher organization (PTO) and the school's reliance on their contributions engendered tensions and exacerbated existing status positions among parents. The findings highlight the limitations of positioning middle-class parental engagement as a key intervention strategy in urban education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scallywags is a community‐based, early intervention programme for young children (aged 3–7) with behavioural, emotional and social problems, which integrates work in the home and school with a parenting curriculum and direct work with children. A pre‐post intervention study across multi‐sites of 340 participants is reported. Using standardised measures, the study found statistically significant reductions in problems at home and school experienced by children who completed the programme, and in parental stress levels. Participation was found to be high and the project acceptable to parents, many of whom would be described as hard to reach. The rigorous evaluation of this real‐life service and its positive outcomes highlight the potential of such programmes to tackle the needs of these children and families, and help prevent longer‐term problems associated with early onset behavioural problems, including social exclusion, antisocial behaviour and educational failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies education policies regarding single mothers' involvement in children's schooling in Great Britain. The consensus amongst educationalists in Great Britain is that there should be a "partnership" between the home and the school in which parental involvement is central. The emphasis on parental involvement and responsibility is increasing under Great Britain's new Labour government, with proposals for "back to basics" in primary schools, summer literacy schemes, home-school contracts and homework policies with guidelines for the amount of time to be spent on home study. Parental responsibility is also emphasised in the government's Crime and Disorder Bill, with powers to impose curfews on children under 10 and powers for the courts to order parenting classes for parents whose competence in controlling their children is in doubt. Parental involvement presupposes the availability of time, material resources and knowledge of the education system. Parental involvement, as it is defined by educational policy and the schools, involves a range of pedagogical and educational tasks which co-ordinate with the school.

The indicators of parental involvement in children's education vary considerably across studies, most of which treat parental involvement as a unidimensional construct. This study identified four dimensions of parental involvement and assessed the relationship of each dimension with parental background and academic achievement for a large representative sample of U.S. middle school students. The findings provide little support for the conjecture that parents with low socioeconomic status are less involved in their children`s schooling than are parents with higher socioeconomic status. Furthermore, although schools varied somewhat in parental involvement associated with volunteering and attendance at meetings of parent-teacher organizations, they did not vary substantially in levels of involvement associated with home supervision, discussion of school-related activities, or parent-teacher communication. Yet the discussion of school-related activities at home had the strongest relationship with academic achievement. Parents' participation at school had a moderate effect on reading achievement, but a negligible effect on mathematics achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looks at the ineffectiveness of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers or the PTA in educational reform in the United States. Parents' influence over neighborhood schools; Reasons for the organization's impotency; PTA's action to stifle dialogue on education issues; Options for parental action against this inaction.

In the article, the author discusses the latest practices in music education, particularly in the U.S., as of April 2011. She cites as example the child-centered parent-teacher association (PTA) performances that were helped realized by Rosemary Wharton, a music teacher at the Grand Forks, North Dakota-based Belmont Elementary School. She presents her experience in doing the informal process-based performance called informance that was introduced by Mary Pautz.

Eleven parents of a high school in Tennessee agreed to evaluate their local high school program using the newly developed "ParentTeacher Association High School Evaluation Scale (PHSES) under the conditions that their names and identity not be released. The study shows that their opinions of the accountability of local high school is somewhat the same as other parents of other high schools, and that schools are not up to what might considered to be average for an ideal high school in relation to the present state of the art in learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study about brain damaged parents in the U.S. Parents with brain damage can be identified by soft signs such as frustration, inability to see their child, fantasy, romanticism and inability to hear the professionals. A series of perceptual training for brain damaged parents can enhance cognitive processes. Therapy and counseling are also part of the parent reeducation program. The ultimate goal of these parents is to return to the community and they are mainstreamed by having them appear at local school board meetings and before parents' and teachers' associations.

Reports on the results of a survey on the interests and needs of members of professional and parent organizations in Mississippi in relation to gifted education. Indication of the presence of opportunities for the development of partnerships between gifted education advocates and members of educational and parent associations.

Looks at the inaction of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers or the PTA on the Goals 2000: Educate America Act. Government's plan to have unprecedented control over education; PTA stalwart's decision to leave the organization due to this issue.

The article focuses on the "Change the World, Start With Energy Star" tour of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. The tour aims to encourage children and their families to address the climate change and save money and energy. EPA, in cooperation with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and Parent Teacher Organizations, will encourage people to join energy efficiency service projects.