Anne Henderson talks about Beyond the Bake Sale

Excerpts from an interview with Anne Henderson

Beyond the Bake Sale is basic primer for schools on parent involvement at a time when the focus is on standards, testing and unprecedented student and parent diversity.

Educators asked for simple, practical, step-by-step ideas they can immediately use in their classrooms and schools. They said, “Don’t tell us to do a survey, give us a survey.” “Don’t tell us to make our Back to School night better or more linked to student learning, tell us what to do.” That’s what we deliver in this book.

Every chapter is based on parent involvement research and focuses on improving student achievement in a step-by step way.

We challenge you to look at your own attitudes toward involving parents, the contributions you think parents can make to see if they square with the research that says that every parent can contribute to their children’s learning.

It all starts by building personal relationships with families, because that is what will sustain parent involvement over the long haul and build trust and morale in your school.

We provide examples of how schools can provide parents more information about what their kids are learning and doing in class, how parents can help at home and how they can guide their kids through the school successfully.

We pulled together the best thinking to help schools deal with the big problem so many of them are facing today: the diversity of their students and parents. We include specific tips, examples, ideas and advice schools can use right now.

We offer practical advice for how to make problem parents partners you can work with. Helping parents become constructive advocates for their children can be a major factor in closing the student achievement gap. Often when I mention that word “advocate” schools hear the word “adversary.” They think an advocate is someone who comes in and wants to tell schools what to do, try to get their kid in the gifted program or whatever. There certainly are some parents like that. They are irritating but generally few in number.

Many middle class parents know how to guide their kids through the system, but schools with the biggest achievement problems are not complaining about over-involved parents. The ability to be an advocate for your child, to intervene when your child is having problems, makes a big difference. Kids with parents like that tend to do well in school. They usually finish school. They have taken the classes they need to go on to college and succeed. The book suggests ways to help parents become effective advocates for their children.

Parent involvement is the underdeveloped area in improving student achievement. Schools have done a lot with testing, assessment and moving standards into the classroom. But parent involvement is the missing ingredient. We detail specific things any school can do to get parents involved and bring about significant, lasting, positive impact on student grades and test scores.