The Sacramento Charter High School's curriculum has improved greatly over the passed five years. However, the real question is, how much effort is being put in to motivate the student's parents to be involved in their child's education? Kids might be doing their homework, but how good are their test scores? They might be showing up at school, but what are they doing in class? What are kids doing when they go home? The questions go on to no end, but they can be answered easily. Kids play video games, go to parties when they go home and on weekends. I have multiple sources confirming this accusation, for example, a young African American in 10th grade stated, "When I come home from school, I play my X-box, play X-box online and eat," Never once does he mention studying or doing homework. And yes, you can count on his parents not stepping in. The last thing they do is study for their tests.
Sac High has a great curriculum and great teachers, but how many parents are involved in their children's educational life? The Sac High teachers make numerous phone calls home and check in with the student bodies parents, however, it never makes a difference. The adults can go to as many parent teacher conference meetings as they want, but if they're not going home and getting involved with their kids, then it doesn't make much of a difference. Statistics have shown the more parent involvement the less suspensions and higher scores on their tests, as shown, "Lack of parental involvement is the biggest problem facing public schools. Decades of research show that when parents are involved students have:
- Higher grades, test scores , and graduation rates
- Better school attendance
- Increase motivation, better self-esteem
- Lower rates of suspension
- Fewer instances of violent behavior,"
According to http://www.michigan.gov
Putting on a show for the public eye won't help the child and will not get he or she to college. Sacramento High, or better yet every school should make it mandatory for the parents to make an effort to better their child's education. Because let's face it, without a parents support, the child doesn't have much of a chance in making it to college. We as a charter high school have to make an extra effort to make our dragons fly, but we cannot do this without the parents support. It's a cold world outside of high school; and frankly, colleges don't look at students home problems.
But, however, we can't force Sac High's parents to get involved in their child's lives, so we need their cooperation. Parents can be just as stubborn as their children, so we have to confront them gently and carefully. But, we can't supervise the PARENTS in the situation.
