Transcript Slide 1

Johns Hopkins University School of Education
Advocacy in Schools:
Working with Parents
Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Department of Counseling and Human Services
[email protected]
Quality education is a civil right. However, many
of our nation’s children, overwhelmingly those of
color or from low-income backgrounds, are being
denied the education they deserve, trapped in
underperforming, under-funded, and often
segregated schools. It is both a moral and
economic imperative that we close the
opportunity gap and ensure that all children have
access to the high quality education they will
need to succeed in life.
-Wade Henderson
President and CEO
Leadership Conference on
Civil Rights
Advocacy
Advocacy is the active support of an idea or cause;
especially the pursuit of influencing outcomes; the
practice of supporting someone to make their
voice heard.
Advocacy
Acting with or on behalf of an
individual to:
 …respond to institutional or
systemic barriers that impinge
upon development and well-being
 …proactively challenge the status
quo to effect social change
The ASCA Model and
Advocacy
“Advocating for the academic
success of every student is a key
role of school counselors and
places them as leaders in
promoting school reform”
The ASCA Model and
Advocacy
 According to the ASCA Model, school counselors’
(and other counseling professionals’) advocacy
efforts are aimed at…
 Eliminating barriers impeding students’
development
 Creating opportunities to learn for all students
 Ensuring access to a quality school curriculum
 Collaborating with others within and outside the
school to help students meet their needs
 Promoting positive, systemic change in schools
Advocacy for Parents and
Communities
 Parent advocacy can focus on the
needs of parents, parents have
substantial needs for support and
resources.
 Or, when we talk about parent
advocacy we can mean advocacy
by parent groups for children with
a disability
Are You A Strong
Advocate?
What Are You Fighting For?
Are You An Advocate For
Student Success?
For
Parents? For
Communities?
Children in Single Parent
Families
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
33%
32%
32%
33%
33%
Grandchildren in the Care
of Grandparents
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
5%
5%
5%
5%
5%
Children in Married Couple
Families
2002-04
Children in
Immigrant
Families
Children in U.S.
Born Families
2005
2006
2007
2008
79%
80%
81%
79% 79%
65%
65%
64%
63% 64%
Children in Single Parent
Families
2002-04
2005
2006
2007
2008
Children in
Immigrant
Families
21%
20% 19% 21% 21%
Children in U.S.
Born Families
35%
35% 36% 37% 36%
Ready for Kindergarten:
Language and Literacy
Ready for Kindergarten:
Mathematical Thinking
Teens Ages 16-19 Not
Attending School and Not
Working
Other Relevant Facts
 School Suspension Rate: 7.3%
(2009)
 Children in households where the
household head is not a high
school graduate: 10% (2008
 Children in households where the
household head has a bachelor’s
degree or higher: 39% (2008)
 Children that speak a language
other than English at home: 14%
(2008)
Other Relevant Facts
 Women without early prenatal
care: 19.8% (2008)
 Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000):
8% (2008)
 Teen Birth Rate (per 1,000): 32.7%
(2008)
 Children 17 and below without
health insurance: 9% (2007)
Child Deaths By Race
Are we ADVOCATING
for parents?……
Do YOU advocate for the
students and parents in
Maryland who are the
most marginalized?
Which Parents Need
Advocates?
 Low Income Parents
 Parents of Color
 Parents of Students with
Disabilities
 ALL PARENTS/FAMILIES
Professional Counselors
Can….
Make a Difference!
ADVOCACY IS ONE TOOL
THAT WE CAN USE!
Assumptions About
Counselors and Advocacy
 Counselors are in a position of
institutional power and privilege in
relation to our students/clients
(Counselors Have Access to
Information!)
 Clients can advocate for
themselves! However, there are
certain groups of students/families
that are the recipients of
institutionalized oppression.
Model of Advocacy
(Toporek & Liu, 2001)
Empowerment
Advocacy
Continuum
Social Action
Empowerment
 Interpersonal interactions between
the counselor and the student or
client working within the
socioeconomic, sociocultural, and
sociopolitical context.
 Facilitate the parent’s sense of
overall self-efficacy
 Giving parents information and the
“permission” to act on behalf of
their children
Examples of Parent
Empowerment
 Assist a parent approach teacher or
school about problem or concern.
Empathize with the parent and
problem solve without blaming the
student or parent.
 Talk to parent about his/her
environmental challenges (e.g., family
issues, poverty) and then strategize
what the parent can control or do
about his/her circumstances
Social Action
 Counselors’ participation in the
larger sociopolitical context to
remove barriers faced by his/her
students/clients




Childcare
Employment issues
Community rights
Combatting discrimination,
inequities, etc. in community
Examples of Social Action
 Counselor advocating for policy
changes that affect students’
parents (e.g., workforce, childcare)
 Counselor advocating for school
policy changes that directly impact
parent involvement and student
achievement (e.g., lack of rigorous
course-taking, lack of parent
involvement emphasis in school
mission, parent conference
practices)
Becoming An Effective
Advocate
How?
ADVOCACY DISPOSITIONS
 Must be aware of and embrace
professional advocacy role
 Must be willing to take risks in helping
individual students and groups of
students meet their needs
 Must recognize that parents are the best
advocates for their children. We must
help parents feel empowered to be
advocates
 Must recognize the need for the
removal of systemic barriers and
inequities
ADVOCACY KNOWLEDGE
AND SKILLS
 Knowledge of resources
 Knowledge of parameters (e.g., policies,
procedures, legal issues)
 Knowledge of mediation and conflict resolution
 Knowledge of advocacy models
 Knowledge of systems perspective (schoolfamily-community partnerships)
 Communication skills
 Collaboration skills
 Problem assessment skills
 Organizational skills
 Self-care skills
Parent/Family Strategies
 Invite Dialogue
 Monitor the tone and body
language of face-to-face
interactions
 Empathize
 Beware of “ghosts.”
Parent Advocacy Groups
Maryland
 Baltimore Education Network
 IMPACT Silver Spring
 Maryland Coalition of Families for
Children’s Mental Health
 Maryland PTA
 MD Justice
 The Parents’ Place of Maryland
Narratives Illustrating the
POWER of Advocacy!
A single parent struggling
to meet the financial needs
of her elementary aged
children
An immigrant, working,
mother trying to “fit in”
among U.S. born parents at
a PTA meeting
An unemployed father
worries about his ability to
pay for his daughter’s
college education
An African American
couple ponder over how to
advocate for their 6th grade
African American son who
they believe is receiving
less attention and support
by his teachers.
An Asian family does not
know how to help their
learning disabled child do
better in school. Also, they
are struggling with with
the “stigma” of having a
child with a disability.
A 17 year old male “comes
out” to his family. The
parents feel alone and
unsure how to cope with
their feelings about their
son in a community that
has harassed gay youth.
A Prayer for Children
By MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN
We pray for children
Who sneak popsicles before supper,
Who erase holes in math workbooks,
Who can never find their shoes.
And we pray for those
Who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
Who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
Who never "counted potatoes,"
Who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead,
Who never go to the circus,
Who live in an X-rated world.
We pray for children
Who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions
Who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money
And we pray for those
Who never get dessert,
Who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
Who watch their parents watch them die,
Who can't find any bread to steal,
Who don't have any rooms to clean up,
Whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
Whose monsters are real.
We pray for children
Who spend all their allowance before
Tuesday,
Who throw tantrums in the grocery store
and pick at their food,
Who like ghost stories,
Who shove dirty clothes under the bed
and never rinse out the tub,
Who get visits from the tooth fairy,
Who don't like to be kissed in front of the
carpool,
Who squirm in church or temple and
scream in the phone,
Whose tears we sometimes laugh at and
whose smiles can make us cry.
And we pray for those
Whose nightmares come in the daytime,
Who will eat anything,
Who have never seen a dentist,
Who aren't spoiled by anybody,
Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to
sleep,
Who live and move, but have no being.
We pray for children who want to be carried and for
those who must,
For those we never give up on and for those who
don't get a second chance.
For those we smother ... and for those who will grab
the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.
Johns Hopkins University School of Education
Thanks and Good Luck!