Parent Leaders Research Articles

“Venimos Para Que se Oiga la Voz”: Activating Community Cultural Wealth as Parental Educational Leadership

This article expands a more inclusive parental engagement framework by broadening notions of educational leadership using an example of organizing actions of Latina parent leaders amid a hostile anti-immigrant climate within an urban elementary school. Researchers draw on Yosso’s community cultural wealth framework to analyze how a Latinx parent group and parent leaders activated and nurtured community cultural wealth. The findings describe the ways in which the Latinx parent group fostered community cultural wealth and, in doing so, cultivated parental educational leadership. The authors discuss how the Latinx parent leaders then negotiated tensions that emerged between the Latinx parent group and school officials when a new parent organization was established at the school. We use this study to both disrupt traditional notions of educational leadership and discuss the implications it has for principal preparation programs.

The Importance of Collaboration in Advancing Understanding of Rare Disorders: US/EU Joint Initiative on Silver-Russell Syndrome.

Patient-support organizations can facilitate a significant change in the way rare disorders are approached. Besides connecting families with each other and directing patients to experienced medical specialists, these groups, by collaborating with government initiatives like COST, can effect the direction and funding of rare disease research. By concentrating the rare disease patient population and funneling them to specific centers of excellence, these organizations help build specialists' experience and their study populations. It requires a basic spirit of collaboration, driven parent leaders, a well-organized support platform, sources of funding, supportive clinical and research professionals and finally an effective method of collecting and disseminating information. Silver-Russell Syndrome is an excellent example of a rare disorder that has become better recognized, understood and treated because patient-support organizations, using the internet as a critical tool, have worked together with clinical care/research specialists and public funding agencies to build collaboration.

New immigrant parents’ experiences in a parent education programme

ABSTRACTThe immigrant population in Hong Kong is steadily increasing every year. This immigrant population largely comprises families, most of whom have pre-school and school-age children. However, limited information is known on the practices that immigrant parents adopt when they become involved in their children’s schooling. In the present study, the researcher implemented a Quality Education Fund project called ‘Building a caring community: Family support and empowerment.’ The project aimed to promote parent education and to build a caring community by implementing a group parent education program (GPEP) for low-income and new immigrant parents. The parent leaders conducted an outreach parent education program in which the low-income, new immigrant parents (target parents) had their children enrolled in two kindergartens. The parent leaders imparted parenting knowledge, shared positive parenting strategies, and exchanged their own experiences with target parents. The present research aims to study how new immigrant parents evaluate their experiences and the effectiveness of the GPEP. Results suggest that providing opportunities for mutual support and emotional healing correlates with improved parenting attitudes and practices.

Lessons From an Urban School Readiness Initiative: Including Family, Friend, and Neighbor Care Providers

ABSTRACTResearch Findings: Using a structured qualitative case study method, this study examined one urban school readiness initiative's efforts to identify and engage family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) care providers to promote school readiness in underserved and immigrant communities. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with 23 FFN providers, 14 parent leaders, and 35 community partners in five urban neighborhoods. Results show that 1) a community-organizing approach was the primary method of engaging FFN providers, 2) FFN providers self-reported positive impacts of their engagement for both themselves and the children in their care, and 3) the inclusion of FFN providers elicited many strong feelings among partners about potential benefits and liabilities of supporting FFN care, which in some cases acted as a barrier to successful engagement of FFN providers. Practice and policy: Results highlight key strategies and potential benefits of engaging FFN providers in comprehensive school readiness systems. The tensions that arose regarding the engagement of FFN providers point to the importance of addressing misconceptions of FFN care and its value to children, families, and communities in order to ensure a shared commitment and understanding of the value and possible benefits of such a strategy.

Personal growth and development of parent leaders through a group parent education program

Many scholars assert that current parent education practices in Hong Kong are dominated by the transmission perspective. This perspective assumes inadequacies in the knowledge and skills of parents; hence, the goal of parent education appears to be the transmission of facts as well as skills development and values information that prepare children to become better members of society. Simply providing parents with knowledge about child development and teaching them certain skills cannot help them gain deeper insights. Indeed, parents find it difficult to apply what they have learned because of inadequate reflections on their goals and values related to parenthood. These criticisms have serious implications on the re-conceptualization of parent education. This article reports on a new approach to parent education, in which a group of parent leaders developed and facilitated a group parent education program (GPEP) for low-income parents. The GPEP emphasized the use of the group approach and interactive activities as well as homework to help the target parents practice the skills they learned during the program. The parent leaders taught positive parenting strategies and exchanged their own experiences with low-income parents. This research aims to study how parent leaders evaluate their challenges, growth, and development, as well as analyze the impact of the GPEP approach on these parents. The study provides valuable data to facilitate further studies on GPEP and other alternative approaches for parent education.

Policy Change Through Parent and Consumer Leadership Education

This study examines the impact of intensive training in leadership and advocacy skills on the level of knowledge about services and supports, advocacy activity, and the clarity of vision for the future of 123 individuals with disabilities and family members who participated in an annual New Hampshire Leadership Series over 7 years. There was a significant increase in knowledge about services and supports following training in every year, and consistently significant increases in advocacy activity and clarity of vision in Years 4 through 7, with particularly striking improvement associated with the addition of a stronger emphasis on person-centered planning within the curriculum. The implications of a sustained effort to develop a statewide grassroots leadership capacity on policies and practices are discussed.

Predicting School Leadership Interests in Parents of English Learners: An Exploratory Study

This study contributes to the literature on parent involvement by examining predictors of educational leadership interests of parents of English learners (ELs). Using a sample of 129 parents of ELs who represented diverse ethnic backgrounds, the researchers examined parent leadership interests with survey research. Parent leadership interests were significantly predicted by expectations for children's educational success, encouragement from teachers, and parents’ own level of education. Specifically, parents with lower educational expectations for their children, who were encouraged to be involved by their children's teachers, and with higher levels of formal education were more likely to express leadership interests. These data have implications for how schools could extend outreach efforts to encourage participation of parents who may see themselves as less effective leaders.

Transient luminosity along negative stepped leaders in lightning

AbstractThis study presents observations of abandoned stepped leader branches that briefly reconnect to the main stepped leader trunk or another active branch during the negative stepped leader advance in natural cloud‐to‐ground lightning strokes. The transient luminous features described are herein termed sparks. High‐speed video data, with 20 µs image interval, show these sparks are common, bright, and fast. They typically reach maximum visible extent of a few hundred meters or less and peak intensity of one to three times that of their parent leader within 40 µs. Most sparks connect to a parent leader within their first 20 µs and are visible for less than 120 µs. Generally, there are several milliseconds (average 3.3 ms) before the spark during which its branch is visibly abandoned, i.e., apparently neither propagating nor connected to the active stepped leader system. There is a tendency for sparks to occur late in the stepped leader advance, averaging 900 µs before the return stroke for 90 sparks in 14 strokes. Sparks occur at altitudes at least as high as the visible stepped leader top (about 3000 m in these data), but they have not been observed below 500 m altitude. Parent leaders typically get brighter below the connection point after the spark, and in some cases, their speed of advance increases. Nearby time‐correlated electric field change data show a distinct spark signature characterized by a relatively large bipolar pulse, followed by a slower decrease over 40–100 µs, ending with another relatively large pulse.

Enhancing Collaborative Leadership Among Parents of Children With Disabilities

Parent involvement and leadership have evolved over time and carry different meanings within various educational contexts in the United States. In special education, parent involvement includes the roles that parents of children with disabilities play in the development of their children’s Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), as well as in leadership and policy development and evaluation. In spite of the purported benefits of parent leadership in educational planning and policy, little research has been conducted on models that intentionally build critical skills and leadership opportunities among parents of children with disabilities. This article describes results associated with a leadership development project known as “Parents as Collaborative Leaders” (PACL) in which parents from across the United States participated in a leadership curriculum and individualized internship experiences at the local, state, and national levels. Participants reported a number of positive outcomes, including skills and experiences gained through curriculum and internship experiences, increased participation in leadership and policy activities, increased networking and relationships, and a sense of leading for a larger purpose. The article describes the development and implementation of the PACL model, outcomes associated with a subset of participants, and implications for policy and practice.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Leadership Development for the MCH Workforce.

As the Guest Editors of this Special Issue focusing on the theme of MCH Leadership Development, it has been a privilege to review the many submitted manuscripts and ideas, and to interact with authors and researchers from across the nation who share a passion for both developing the next generation of leaders and ensuring that our current MCH leaders have opportunities to refine, hone, and promote their leadership skills. One insight that was confirmed for us in selecting papers for this special edition was the diversity of voices and perspectives around what MCH leadership means to the variety of stakeholders. This diversity of voices is heard throughout the collection of research articles and commentaries. We were not surprised by this response, since MCH is a broad field where many different disciplines share a central concern for women, children, youth, and families. These stakeholders sometimes see leadership differently, depending upon whether they view leadership from a clinical lens, a training lens, a policy lens, or a practice lens. As a result, our MCH leadership teachers focus on a variety of ‘‘hard and soft’’ skills that they develop in their students and colleagues. Yet this seeming diversity of voices and perspectives come together in a most striking way through this collection of work. Although viewing the manuscripts based on these lenses is interesting, the articles, as a whole, tell an MCH leadership story of their own. Valuable lessons in history (and the kind of effort and partnership required to give rise to a new specialty in MCH) are addressed by Baer et al. in their examination of the birth of the field of nutrition services for children with special health care needs, by Kogan et al. in their review of the evolution of MCH epidemiologists, and by Reynolds et al. in their overview of the evolution of parent leadership in MCH settings. This rich experience is likely familiar to many senior leaders in the field, who followed a similar journey to help their own disciplines mature in leadership and MCH. Both history and the challenges facing present day leaders in MCH-dedicated academic institutions, state agencies, and the federal government are addressed by the contributions by Petersen, Streeter, and Kavanagh, respectively. Together, these commentaries lay the groundwork for understanding much of the complexity of our fragmented and yet still intertwined MCH systems as a whole—from those working on the ground, to those preparing the future workforce. The article from Kavanagh et al. illustrates the systems view of the Federal commitment to supporting the development of MCH leaders in many fields, and details the outcomes of that investment. A set of articles give a broad sampling of evidence of the outcomes from these many investments, ranging from activities to recruit and train MCH professionals, to develop clinical leaders, and to hone the skills of leaders at senior levels of government administration. To this end, Guerrero et al. enlighten how a Laura Kavanagh —The views expressed are the author’s and not necessarily those of the HRSA or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Collaborative Action Inquiry: A Tool for, and Result of, Parent Learning and Leadership

This parent information project is grounded in the notion of parental involvement as advocacy that benefits children in the community. Supported by a state-level early childhood foundation in a learning partnership with a national, non-partisan research foundation, this project engaged parent leaders from five communities as co-researchers in identifying assets, listening to citizens, capacity building, and knowledge development. University researchers engaged with co-researchers as essential collaborators enacting this participatory action-oriented project in order to gain insights on family involvement and community action contributing to thriving children, birth to age 8. Creation of a deliberation guide was a tangible product of an iterative cycle of inquiry and grassroots, collaborative process to promote change and empowerment. Co-researcher insights and observations, formally captured in an intentional focus group, are presented with equal importance as author voices. The use of face-to-face time and virtual space is addressed. Implications for parent leadership, transformative knowledge production, and educational change are explored.

The Emergence of a Human Services Cooperative to Support Families and Young Adults with Disabilities: Implications for Disability Services and Supports

This paper documents the experiences of a group of parents who came together to form a human service cooperative in their local community to address the needs of their adult children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Each parent felt that their child's needs were not (or could not be) met by existing providers. Parent leaders who formed the Board of Directors of the human service cooperative were interviewed, and key themes in the emergence and growth of the cooperative were identified. Issues in the development and implementation of innovative services and supports are summarized, and implications for policy, research, and practice are outlined.

Satter Feeding Dynamics Inventory: Response mapping identified a valid tool to assess parent adherence to the division of responsibility in feeding young children

Satter's division of responsibility in feeding (sDOR) is recognized as the best‐practice model for feeding young children; however, a tool to assess parent adherence to sDOR is not available. The Satter Feeding Dynamics Inventory (fdSI) was developed to evaluate sDOR and measure impact of sDOR‐promoting interventions. Item generation, based on the Satter Model of Feeding Dynamics targeted key concepts: parent leadership and child autonomy. fdSI development and testing was accomplished in 5 iterative phases resulting in item deletion, revision, or addition to address all model constructs. Recruited from preschools and low‐income venues, participants completed the phase‐specific fdSI and a measure of eating competence (EC). Each phase included comparing fdSI responses to face‐to‐face cognitive interviews (n=80) to map interview comments to survey selection. All phases targeted low‐income mothers; phases 3 and 4 also tested persons who were not low‐income. Phase 3, 4, and 5 participants differed in education level, mean age, food security, race/ethnicity, WIC participation, and EC. Findings from dual phase participants (n=5) supported fdSI revisions from phase 3 to 4. EC moderated fdSI and interview responses. The resulting 15‐item fdSI is face and content valid; construct validation will facilitate use in interventions to improve parent feeding behaviors, vital to public health. SNAP‐Ed, USDA funding.

Enhancing Parent Leadership Through Building Social and Intellectual Capital

Inequality of access to educational resources by different social classes has been widely documented, and schools have instituted parent programs to ameliorate this situation. However, lacking are theoretically based studies that explain how and why a program may be effective in bringing about change. The authors studied a 12-week parent leadership program for Hispanics that provided opportunities for interaction, knowledge exchange, leadership development, trust building, and collective action—important components of social and intellectual capital. Their research shows that when parents participate in leadership development, they are empowered to effect changes that benefit their children through individual and collective actions. Some parent graduates founded organizations that continue to affect the educational system. The authors argue that the concepts of social and intellectual capital can inform parent involvement research and practice because they explain a community’s capability to engage in new forms of action.

Leading Schools of Excellence and Equity: Documenting Effective Strategies in Closing Achievement Gaps

Background/Context In the Fall 2006 issue of AERJ, Hoy, Tarter, and Woolfolk Hoy identified the new construct of academic optimism as a general latent concept related to student achievement even after controlling for SES, previous performance, and other demographic variables. Through structural equation modeling, they found that the collective properties of academic emphasis, collective efficacy, and faculty trust work together in a unified fashion to create positive academic environments. To build a comprehensive theory of academic optimism, Hoy and his colleagues recommended more research in a variety of school settings and more qualitative research to explore roles, experiences, expectations, conditions, and differences of academic optimism in schools. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purpose of this empirical inquiry of state-recognized “Honor Schools of Excellence” was to explore how these schools of distinction are (or are not) promoting and supporting both academic excellence and systemic equity for all students. Research Design In Phase One, quantitative data were collected through equity audits to scan for and then document systemic patterns of equity and inequity across multiple domains of student learning and activities within 24 schools. In Phase Two, the 24 schools were ranked, based solely on minority achievement, and then separated into two types of schools, small gap (SG) schools and large gap (LG) schools. Through site visits (n = 16) and the use of semi-structured interviews with principals, assistant principals, teachers, and parent leaders (n = 80), qualitative data were then collected to document best practices and effective strategies that principals use to confront and change past practices anchored in open and residual racism and class discrimination. The data were analyzed through the theoretical framework of academic optimism. Findings/Results Three differences between the SG schools and the LG schools were found: encouraging academic achievement, offering instructional feedback, and expecting excellence. Conclusions/Recommendations To truly honor excellence, we need to embrace equity. As such, the outcomes of interest are better in schools where principals support, model, and monitor a teamwork approach, a balanced approach, a strong sense of purpose, and an insistent disposition to assure that all students are served well and that all are encouraged to perform at their highest level.

Beyond the Bake Sale: A Community-Based Relational Approach to Parent Engagement in Schools

Background/ContextParent involvement in education is widely recognized as important, yet it remains weak in many communities. One important reason for this weakness is that urban schools have grown increasingly isolated from the families and communities they serve. Many of the same neighborhoods with families who are disconnected from public schools, however, often contain strong community-based organizations (CBOs) with deep roots in the lives of families. Many CBOs are beginning to collaborate with public schools, and these collaborations might potentially offer effective strategies to engage families more broadly and deeply in schools.PurposeThis article presents a community-based relational approach to fostering parent engagement in schools. We investigated the efforts of CBOs to engage parents in schools in low-income urban communities. We argue that when CBOs are authentically rooted in community life, they can bring to schools a better understanding of the culture and assets of families, as well as resources that schools may lack. As go-betweens, they can build relational bridges between educators and parents and act as catalysts for change.Research DesignUsing case study methodology, we studied three notable school-community collaborations: the Logan Square Neighborhood Association in Chicago, Illinois; the Camino Nuevo Charter Academy in Los Angeles, California; and the Quitman Street Community School in Newark, New Jersey. Each case represents one of three types of collaboration identified in previous research: community service, community development and community organizing.FindingsAlthough differences in context mattered, we found three common dimensions of parent engagement work across the cases. The three core elements of this community-based relational approach are (1) an emphasis on relationship building among parents and between parents and educators, (2) a focus on the leadership development of parents, and (3) an effort to bridge the gap in culture and power between parents and educators. We contrast this community-based approach with more traditional, school-centric, and individualistic approaches to parent involvement.ConclusionsThere are a number of lessons from this study for educators interested in broadening and deepening parent participation in schools. First, educators can benefit from taking a patient approach, building relationships over time. Second, schools may not be able to do parent engagement work alone; they can profit from the social capital expertise of community-based organizations. Finally, educators would benefit from understanding that communities bring different needs, aspirations, and desires to their children's education. If educators collaborate with community partners and help to develop parent leadership, they can form initiatives that meet the interests, values, and capacities of any particular school community.

Collaborating for Change: How an Urban School District and a Community-Based Organization Support and Sustain School, Family, and Community Partnerships

Background Research suggests that schools’ capacity to successfully implement and sustain reform programs may rest, in part, with district-level facilitation. The importance of district leadership has been established for a variety of educational reforms, including school, family, and community partnerships. However, few studies have been conducted to understand how successful district leaders implement and sustain school, family, and community partnerships as an educational reform. Focus of Study This case study seeks to fill this gap. It describes leadership strategies employed by the office of parent involvement in an urban school district in the United States. More specifically, this article focuses on the collaborative relationship between the office of parent involvement and a community-based parent involvement organization (CPIO). Research Design The study employed a multiple case study design, which included interviews with district, school, and parent leaders; observations of workshops, meetings, presentations, and other work-related activities of key district-level respondents; document collection and review; and school site visits. Findings Analyses suggest that the collaboration between the district's office of parent involvement and the CPIO has helped to support and sustain school, family, and community partnerships as a reform initiative for nearly a decade. The relationship has resulted in (1) complementary parent leadership training for school-based partnership teams, (2) joint planning and implementation of districtwide partnership activities, and (3) community advocacy for district partnership personnel and resources.

Changing directions: participatory action research as a parent involvement strategy

This paper examines the implementation of a participatory action research study as a parent involvement strategy in one urban, Colorado middle school thought to have low parental involvement. Parent leaders from the middle school community participated in the data collection, analysis, and dissemination as ‘promotora researchers.’ These parent promotora researchers facilitated parent focus group sessions, collectively analyzed data, presented findings to the school community, and reflected on their personal experience throughout the study. Findings revealed that parent participants perceive themselves to be significantly involved in their children's lives at home in ways that are not recognized under traditional definitions of parent involvement. The participatory action research design was found to be an effective strategy for parent involvement for school improvement.

A Hope for Foster Care

SUMMARY Two foster care executives encourage agency and parent leaders to rethink their relationships to improve the lives of children in their shared custody. When mothers-of-color charged that white privilege harmed rather than helped children, the white executives connected the accusation to their experience as closeted gay leaders in a religiously-run organization. That unexpected insight became the sharper lens through which they saw some emotional damage caused by their decisions. The executives examined their behavior and transformed their adversarial relationship with parents into a partnership. Their suggestions are based on efforts with parents, mistakes with trustees, and hard lessons learned.

A Data Driven Process in Washington State to Improve Systems of Care for Children With Special Health Care Needs: The National Survey of CSHCN

The purpose of this article is to present strategies used in one state to engage public health stakeholders in the use of National Survey of Children With Special Health Care Needs (NS-CSHCN) results to improve systems of care for children with special health care needs (CSHCN). This is not a research report. Seven "CSHCN Road Shows" were conducted with 39 local health departments, five state agencies, five parent leaders, three managed health care plans, and 12 school nurses. These "CSHCN Road Shows" were used to present and validate Washington State findings from the NS-CSHCN, obtain input on additional topics for analysis and elicit ways of incorporating NS-CSHCN results into the state's MCH Five Year Needs Assessment. Overall, a majority of stakeholders reported a high level of interest in using state-level data from the NS-CSHCN for local community efforts. Uses included program planning, presenting data to local boards of health and other community agencies, and utilizing results as talking points with other partners on the needs and unmet needs of the population. The state Title V office used feedback from "CSHCN Road Show" participants to prioritize program-planning activities, initiate policy discussions, and incorporate feedback into the MCH Five Year Needs Assessment. State-level data from the NS-CSHCN are a rich source of information for driving improvements in systems of care, facilitating state and local program planning efforts, writing grants, and completing MCH Five Year Needs Assessment activities.