Promises and Challenges of a School-Community Parent Leadership Program in an African American Hypersegregated School

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 11:25 am
  In Roundtable Session: K–12 Partnerships That Advance Asset-Orientation, Equity, and Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Pedagogies (Table 14)

Abstract

Parent engagement in urban schools is essential to student success. In historically under resourced communities, parents are often viewed in a deficit model and expected to participate activities aligned with middle-class norms and expectations instead of participating in asset-based activities that welcome parents into the central decision-making process of schools. This initiative sought to better understand the experiences that teachers faced in a newly formed asset-based partnership connecting underemployed or unemployed parents and caregivers to with teachers in kindergarten-2nd grade classrooms as literacy ambassadors for students performing below grade level. This study is significant because it provides a multidimensional understanding of parental engagement and examines teachers’ experiences in a school-community asset-based literacy initiative at an African American hypersegregated school.

Author

• Marcus C. Anthony, Rutgers University - Newark