Parental Involvement vs. Teacher Quality

            Despite continuous efforts to improve the current achievement gap that is plaguing the academic success of minority children around the world, the issue still remains one of the most pressing problems in education. Minorities are struggling with certain factors, such as social class, family involvement, and parental background that are impeding their overall ability to achieve academic excellence. These same factors are further expanding the gap between minority students and their white peers, which has unfortunately existed since the initial implement of the school system. Throughout the decades, minority students, who are classified as either African-American or Hispanic, have suffered from receiving an inadequate education and have been labeled as inferior children who do not have the capability to retain knowledge. Today, research has allowed us to dig deeper into the conditions that are separating minority students from white students, leaving us questioning the extent to which parental influence is controlling the achievement gap and whether or not the problem exists within the quality of teachers in the school system.

            To understand the gravity of the situation, we must look at the current statistics of children’s performance in education. According to the National Assessment of Education Process, commonly known as the Nation’s Report Card, the progress of Black and Hispanic students reducing the achievement gap has come to a standstill since the mid-1980s.  Astoundingly, the disparity between the groups is evident as early as elementary school, where white peers outperform minority students as early as grade four in a research study. The results of both reading and mathematics assessments conducted by the NAEP and given to eighth graders, show white students have an average score that is at least 26 points higher than minority students on a 0-500 point scale. By their senior year, minorities have an average reading score that is only slightly higher than that of white thirteen year olds. A study by the Educational Testing Service on the differences between racial groups found the gap between the two races is greatest at the top of the achievement scale. At the end of students high school career, research on achievement patterns found that only 81% of African-Americans and 63% of Latinos have either completed high school or earned a GED, compared to 90% of whites and 94% of Asians. The results continue to go downhill showing that 76% of white graduates and 86% of Asian graduates go directly to college, yet only 71% of African-American, as well as Latinos continue on to college after graduation. Even though decades have been spent trying to equalize education opportunities, minority children still lag behind white children in kindergarten, which widens throughout middle school, and becomes fixed in high school. This recurring phenomenon is undoubtedly detrimental to the success of minority children, who are often forced to try to receive an education with stereotypical setbacks, and previous misconceptions about their work ethic.

            These statistics makes us consider how much of the score is related to inadequate parental influence or unsuccessful parenting methods. Looking back into the history of the association between parents and their children in education, we acknowledge that parents generally came from a time when schooling and education was the responsibility of the teacher. The main roles of a parent in a student’s life were to discipline and provide a home. Deanna Toler-Kuhney, 49, responded to Essence Magazine on the topic, remembering her childhood schooldays as a time that generally only included her parents when they would ask, “How was school?” at the dinner table. Not saying parents did not care about how well their students were doing in school, but many were and still are not aware of the right steps they should take to actively engage in their child’s academic life.

            Now we question when should minority parents begin the process of actively becoming involved in their child’s academic years? The answer is the sooner the better. Since the achievement gap is persistent beginning in elementary school, is it best to encourage structural learning activities in the child’s toddler years. The reporters of a national report entitled Becoming a Nation of Readers: The Report on the Commission of Reading states that reading aloud to their child is “the single most important activity black parents can do to produce strong readers. Honestly, who would not want to be read a bedtime story? The interaction of parents before bedtime establishes a bond that is irreplaceable. The report argues that minority parents should assess the enthusiasm seen by many children who want to be read to, and turn that into a positive learning experience. One of the authors of the report, a minority, has embodied this method and applauds its success on his own children who have consistently won awards for top readers in their grades.

            Not only should parents increase their participation within their child’s academics at home, but also with the instructors who are teaching their children daily. We must acknowledge that there is a difference between being a supportive parent and an involved parent. Distinguishing between two shows there are two vital ways to positively influence a child’s academics. Although many parents cannot be as active in their child’s school as they want due to individual circumstances, such as low-income parents who work multiple jobs, they can still guide their children into being efficient students by making sure that they complete their homework on a daily basis and by scheduling parent-teacher conferences whenever possible. A study on the measures on parental involvement on the achievement gap of school children concluded, “Parent involvement is shown to be positively related to the child’s academic success and mediates the effects of poverty, parent’s education attainment, and ethnicity on achievement.  Gloria Ladsen-Billing, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recently made a speech encouraging parents to ask pertinent questions at conferences, such as, “What does my child know and what are they able to do? What does my child need to do and be able to do?” She also stated, “It’s not about how good he is, or how quiet she sits.”

            On the other hand, many people believe the wide differences in the achievement between the races are due to the distinct differences in the quality of teachers. A number of superintendents base this claim on the statement, “as President Obama has emphasized, the single most important factor determining whether students succeed in school is not the color of their skin or their zip code or even their parents’ income --- it is the quality of their teacher.” Teachers are viewed as the chief leaders to produce an informed student, yet many do not dedicate adequate time to establishing a positive outreach to the minority community. A professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, Meredith Phillips, encourages teachers and schools to take a greater initiative into closing the gap and believes, “Just because schools didn’t cause the problem doesn’t mean they can’t solve it.”

            Nevertheless, teachers should not base their judgment on the potential of a minority student on previous assumptions, experiences or statistics. Sue Frederick, a sixth-grade teacher in East Haven, Connecticut, advises, “…all teachers to have high expectations for their students. Students are capable of more than teachers think they are. If a teacher thinks a student is a low achiever and teaches that student at a low level, they will not be exposed to all they could be. It’s not easy, but I work in a school where it is happening.” Each individual deserves to have a strong curriculum with high expectations from him or her, with no regards to the color of his or her skin. Studies have shown that year after year, fewer African American and Hispanic students are taking as challenging courses as their white counterparts. This disproportion could be evened out if teachers recommended more minority students to enroll in higher academic courses and receive equal access. Imani Farley, an African-American 10^th grader in Ohio, admitted, “A lot of times I think blacks are discouraged from being in honors or AP classes because they see no one else in their race in those classes…And sometimes counselors don’t encourage you to challenge yourself.”

            Culture has such a significant impact on a minority student’s life, from the way he or she talks, to the activities that the child chooses to take part in. By recognizing its influence and its corresponding environment, teachers can better connect with minority students by incorporating a student’s culture into the curriculum. It is apparent that neighborhood segregation by economic class directly affects a child’s education because they cannot attain the same resources that students from a higher class are exposed to. Therefore, to positively increase teacher-to-parent interaction, teachers should have an initiative to reach out to the parents of minority students who may be from low-income families. In these conditions, their economical state may make parents of a minority feel less confident about their ability to become involved in school-related matters because they have a lack of familiarity. Hispanic families in poverty may have an added setback due to the language barrier that prevents them from effectively communicating with teachers. The US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, commented on the issue saying, “Schools can serve as community beacons in which schools become the ‘heart of the community’ and parents and students learn together.” 

            Out of the schools that have taken steps to strengthen its involvement in the success of minority students, I want to highlight on the ones that have developed specific programs dedicated specifically to this endeavor, such as The Harlem Children’s Zone. The program offers a clear path that successfully involves parents, administrators, teachers, and students who are all working towards the same goal of weakening the achievement gap. It mandates cooperation, effort, as well as support from all groups in a no-excuse atmosphere. The program exemplifies how successful minority students can be if given the amount of time and attention that they deserve and need.

            Another approach to closing the achievement gap is to increase the number of diverse teachers in schools nationwide. A report on the representation of diverse teachers in the workforce express that teachers of color can serve multiple purposes since they have a better connection to the culture of minority students and can further enrich them, both academically and socially. Furthermore, diverse teachers can provide role models for minority students, who will aspire to become as successful and in return, defy the assumed limitations from the achievement gap.

What’s more, we cannot forget that the implement of better teachers calls for a stronger evaluation system within each school. A report from The New Teacher Project has designed a method to improve evaluations which includes mandating teachers set clear and high expectations, are evaluated at least yearly, contain multiple measures of performance, and provides frequent constructive criticism. Effective evaluations will simultaneously provide well-qualified, more experienced teachers. “The difference between a good and a bad teacher can be a full level of achievement in a single school year,” says Eric Hanushek of the University of Rochester in his assessment on the growing need for better evaluations and the value of good teaching. The definition of a “good” teacher is not limited to the evaluations, but also to the way he or she prepares lesson plans that allow them to interact with students. To increase the academic results of minority students, it also imperative that the teacher focus on, reinforce, and help develop the child’s psychiatric. A multi-disciplinary expert from the Yale School of Medicine concluded, “Teachers cannot educate the ‘whole child’ if they are only half-prepared. And they cannot improve learning if they don’t know how to help address the social, emotional, and cognitive needs of children and adolescents.”

            The achievement gap. These three words have brought millions of opinions concerning the extent of its affects on minority children and the ways in which we can improve the current differences in the accomplishments between the races. If we pay more attention to both the involvement of parents and teachers, the academic success of minority students will drastically improve, simultaneously reducing the achievement gap. I cannot say that one is valued higher than the other because the influences of both are imperative to the development of minority children. By improving the school system, standardized test scores will have a greater chance of rising to the desired level, the confidence, as well as the overall capacity of minorities students will evolve, and society will finally be able to accomplish removing the educational deficits between the races that have accumulated over the decades. Even so, we must accept the simple fact that not all students will flourish with highly educated teachers or with parents who are actively involved in their academics. However, each successful minority student is a positive progress towards equalizing education opportunities throughout the nation.