Reflections of Beyond the Bake Sale: A Community-Based Relational Approach to Parent Engagement in Schools by M. Warren, C. Rubin, and P. S. Uy

The research and discussions in Beyond the Bake Sale was compelling to me.  As a teacher in a culturally-diverse, urban high school I am certainly interested in ways to engage the parents of my students.  In fact, I would say that bridging the communication gap with my students’ parents has proved to be one of the more challenging aspects of my new career.

The article cited three case studies that exemplify different ways that a community-based organization (CBO) can partner with schools to engage parents in their children’s schooling.  As the title suggests, this engagement is intended go well beyond simple fundraising or one-way, school-to-parent communication.  Although some differences existed between the three models, a common thread was evident—active development of parental leadership within their school districts by creating relationships between parents first and foremost.  By successfully bonding parents to one another, the imbalance of power between the school and individual parents becomes remedied through collective parental empowerment.  The authors suggest that this healthier balance of power precedes successful bridging between the schools and parents.

How can the CBOs help?  In the case studies discussed, the CBOs act as go-betweens, providing health, educational, language and cultural services.  Additionally, they often are key resources of funding, either through grants or other partnerships.  One could argue that the positive results go well beyond an increase in parental engagement in their children’s education.  For example, the education of parents seemed to be of equal importance in the partnerships.  This education included a variety of topics of interest to the community at large, leadership training, English language skills, and parenting assistance.  Additional and significant training also occurred via employment opportunities given to many parents within the school districts and CBOs.  All in all, these efforts use public education as a springboard for social and economic community development. 

While reading the article, I found myself thinking about LCHC and the Teen Coalition.  I was so impressed with our own local CBO during my recent observation and lesson.  I can definitely see LCHC as the same conduit for community empowerment as the examples cited in the article.  It makes so much sense to me that parents would want to build relationships with others parents—especially those with similar language and cultures—before having the confidence to take leadership roles in their communities and schools.  Just like parents, teens also need to build social and cooperative relationships before becoming leaders themselves.  In my view, the Teen Coalition is doing a wonderful job developing the adolescents of the Greater Lowell area by providing projects and programs that enable empowerment and decision making.  When I look at the services that LCHC is providing to the community, it is clear their efforts are impactful in Lowell and the surrounding towns.  I would be very interested to see how they are extending their reach to parents and if they are actively engaged in bridging parent-to-school communication.  Further, I would like to find ways to promote their efforts in Greater Lowell Technical High School where I teach.  I believe their contributions could help our students and bridge the relationships to the parents and communities we serve.

My final thoughts are on a topic that the authors touched on in the article.  They mentioned the importance of CBOs’ focus on assets rather than needs.  I believe this is a very important point.  Community development is most impactful when done from within, utilizing the natural assets and talents of the community.  Often the traditional “gap analysis” with subsequent outside intervention further exacerbates the power imbalance, leaving community members isolated with no clear direction on how to help.  Again, I think LCHC is an excellent example of how a CBO uses any and all assets within its own footprint to enrich and develop the community.  I thought the the following excerpt from Building Communities From the Inside Out:

A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets by J. Kretzman and  J. McKnight  to be convincing in this regard.

Building Communities from the Inside Out