“Democratizing” PTO Data for Racial Equity: Investigating Pathways to Challenge PTO Inequities

• In Event: Implementing Justice: Race-Conscious Policy Futures and the Practice of Educational Equity

Abstract

Alongside caregivers within the Midwest City Public Schools district, where there is a rare effort to address Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) resource inequities across schools, we conducted a longitudinal community-engaged research project to understand how PTOs might dismantle entrenched racial and economic hierarchies in education. Although PTOs commonly facilitate White parent opportunity hoarding, we explore possibilities for PTOs to promote racial justice through family and community organizing, intentional capacity building, and relational interventions aimed at building trust, solidarity, and advocacy for racial equity policies. We employed data walks and dialogue groups, novel tools in community organizing, to understand how facilitating data accessibility and dialogue around contentious realities can empower families to advocate for redistributive policies and more equitable family-school collaborations.

Authors

• Brittany C. Murray, Davidson College

• Claire Mackevicius, University of Oregon