Dr. Stephen F. Ronnenkamp, Former Superintendent
Granite School District, April 2006 Region 5 PTA Training
America’s public schools can be traced back to 1639-40. In Massachusetts, schools were established by direct taxation to:
- Teach basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills
- Cultivate values that serve a democratic society (history and civics)
The creators of these first schools assumed that families and churches bore the major responsibility for raising a child. However, as time progressed, public schools assumed more responsibility. At the beginning of the twentieth century, society began to assign additional responsibility to public schools. Industrialization and the expansion of a market economy fueled disturbing social issues. Publicly financed, free schools, open to all children, were to ensure that future citizens would exercise their rights as American citizens. This trend of increasing the responsibility of public schools began then and has accelerated ever since. Public schools are society’s attempt to structure its future. Public schools were called “common schools” because the mechanism for accomplishing these goals was to provide all children with a common set of experiences. The common set of experiences is the curriculum.
NEW MISSION
Public education has been experiencing a transformation of accountability for the learning at high levels for all children. The results of research confirm the credence of early effective schools research:
“We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven’t so far.”
There is clearly a new articulated mission for public schools. All children must learn at high levels. In America, no child can be left behind. It’s a move from compulsory attendance and access to required learning for all. The key factor in the success of high-performing schools is the belief and expectation that all students can excel. This climate reinforces the fact that a partnership of caring parents, supportive communities and effective schools is critical to a child’s success in the near and long term.
THE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATIVE VP
The quality of a school hinges on the administrative VP and the degree to which he or she engages parents and community in a shared vision of success for all, creates a culture of respect and high expectations, and promotes delivery of high-quality curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The administrative VP is expected to lead the school in meeting the learning needs of all students, to know what constitutes good instructional practice, and to coach and otherwise guide teachers in the continual improvement of their educational knowledge and practice, so that all students can reach their potential.
PARENTS AND COMMUNITY
In our democracy, parents should not be a passive audience that approves or disapproves of the performance of schools, but rather needed contributors to the overall success of the mission of a school. To the extent that parents and the community are passive, democracy falls short of its full measure.
Not only do parents establish high expectations for their own children, but they demand effective teaching, high academic standards, and strong educational leadership.
PTA LEADER
PTA leaders are essential to the success of parent involvement. Generally speaking - from my own experience - PTA has a mission to:
- Support and speak on behalf of children
- Assist parents in developing parenting skills
- Encourage parent and public involvement in the schools
May I suggest five points of advice to school PTA leaders:
- Get to know the administrative VP and build a collaborative relationship
- Maintain a “what’s in the best interest of children” mentality
- Become well acquainted with the vision of the school and become a strong advocate for its mission
- Reach out to all parent groups and help them work through the system
- Don’t allow contentions to grow, but help facilitate the findings of solutions
ADMINISTRATIVE VP/PTA LEADER
If there is a strong climate of respect and collaboration between the administrative VP and PTA, the school will be more effective in accomplishing its mission of educating all children at high levels of achievement.