| September
2004
Back
to School Starts at Home
New
ways to get involved in your children's education.
story by Rich Lord
photography
by Karen Meyers
The
federal No Child Left
Behind Act of 2001 says
schools have to
give parents
the chance to get involved
with their child's education.
So
Pittsburgh-area schools are
using all sorts of tactics to
get parents' attention—from
computers to crazy hats.
 Not
everything Shayana Key does on the computer she got from
school is educational. “I like to go on the Cartoon
Network” Web site, the fourth-grader says. “I
use it for games.” One of her favorites is Puff’s
Skate Jam, in which a board-riding hound dodges obstacles
and picks up treats. But there’s one thing about having
that machine in her Fineview home that could have educational
repercussions long after she grows out of steering Puff. “My
mom,” Shayana says, “goes on there and checks
on my grades.”
Shayana
and her mother, Michelle Hilton, are among the early participants
in a Pittsburgh Public Schools
effort called Emerging Links. Under
the program, the district gives refurbished computers to low-income
families. Parents get basic computer training, enabling them
to use e-mail, Web browsers and the district’s Web
portal, called Dashboard. Participating families are required
to use the computer
for about 30 minutes a day. If they don’t, they lose it.
Piloted
with two classrooms in Clayton Elementary and Burgwin Elementary
this June, Emerging Links is about to go big. Over
the course of
the upcoming school year, at least 6,000 families will receive
refurbished computers, discounted Internet connections and
basic online education. The program is an effort to bridge
the “digital
divide” between low-income families and those who are
better off, says Elbie Yaworsky, the district’s chief
technology officer, but it’s also much more. “The
reason for closing the digital divide,” he says, “and
the reason for Emerging Links is, first and foremost, engagement.”
In
the pilot phase, engagement happened. Teachers started posting
student homework assignments online. Parents started e-mailing
teachers—and getting responses. And parents and kids
started arguing about who gets to use the computer first,
according to
testimony at a June wrap-up session on the pilot phase. Other
than the arguing part, that kind of parent-teacher-student
interaction
is crucial to successful education, according to 30 years
of research. Such engagement is required by the No Child
Left
Behind Act of
2001.
No
Child Left Behind requires that school districts give parents
the opportunity to get involved both in the
classroom
and in
the decision-making process. “Schools are starting
to take very seriously the fact that parents have to be
involved,” says
Sandy Zelno, associate director of the Pennsylvania School
Reform Network, which acts as an advocate for parents. “The
sad part is, many schools have no idea how to deal with
parents.” Districts
nationwide are now skateboarding through the intricacies
of parent involvement, picking up new technologies and
age-old techniques
here, dodging potential pitfalls there.
Pittsburgh,
as the region’s biggest school district, faces
the biggest challenge—and has launched a multipronged
effort to meet it. (But as the article on page 54 shows,
districts of
all sizes are finding innovative ways to turn education
into a family affair.)
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