Elevating Parent Voices on Learning Loss

In this August 25, 2020 Learning Loss Recovery Challenge webinar, Adrian Pedroza of Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors moderated a conversation with parent leaders from three communities across three states who are mobilizing and taking action to ensure that state and local decisions address their concerns about their children falling further behind as the pandemic continues to impact their children’s education. Setting the context, Pedroza shared the findings of Latino Parent Voices — What Latino Families Need Now, a national survey commissioned by Abriendo Puertas / Opening Doors. Responses underscored the deep concerns that parents have about learning loss — 83% of the respondents were worried that their children are falling behind in school. Presenters shared the voices of parents in their communities, along with their successes and challenges, in their quest to be heard. 

• Parent leaders and organizers in Los Angeles, affiliated with Innovate Public Schools (IPS), represented by Katy Meza and Hannah Gravette, shared stories about parents’ efforts to express their concerns about reduced learning time — by 60% — for the students of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Given that their voices have not been heard, parent leaders have filed legal action. 
• Jose Arenas, Vice President of Organizing for IPS, shared similar concerns from parents across California. Statewide, parents petitioned the governor and the legislature with 10 demands, starting with addressing learning loss. While some demands have been addressed by state leaders, many remain unaddressed.
• In Aurora, Illinois, the story shared by COFI/POWER PAC parent leader Liliana Olayo offered a much different response. After reading her school district’s very positive analysis of the digital learning roll-out plan, Ms. Olayo engaged parents throughout her mostly Spanish-speaking community to compare perspectives. Ms. Olayo reached out to the school superintendent to share that parents did not experience a positive roll-out at all. Rather, they experienced enormous challenges and had deep concerns. As a result, the superintendent began meeting with parents and included their voices in the plans moving forward. 
• In Durham, North Carolina, Brittany Gregory of the Durham Children’s Partnership shared the Digital Equity Listening Project, a community-wide effort to hear parent and student perspectives about remote learning and their top priorities to ensure continuity of learning. Ms. Gregory shared five key themes, which included the importance of home / school communication, access to technology and teacher professional development. 
• Commentator Christiane Buggs, a member of the Metro Nashville School Board, offered insights and inspiration lifting up the importance of parent voices.