The Charlotte Observer April 19, 2006

HEADLINE: The parent advantage - Local advocacy group trains parents as education partners

Conservatives and liberals can agree on this: Children with engaged parents have a much better chance of succeeding in school than those who do not. The work of the Charlotte Advocates for Education's Parent Leadership Network shows how. This project is providing the parent advantage all schools need, but too many lack.

The nonprofit education advocacy group has trained dozens of parents to forge this crucial link with schools in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. Margaret Carnes, Advocates for Education's managing director of the advocacy group, says the ultimate goal is to arm parents with information they need to demand substantive change and accountability from schools. It has already gotten many parents involved in schools in broader and more sophisticated ways.

Business leaders have recognized its value. The Wachovia Foundation has given three-year $450,000 grant to support the program. Officials said its work not only builds parent leaders but helps schools retain teachers.

Parent involvement is increasingly important in CMS as the student population becomes more diverse -- with more limited English speakers and more of them poor. Growing numbers of parents, for cultural or work reasons, now have weak relations with their children's schools. The Parent Leadership Network can help bridge that gulf.

It already is, many say. The parents who have been trained so far range across ethnic, racial and socioeconomic lines. They are involved in a variety of school programs -- from helping Spanish-speaking students learn English and their parents get information to providing data to tackle school academic and image problems. And they want to help schools across the district.

The program is modeled after Kentucky's Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership, which has trained more than 1,000 parents in the last eight years to combat the achievement gap and other issues.

Charlotte's program has a ways to go to reach that number. It trains 25-30 parents over a three-month period. Each parent has a coach for two years and conducts a project at their child's school. The next training is planned for Sept. 15-16, Oct. 20-21 and Nov. 17-18. But you have to apply by Friday to get in. For information, check www.advocatesfored.org, or call (704) 335-0100.

We applaud Ms. Carnes and the Charlotte Advocates for Education for starting this program. We also applaud the parents who have already taken advantage of it and are working in the schools. More parents should model them. Our schools, our children and our community will benefit if they do.