[blparent] Parent report cards?

[Melissa Ann Riccobono]

Very interesting...  Thanks for posting!  With Austin starting kindergarten
this fall (and actually going in for a kindergarten assessment today) I too
feel my school days are starting all over again.  I plan to be as involved
as possible, but I'd hate the thought of a report card judging my
performance.  And, I can't believe teachers would embrace this either...  It
would just add work to an all ready huge work load.
Melissa 

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Jo Elizabeth Pinto
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2012 1:33 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
Subject: [blparent] Parent report cards?

Who's judging whom? Parent report card proposal stirs debate

There's a movement afoot for teachers to start issuing report cards... on
parents! How would you feel about being graded by your child's teacher? One
Florida state lawmaker is proposing just that. NBC Education Correspondent
Rehema Ellis reported the story for TODAY, and it got her thinking about her
own parental participation.

 
NBC News Correspondent Rehema Ellis

By Rehema Ellis, NBC correspondent

As I researched this story, it made me think about my own family. I asked
myself, would I mind being graded as a parent?

All my son's life -- he's 8 years old now and in the second grade -- I've
embraced the notion that my school days are starting anew. Of course, the
big difference now is that I'm in the teacher/tutor role. I make him
breakfast every morning and sit down with him. I read all the school notices
and frequently communicate with his teachers and the school. There's a big
payoff: I know how he's doing in school and his report card has never been a
surprise. (And I should add, he's doing really well in school.) 

So, based on my involvement in my son's school life, I think I'd get a
pretty good parent report card. Still, I got to thinking: What kind of grade
would I get if I missed a few school notices or didn't check all of his
homework? It could happen, because as we all know parenting isn't easy.
Parents, especially those who work outside of the home, have long days on
the job, often exhausting commutes, and frequent challenges to keep the
house in order AND keep an eye on what's happening in their child's school. 

Susan Rayburn, the principal at Lincoln Elementary School in Plant City,
Fla., told me that grading could jump-start involvement from parents who are
not actively engaged in their child's education. But she also cautioned that
if not handled properly, the parent report card could be a turnoff. Some
parents could feel intimidated, she said. If the bill passes in the Florida
legislature, Rayburn said she hopes teachers use the parent report card "as
a tool for partnership versus a 'gotcha.' " 

She makes a great point. After all, the ultimate goal is to help children do
better in school. If the parent report card is used, as she says, to
"showcase what parents are doing and then help bridge that gap for what they
are not doing," everyone's grades would improve ... kids AND parents.


I read the article online and decided to post it for an idea to chew on.

Personally, I think the idea sucks rocks.  Most parents, including me, are
hard enough on themselves, and now to be judged by teachers as well?  No
thanks!

The idea is also dangerous, in my opinion.  If teachers start issuing report
cards based on parental involvement and student progress, the next step is
for the government to take action against the parents that don't, in the
opinion of teachers, measure up.  What happens to the parents who don't
pass?  Or the average ones who get C's?  Will the government have the right
to step in and force them to improve their "grades"?  Bad idea.

I do believe parents should be involved with the education of their
children, and I don't believe it's all up to the teachers.  My sister
teaches in public school, and I've heard the stories about hard times in the
classroom with no parental backup, and adversarial relationships between
parents and teachers over who is at fault when kids don't thrive, or when
they get in trouble.  So I support teachers wholeheartedly, but I wouldn't
want to be graded by them on my parenting skills and philosophies, any more
than they would probably not like me to send them a report card on their
teaching habits and expertise.

Jo Elizabeth

"How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young,
compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of
the weak and the strong.  Because someday in life you will have been all of
these."--George Washington Carver, 1864-1943, American scientist
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