Target, Strategic Partner, Critical Friend? Relationships Between School Leaders and Community Organizing Groups

• In Event: Roundtable Session 116
  In Roundtable Session: Leadership for Authentic Family and Community Partnerships: Research Perspectives to Inspire Practice

Abstract

Purpose & Perspectives
Parent participation in education is often limited to voluntarism, fundraising, and school information sessions for parents (Henderson et al., 2007). Status and power differences have produced deficit models that posit that low-income and minority parents devalue education and have little to contribute to children’s achievement (Crozier, 2000; Delgado-Gaitan, 1994; Noguera, 2001). In contrast, community organizing can be a powerful vehicle for overcoming historic obstacles to collaboration and building authentic, mutually accountable relationships (Gold, Simon & Brown, 2002; Mediratta, Shah, & McAlister, 2009; Shirley, 2002; Warren, 2010). This paper synthesizes implications of the leadership literature and the organizing literature, alongside data from a national study of community organizing, to highlight key lessons on building educative relationships between school leaders and organized parents.

Methods & Data Sources

We draw on new qualitative data from a national study of community organizing for school improvement to develop several examples of principals’ roles in community organizing for school reform. The mixed methods study used a participatory theory-of-change methodology and included over 300 interviews with organizers, parent leaders, and educators, as well as field observations and review of news coverage. The analysis here focuses specifically on the strengths and challenges of relationships between principals and organizing groups.

Results
We find that community organizing groups can be important allies for school leaders in pressing for equitable policies, resources and practices. Rather than blaming individual schools or educators for poor performance, organizing groups view underperformance through a systemic analysis of racial and class segregation and disinvestment in public education. They develop a broad base of knowledgeable leaders who are prepared to take collective action to hold decision-makers accountable for serving all schools and students well. School leaders, for their part, are important sources of knowledge, data, access, and legitimacy for organizing groups. Education organizing facilitates the bridging or boundary-spanning role of school leaders by providing a structured methodology for parents to identify shared concerns, develop potential solutions, and negotiate with principals. Our examples from initiatives in Philadelphia, Miami, Chicago, and elsewhere show how school leaders formed alliances with organized parents and recognized these parents’ unique role in advocating for urgently needed resources and reforms.

At the same time, these relationships are not without challenges. The outsider status of organized parents and the political nature of community organizing can be threatening to school leaders, as our findings also illustrate. We discuss how relationships became more contentious in some cases when parents pressed directly for changes in school practices or policy, rather than collaborating with school leaders to seek changes at the district or state level.

Significance
This paper documents emerging evidence that both education organizers and school leaders benefit from forming educative relationships. Such relationships are based on trust built over time, with each group using its power to work towards better opportunities for all students while respecting the unique power and role of the other. As education organizing expands, this work has important lessons for leaders of schools and organizing initiatives on finding common ground.

Authors

• Sara McAlister, Annenberg Institute for School Reform

• Michelle Renee, Brown University