Broken Compass or Broken System? Questioning the Role of Parent Involvement in Promoting Student Achievement

摘要

Policy makers frequently call for parent participation in their children's education, asserting its efficacy in promoting school improvement and lessening the achievement gap among racial and socioeconomic groups. Over the past 15 years, parent involvement has been promoted in major legislative efforts at the national and state level, including the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, the No Child Left Behind Act, as well as the Race to the Top Fund. And recently, Hillary Clinton has staked her claim in this territory with the "Too Small to Fail" initiative, whose website encourages parents to talk to their children and features a line of infant clothing "covered with stuff to talk to your baby about".