The Cobb school board member who wanted to boost parental involvement by penalizing students has switched tactics. His new proposal offers rewards for parents instead.
The school board voted down David Morgan's first proposal in January. That would have barred Pebblebrook High School students from extracurricular activities if their parents don't attend meetings with teachers and act more "engaged" in their children's academic work.
Morgan said it would help boost academic achievement at Pebblebrook High School, a lower-performing school. Parents and education scholars, however, argued it is unfair to poor and working families and punishes students for their parents’ inactions.
Morgan brought his idea back to the board at Wednesday's meeting, with some changes. Instead of mandating parent involvement, the new measure would "incentivize" parents to take part in more school activities.
Parents would earn “credits” for attending parent-teacher conferences, open house events, Road to Graduation meetings, curriculum nights and other activities.
With the credits, parents could receive extra tickets to attend graduation. They could also be awarded other items, such as Six Flags tickets, according to Morgan's modified proposal.
Initially, only ninth-graders at Pebblebrook would be required to abide by the parent-engagement policy starting in the fall, with other grades to follow, Morgan said.
School board members are expected to take up the proposal and vote on it next month.
The policy Morgan initially proposed would have been the first among metro Atlanta schools to keep students from participating in sports and other extracurricular activities because of their parents’ lack of involvement. DeKalb County has a similar policy with a small group of specialized “theme” schools, which also requires parental engagement; however, those students face possible dismissal from the schools if their parents don’t abide by the rule.
Policies that punish students or their parents with fines or other punitive measures for not abiding by school rules, such as being truant or late to class, have popped up in other school districts across the country, though academic experts say such approaches rarely resolve the problems.
In defending the proposal, Morgan cited the myriad of education studies which indicate students with more engaged and involved parents do better academically. Engagement can include a wide range of activities, from volunteering with the PTA and attending school meetings to tutoring students to helping children with homework.
“All too often, for some of our students, especially when they reach high school, the structure and support that they so richly deserve from the home when it comes to their educational matriculation and ascension is insufficient,”Morgan wrote in his proposal. “Consequently, we all, the administrators, teachers, community and counselors and most importantly, the student, are shortchanged when it comes to all parties doing their part to assist in the child succeeding.”
“To change this decades-old reality, it is incumbent that we create a plan that motivates and mandates that we are all, parents, teachers, students, administrators and community are doing our part to function as a unit for the betterment of our precious students.”
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