Education Reform Through Community Organizing - Like a Match to Dry Grass

Harvard's Mark Warren is a  guest blogger in the Washington Post's Political Bookworm and reports on his project studying education reform through community action. He comes to the surprising (?) conclusion that community organizing works like a Match on Dry Grass. Very cool.

 Among the many strategies for improving America’s schools, Mark R. Warren offers a promising approach: community organizing, particularly in public schools in low-income neighborhoods.

In a new book, “A Match on Dry Grass: Community Organizing as a Catalyst for School Reform,” Warren, an associate professor of education at Harvard, serves as lead author in a series of case studies in New York, Los Angeles, Denver and elsewhere in which parents and students became participants in reform. Here, he describes the efforts of community organizing in education in Chicago.

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Following community organizing principles, the association approached these parents as potential leaders. With participation from local school principals, the association brought Latina mothers together as a group in a “parent mentor” program where they could learn how to become involved in schools in a supportive environment and build their knowledge and confidence.

The program placed these parent mentors in classrooms two hours a day, where they helped teachers by preparing materials, giving students individual attention, and organizing classroom activities.

At first, teachers were skeptical and worried that parent mentors would be “spying” on them. But the mentors showed they could provide real help and they built relationships with the teachers; today, there are not enough mentors for all the teachers who want one.

With the support of the association, the parents became mentors for other parents, helping them to get involved as well. Over the past 15 years, parent mentors have spearheaded efforts to open community learning centers and libraries, and launched a tutoring project and a home visitation program, among other initiatives.

So.... organizing works!!