Parents as Curators? Supporting Parent Agency and Informed Decisions

Bruno Manno, Ph.D., with the Progressive Policy Institute moderated a conversation exploring why and how to equip parents with information and agency to take advantage of increased K–12 education options for their children, including charters, microschools, education savings accounts, homeschooling and more. This was the second webinar in a series exploring the potential and implications of parents as curators of their children’s education.

Cindi Williams of Learning Heroes shared that 9 out of 10 parents inaccurately believe their children are at or above grade level in reading and math and described Learning Heroes’ Going Beyond Grades campaign as helping parents understand how their children are actually doing academically. She also highlighted a need to collaborate with teachers to address this disconnect: “We feel like a huge gap in the system is nobody’s actually teaching teachers how to have honest conversations with parents.”

Mike McShane, Ph.D., of EdChoice shared his organization’s monthly polling data, showing that 1 in 5 parents have changed school types for their child (e.g., from public to charter, etc.) and that bullying is the most common reason cited by parents who change their children’s schools. McShane also argued that as educational options increase, frameworks related to school building regulations and zoning need to evolve to be agile enough to meet the demands and growth for various kinds of learning experiences.

Keri Rodrigues of the National Parents Union shared that, among the 1.8 million families across the country involved with her organization, “the thing that’s really giving me joy about this moment is watching parents take back their power” and advocate for better information, including through the EPIC (Everyday Parents Impacting Change) campaign in New Jersey among other efforts. Rodrigues also noted the necessity for quality choices for parents, not just any choices: “Not all choices are worth choosing and not all parents have access to good choices. And that’s where this is going to get really tricky. Yes, parents want choice — 86% of American families want more public school choice options. But they’ve got to provide meaningful, measurable results.”

Maya Martin Cadogan of Parents Amplifying Voices in Education (PAVE) described her organization’s three-pronged model collaborating with parents in Washington, D.C., to connect, inform, and empower. She also reviewed victories participating parents have achieved, including increasing per-pupil funding and starting a new charter school for students. Cadogan shared that the goal of PAVE is that families are “driving the policies, they’re partnering with those policymakers and school leaders and they’re making sure that they are identifying what it is that they want the system to change and how to make that happen.”

Cristina González, Ed.D., of Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors (AP-OD) discussed AP-OD’s methodology of using a “popular education” approach, with local facilitators across 42 states building parent leadership to grow parents’ knowledge, access, and agency to make informed decisions for their children. González stressed the importance of AP-OD’s approach that leads to relational trust: “It’s not just what we do, why we do it, but also how we do it…so it’s our consistency, the respect that we have for families, the truthfulness that we share with them, and the integrity of the work.”

Panelists also discussed progress they are seeing toward supporting parent awareness and agency, including more local collaboration among districts and organizations, as well as persistent challenges, including politics and the underfunding of teachers. 

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