Welcome to Education Week‘s blog on parent engagement! My name is Michele Molnar, and I’m excited to be your blogger at K-12 Parents & the Public, which is being relaunched after some time on hiatus.
As a veteran journalist, I’ve covered education on both the local and the national levels. Personally, I’m also a huge fan of public education—it helped me become the first member of my family to get a college degree. I also take great pride in being the mother of two sons who attended public schools, first in San Diego, then in Rockville, Md., where public education successfully launched their college careers.
For years, I enjoyed being a frequent volunteer at my sons’ schools, and was a community activist, too, co-founding an anti-bullying coalition that worked with local principals to increase awareness about the issue.
With that introduction, it’s easy to see why I’m delighted to be bringing you news and ideas about how public schools are enlisting parents’ help. We’ll talk about the many ways parents are weighing in on their children’s public education—and the impact that has on administrators and policymakers whose mission is to educate children, while balancing the needs and demands of parents.
Some of my earliest blogs will include stories about how a Connecticut organization is empowering parents, what drives effective school, family and community partnerships, and what’s happening in the way of state-level legislation and initiatives on the parent-engagement front .
I would love to hear from you. Please share your opinions, story ideas about what’s happening in your community, and whatever else you think I should know about this huge and evolving topic.
You can email me at mmolnar@epe.org, and follow this blog on Twitter, @ParentAndPublic.