Network Schools – Wayne Gersen

This recent ASCD article offers two examples of community engagement in two different venues: urban and rural, and in both cases makes it clear that it is the schools responsibility to reach out to the community and not the other way around. The article also offers examples of how the parent and community engagement resulted in improved test results. Here’s a question that some State department should explore: is there ANY case where a school’s performance improved WITHOUT increased parental and community involvement? If not, why aren’t we using some kind of school and community metric as part of the accountability plan? And if that IS the case, why don’t we make the expanded mission of public education more explicit?