Centering Parents in Education Innovation

What does “education innovation” mean to parents, and what do they hope it will look like?

Earlier this month, Imagine Network hosted a roundtable discussion, “Centering Parents in Education Innovation.” At Imagine Network, we prepare school system innovation and strategy officers to innovate for equity with rigor at scale. Together, we imagine a world where we open doors to parents, students, educators, and community members to design the learning experiences they want and need. This conversation with visionary parent leaders–Sarah Carpenter, Executive Director of The Memphis Lift; Sonya Thomas, Executive Director of Nashville PROPEL; and Trenace Dorsey-Hollins, Executive Director of Parent Shield Fort Worth–opened that door to hear how they are thinking about the future of public education, how to better center parents in innovation, and the “why” behind their calls for change. 

Here’s what we heard:

Parents Are Experts

Parents are not often valued and seen by educators as the experts that they are. “These are our babies; these are your students. Remember that, and remember that we are experts when it comes to our children,” stated Trenace. Yes, those in the school building have unique expertise as educators, which parents respect and value.

If educators and school system leaders want to provide what each student needs to thrive, parents offer critical insights to support the learning of every student inside and outside of the classroom. 

Instead, parents expressed feeling purposely excluded from schools and classrooms. Sonya shared, “I think a space needs to be created where parents are welcomed. It’s been a downfall of public education–it has not learned to, or has not built itself on, parent partnership and being welcoming of parents.” Further, many educators have biases and, at times, harmful assumptions about parents. Trenace reiterated, “parents do care,” and should be invited into schools to help create policy and provide their expertise in their students to inform key supports and decisions. 

One actionable way for schools and school systems to increase their expertise on a student is by creating a student profile. “They need a profile of every child that walks through that door, and to know what is going on with these children,” shared Sarah Carpenter. One example is from The Memphis Lift’s My Learning Path profiles, which the organization created with parents. 

Parents Are Partners

Educators and school system leaders need to shift from parent engagement to true parent partnership. As Sonya shared,

“We don’t want your engagement. Engagement is when you’ve already put something in place, and we have to follow that, and it may not meet our needs. [...] Parent partnership is essential and crucial for schools to get it right.” 

Parent partnership is critical to surfacing new solutions. Trenace added, “Innovation to me means a fresh start, and I feel like parents are able to bring that fresh start.” One barrier shared to leveraging parents as partners is the vulnerability and transparency of the schools and school systems. As Sonya remarked, “We don’t want to be or aspire to be teachers or run these schools. These are our babies, and we want to have a say so in their education [...] Sometimes they [educators] are afraid of what we might see, and they are afraid of the feedback. Feedback doesn’t always feel good, but I am here to tell you that the feedback can move the needle for children and make sure that we are all successful.”

Designing new solutions together is an opportunity for parent partnership beyond asking and acting on feedback. The Memphis Lift is built on the foundation that the people closest to the problems should lead the solutions. “Who knows our kids better than us?” Sarah Carpenter asked. “Who knows our communities better than us?” 

Parents Want Transparency

Understanding students and parents better and working together to develop and implement solutions is key to better implementation and outcomes. Sonya Thomas shared, “We don’t have a problem with innovation; that’s not the problem. We have a problem with implementation.” 

Parents want to know–whether practices are new or not to the school and district–“Is it working?” Access to clear, timely, and actionable data is critical to activating parents as partners to improve schools and design solutions that meet their students’ needs. “The leaders who were expected to make the right decisions for our children are not doing so,” Trenace shares. “There’s a school in my neighborhood where only 6% of the kids are reading on grade level, which means only 40 kids out of a school of over 700. And it’s just being accepted. But parents don’t know this information. So I think it is really about educating parents on the truth because the information isn’t readily accessible and it's not really available for us. And then when it is, it is full of jargon and ‘teacher talk.’” 

In addition to good math and literacy instruction, accessible outcomes data, and student safety, leaders shared that communication is an important issue when thinking about the quality of a school. Trenace asked, “How is the school communicating with me? How are they addressing my needs? All schools will have their issues [...] none of them are perfect. But what gives me comfort, and what I find to give other parents comfort, is how you are addressing my issues. When I bring an issue to you, are you listening to me and working out a plan together to work this out or am I being pushed to the backburner and my concern isn’t being validated?” Across the country parents who do not feel heard are organizing and educating themselves. Both Parent Shield Fort Worth’s Nurturing Minds campaign and Nashville PROPEL’s Nashville’s Hidden Crisis campaign include their own research and development of solutions to shine a light on previously hidden literacy gaps in their city and provide new solutions with their own evidence of what is working. 

Rather than being fearful of feedback and vulnerability about where schools are coming up short for an individual student or for all students, the parent leaders emphasized that transparency is exactly what is needed to work collaboratively to do better for their kids.

Rather than working against each other or separately, Sonya shares, “We want our children to be successful, we want our parents to be successful, and we want our schools to be successful.” 

Looking Ahead

The roundtable of leaders reminds us that students truly are the future, and that parents–as experts, as partners, and as solutions designers focused on results–are critical to ensuring their future is filled with opportunity. “The only thing they haven’t tried in schools all over the country is parents leading the effort,” Sarah Carpenter remarked. “Anyone directly working with schools needs to know that nothing will change until you get your parents to really be a partner with you and empower them.”