Fighting the Public School Fortress
Posted by Allison Fine on January 26, 2011
I have worked with a number of nonprofits and foundations over the past few years, terrific organizations like Common Cause and the Avi Chai Foundation, traditional organizations working sincerely to turn themselves into Networked Nonprofits. To break out from behind their high walls and wide moats and focus on building meaningful relationships with wide networks of folks.
I am also doing the same as president of my synagogue, Temple Beth Abraham (new website coming soon!), a lovely 112 year old institution that has fortressed itself over many years.
In the last several weeks, I’ve also taken on the role of insurgent as a parent trying to storm the barricades of our local public school district. It has been a while since I’ve been up against a formidable fortress like this. It is fascinating to see how predictable their reactions and actions are, their knee jerk inclination to discuss and decide important issues in back rooms, their desire for continuity over disruption, the motions of listening that are really just talking at parents.
In my meetings with administrators and school board members, they key characteristics that has struck me the most has been the administration’s unwillingness to examine the relationship between the school district and parents. It has ossified to the point where few parents show up for meetings communicated by e-blasts and press releases. It begins a viscious cycle; they declare a meeting, we are tired of being talked at in edu-speak so stay home, they intuit we’re not interested, we intuit they don’t care about us. And on and on….
This tired cycle is most often broken when institutions face a crisis; sales or donations are down significantly, an organization faces a significant loss of reputation such as the American Red Cross faced after Hurricane Katrina. In these instances, it required soul searching on the part of the organizations to use a different lens, a social lens, to change their relationship between inside and outside. And then the walls can start to crumble.
Public schools are in crisis across the country. Their funding is being cut by states, local taxes are down, public pressure is on to both increase test scores and develop and inspire a generation of creative thinkers (goals at odds with one another) making school administration one of the hardest jobs around. But without engaged and enthusiastic parents, these districts are fortresses sitting on desert islands. They are turning their back on our energy, enthusiasm, talents, resources and networks, which is a terrible loss for everyone. However, unlike organizations that rely on sales or donations, public institutions have to be forced to change from the outside most often.
And that’s what we began last night. A group of parents met and there was wonderful energy, and yes, some anger, in the room. I offered to create a parent-to-parent network online to share information about what is happening since the news coming from the administration is too often sparse window dressing, make sure we have representation at key meetings and develop strategies together of how to storm the barricades. When I asked my network on Twitter this morning the tool they recommend for starting this work both Amy Sample Ward and Shaun Dakin recommended Google Groups.
I’ll get that started and plan to post here on our progress fighting the fortress. Should be interesting, wish it wasn’t so darn important for my kids.
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5 Responses to “Fighting the Public School Fortress”
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Allison Fine said
Amazingly smart comment just in from Amy Sample Ward:
Thanks for sharing your personal experience and case study, Allison! It’s great to have another practical example of the way that communities (whether defined as a community of a cause, a geography, or an issue) can use technology to support what it wants to accomplish.
I wanted to share a few things I’ve learned from starting networks and low-barrier communications tools like a google group:
1. Ensure there’s context from the start. Include descriptions and details about why the group is forming, what the point is, and why this tool was chosen, and include links to any related sites (like the school’s website or places to get resources). This will help people confirm they are in the right place, and give you something to point to if you need to step in to conversations to get people back on topic.
2. Make sure people feel welcome. Welcoming new members can help ensure people are engaged especially when doing so is a model of the tool; ie if using a google group, welcome new members with an email and introduce yourself, then ask them to reply with introductions for themselves.
3. Make sure it’s clear what to do. Just as you want to make sure people are in the right place and open to engaging, you want to be sure everyone is clear what they are expected to do. Many times, members do not participate for fear of doing or saying something that isn’t in line with what the group is for, and that’s because it isn’t clear just what it IS for! Provide examples and calls to action clearly for new members and those looking to participate.
Thanks again and I hope you’ll keep us updated on the group’s progress!
LaToniya A Jones said
Nice Tips. Thanks for sharing and highlighting the need to welcome, state the mission/purpose of group, and provide introductions. Parents especially need to feel they are operating in an emotionally safe space!
(Former Principal, Non-profit Founder/Executive Director)
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Allison Jones said
Excellent post, Allison. I work in education and have always wondered how social media can increase communication and trust in the school community. There is a mentality that views transparency as dangerous and when they do communicate it is in the most removed way possible, which inevitably disengages parents. This bothers me as a citizen as we trust a great deal of our children’s time to these institutions that so often have closed doors.
However, one thing I notice in NYC are the numerous blogs started by parents, teachers, and even students that try to share information and build community outside of the schools (free agents?). Can this trend start as a push for schools/districts to embrace a more open approach when it comes to communicating? I also find this an especially important question for NYC as it just hired a chief digital officer to help the city utilize technology to connect with citizens.
At the same time, a challenge I wonder about is if the organic grassroots form of organizing on social media lose its impact once it is acknowledged and embraced by such large bureaucratic organizations like school boards (especially in NYC?) Are there case studies of districts and parents working well together using social media?
Alexandra Peters said
There is probably no fortress more protected than the barricaded world of schools. We give them control of our children’s education, but really we give them control of our children’s lives for most of their childhood, and we’re standing outside the drawbridge. Are they inherently bad places? No, of course not – I speak as as someone who has had a multitude of roles in schools, from teacher, to PTA President, to board chair. But they are not built on the cooperative sharing of information – what does the school really know about what goes in the complex lives of the children they teach, outside the school walls? When do schools ask parents for input? The much touted partnership between parents and school always reminds me of custodial situations in unhappy divorces, where the child must bridge two lives, with little connection between those lives. Some partnership.
Because we all went to school, we all know what school should be like. And we all know that parents aren’t involved. This replicates the factory model of schools that grew out of the Industrial Revolution, in which parents were obedient to the authority of the factory, which had total control over the lives of the workers. Schools as we know them were created in response to child labor laws that took children out of factories and put them in institutions that – surprise! – ran like factories. It’s why schools look like factories, why bells ring, and why learning is compartmentalized so that it can be supervised.
But I agree with you, Alison, that now it’s time for the Digital Revolution to break down those barricades. Some of this is happening already as schools become wired, and students routinely have access (gasp!) to the outside world. The walls are breaking down from the inside out. I love your idea of creating Google Groups for parents, and agree with Amy Sample Ward that you should be extremely clear on the purpose of this network. Sharing information, having representation at key meetings, these are excellent goals. But I’d encourage you to work cooperatively not to storm the barricades, because it doesn’t work, but to figure out strategies to have parents infiltrate the school. Not bake sales. Find real ways, create real goals, to engage with the faculty and administration that will not threaten them, because they’ll just keep you out. Make your presence very large but not intimidating. Get inside the fortress in any way you can, but be very clear on what you’re doing there, because from the school’s point of view, there is no room for you and they’ll shut you out.
And just remember that Brown vs, Board of Ed created legislation that has had more impact on schools than anything, ever. That was a movement of parents.