Everyone knows how important it is for parents to be actively engaged with the school to ensure student success.  Thus I read with interest in Education Week (November 15, 2017) an article about the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE).

PIQE was founded in 1987 in San Diego, California when two community leaders approached the superintendent with an idea about improving parent engagement in one of the district’s low income areas.  What has evolved is a program designed to train and support parents to be effective partners with the schools.  In an early meeting with parents, one of the dads said “We don’t know what we don’t know, and that’s a dangerous place to be. Teachers assume I’m not asking because I’m not interested, but I don’t even know what questions to ask.”

The PIQE mission statement calls for “economic and social equality for all through education.”  Thus the primary focus has been on those parents who “don’t know what they don’t know.”  The program has trained more than 624,000 parents, mostly English language learners.

Disclaimer: please understand that when the Daily Dawg highlights a promising practice like this, we are just passing along something that sounded interesting. The law firm does not endorse this program. But we know that school administrators are always looking for ways to increase the level of positive engagement with parents.  After all, that vision statement—“economic and social equality for all through education”—is something that Texas educators can endorse.

The website is www.piqe.org.  Take a look.

DAWG BONE: PARENTS CAN’T EFFECTIVELY ENGAGE IF THEY DON’T KNOW THE RIGHT QUESTIONS TO ASK.