Analyze the Case
What is your assessment of the attitude initially expressed by the principal about school-community relations? How typical is that attitude! The principal has a lackadaisical attitude toward school-community relations when Mrs. Rose approached him about her ideas and concerns for parental involvement. His concept of parental involvement is having a conversation with parents on the phone and in conferences. It is clear that he is not an advocate for school-community relations and is pleased with the way things are in the school. According to Justice R. James William, there’s evidence of apathy from the principal. This is not typical in today’s society because most of the schools are required to implement parental involvement into their School Improvement Plan (SIP).
What, if anything, would you have done differently in the first conference with the principal if you had been the vice principal? How might the amount of your experience in the position and gender influence your response? The first conference with the principal, I would elaborate on the benefits of having parental involvement in the school. Research reinforces the idea of parental involvement having a major impact on student learning, attendance, achievement, dropout rates decreases, and higher learning expectation. Gender doesn’t matter when you articulate and have a clear vision in the development and growth of the school.
Evaluate the parents’ invitation presented at the end of the case utilizing concepts of communication and school-community relations. Hypothesize as to why only eight parents attended the meeting. Effective presentation is everything and the parent invitation did not reflect clear goals and objectives for the purpose of the meeting. The change agent failed to consider parents who are in the workforce. This was the first invitation to parents and the change agent did not utilize her opportunity to introduce herself as part of the leadership...