What if a high school wanted to discuss its dropout problem, but no parents came to the meeting?

That’s effectively what happened yesterday at Birmingham High in Van Nuys, subject of a recent Los Angeles Times series on high school dropouts. According to the Times,

… When Principal Marsha Coates announced plans Wednesday evening to strengthen the bonds that tie students and their families to the school, she didn’t have to go far to illustrate the problem. Only about a dozen parents turned out for a meeting called to discuss the school’s plans to significantly reshape itself.

… “I really appreciate you being here,” she told the scattering of parents in a mostly empty multipurpose room, “but you can see the challenge we’re up against.”

Teachers and school staff members outnumbered parents at the meeting by at least 2 to 1.

Coates, who stressed that parent participation is a key to the success of any school, said she had sent fliers home to all parents, had used automated messages to telephone every student’s home and had sent e-mails to those parents who had provided the school with addresses.

Well, THAT didn’t work.

technorati: Birmingham High LAUSD dropout

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 16th, 2006 at 10:38 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under (Un)education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.