http://www.slate.com/articles/life/..._at_your_kid_s_school_does_not_make.html
Ban School Bake Sales
Do American parents spend too much time volunteering at their kids’ schools?
By Amanda Ripley
Slate
Thursday, Sept. 5, 2013

...

In a 2009 study of parenting in 13 countries and regions, parents who volunteered in school
extracurricular activities had children who performed worse in reading, on average, than parents
who did not volunteer—even after controlling for children’s backgrounds. Out of 13 very different
places, there were only two (Denmark and New Zealand) in which parental volunteering had any
positive effect on reading, and it was small.

How could this be? Weren’t the parents who volunteered in the school community showing their
children how much they valued education? The data are mystifying, but other research within the
U.S. has revealed the same dynamic: Volunteering in school and attending school events seems
to have little effect on how much kids learn.

One possible explanation is that volunteering parents were more active precisely because their
children were struggling at school. And it’s possible their kids would be doing even worse if the
parents had not gotten involved.

Or it might be that parents who spent their limited time and energy coaching football and
organizing school auctions simply had less time and energy for the other kinds of activities that
actually did help kids learn.

In that same international study, parents who routinely read to their young children raised
teenagers who performed significantly better on a test of critical thinking in reading years later—
even after controlling for the effects of socioeconomic background. Likewise, parents who
discussed movies, books, and the news with their kids had teenagers who not only performed
better in reading—but reported enjoying reading more overall.

************************************************

Amanda Ripley is the author of the new book, "The Smartest Kids in the World -- and How They Got That Way". The Tiger Mothers have anticipated her conclusions:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/education/12parents.html
New York Times
November 12, 2008
School District Tries to Lure Asian Parents
By WINNIE HU

JERICHO, N.Y. — For school officials here, the numbers did not add up. Even as enrollment swelled to 3,200, from 2,600 a decade ago, attendance at Parent-Teacher Association meetings shriveled by half. Even as more students got accepted to Ivy League schools, turnout for the guidance department’s information nights was so anemic that counselors cajoled students to come — and bring along their parents.

Then teachers and administrators noticed something else: Jericho High School’s 90-member orchestra had become 70 percent Asian-American (the student body over all is about 30 percent Asian-American), but it still played for a mostly white audience at concerts with many empty seats.

The Chinese and Korean families that flocked to Jericho for its stellar schools shared their Jewish and Italian predecessors’ priorities on excellent education. But the new diversity of the district has revealed a cultural chasm over the meaning of parental involvement. Many of the Asian-Americans whose children now make up a third of the district’s enrollment grew up in places where parents showed up on campus only when their children were in trouble.

“They think, ‘My kids are doing well — why should I come?’ ” said Sophia Bae, 38, a Korean immigrant who shied away from P.T.A. meetings when she first moved here from Queens four years ago. Now a member of the organization, she invites other Koreans to her home and encourages them to participate in pretzel sales. “They don’t realize it’s necessary to come and join the school to understand their kids’ lives.”

I think Slate is cashing in on back to school time. Last week it was the Private School = bad person gem and now this.

I have been volunteering at my son's school daily from 12:30-3:15.

I have done most of my work in the media center (so much work constantly needs to be done there).

One afternoon in a first grade classroom...I did random tasks off a list the teacher had and then when she taught a writing lesson I picked up my chair and sat next to the English Language Learner who really needs constant 1 on 1 help (she is a cutie but she is a handful and is generally either wandering around fulfilling her own agenda or glued to the teacher). The teacher didn't ask me to do this but I saw it needed to be done and just jumped in.

One day I did health screenings. A charity came and screened the entire student population's vision. The process needed volunteers to help shuffle the students in and out in a quick and orderly manner.

I would like to be in the classrooms more but the teachers have to ask for the help. But they see me in the media center and know that I am available.

There are about 3 school volunteers. One is the mom of the media specialist and is 87 years old and there M-Thursday. One is the daughter of a staff member. I am sure there are a few others that volunteer but I haven't met them yet.

The author of this article appeared smart to me, though, and she cites some research.

DS5's Kindergarten teacher told us at the curriculum night that she LOVES parent volunteers and when she gets them, she doesn't want them copying papers or doing other office work but wants them actually working at the different tables hands on with the kids. I wish I could volunteer just to get an idea of what the days are like but can't since I have my 3 year old who always tags along anywhere I go. Younger siblings unfortunately are not allowed ... in class or field trips either.

When the PTA rep gave us the pressure sales pitch to join, we had one simple question: What do you do?

And the only answer we could seem to get was: You get a t-shirt.

PTA varies quite a bit. Biggest items we have are various informational events, school projects like a learning garden, helping coordinate parent volunteers, funds for teacher special learning projects, coordinate getting used uniforms to families who need them, food drives.

You are right. I apologize for sounding sour. I think the title Ban School Bake Sales just seemed a little too catchy.

The conclusion I found interesting was this:

"That pattern held fast across very different countries and income levels. Kids noticed what parents valued, and it mattered more than what parents said"

I don't think the majority of American parents value academic excellence. They are quite happy with average grades at average schools. It is the extracurriculars that parents really value.

I grew up in TX. The tiger parenting there has been going on so long it doesn't have a name or stand out, it is the culture. Just replace academics, orchestra and chess with football, football and football.

I grew up in a similar system to the one mentioned in Finland. The only parental contact was twice a year during parent teacher conferences. And at the end of the year each class went on a class trip and one or two parents volunteered to go with the kids. No other volunteering was ever done and not fund raising either. State paid the schools and teachers, parents paid their kids school supplies and lunches and field trips. That was it.

BUT even before internet became a big thing, there was always daily contact between parents and teachers. All kids had their "grade books" ... little notebooks where each teacher every day would write down all grades for assignments, tests, etc. and parents had to sign it once a week. And ALL of our homework had to be done at home and parents had to sign off on it at night (or in the morning before school). If your homework wasn't singed, it was the same as if you didn't bring any because it was assumed you wrote it at school or cheated off of someone. So there was this unspoken constant accountability from everyone involved.

I am a New Zealander and went to school in the seventies/eighties. I honestly have no recollection of parents helping in the classrooms except for some cultural activities. My son's school has parent volunteers but there aren't really many people who are free of work and younger children to do it.

I have no opinion about her intelligence, but I did check out the research she cites. The OECD Working Paper is 165 pages long, so I didn't review the entire thing but I did notice that the authors' conclusions and interpretation of the findings are completely different from hers. They actually state 4 types of involvement that matter most: reading books to young children, discussing complex issues with children, parents reading for enjoyment themselves and meeting with teachers, volunteering at school, helping with homework.
They suggest that parents volunteering at school is sometimes associated with lower achievement because it is a reactive response to the kid's struggles. They suggest getting parents involved before the kids have problems as a prevention approach. They also point out that it is quite possible that the kids might be doing even worse if their parents were not becoming involved at this point.

The recommendations of the authors include encouraging MORE parental involvement in schools, rather than suggesting it is a waste of time. They also point out, though, that even if you aren't able to volunteer, there are effective ways to support your child's education at home that don't require a lot of skill or experience.

Also, the United States is NOT one of the countries surveyed. Thus, all of the article's discussion of parent involvement in the U.S. is anecdotal.

In my own experience in my kids' school and my observations of my friends' kids' schools, there is so much variation in types of participation that gross generalizations like the ones made in this article hold no water with me. And, I would also suggest that while of course the children's educational outcomes are important, there are other things in life. For example, after school activities sponsored by the PTA may give kids who would otherwise be home alone after school somewhere to be with friends and adult role models. Will it make them better readers? Probably not. Organizing charity events (within reason) can teach children that we, as a family, value civic participation. Also a lesson I want to instill. Also not going to make them better readers.

I think Dude's question to their PTA is reasonable. What do you do? My school's PTA can answer that question to my satisfaction. They provide educational after school opportunities. They fund field trips. They fund and organize a writer's workshop, monthly fine art presentations in the classrooms, and much more. They also provide an annual report showing how much PTA money goes to which program. So clearly there is a lot of variation between our school and Dude's (I don't even get a t-shirt!).

The above article does not take this into account or provide any actual data on the relationship between American parental involvement and student performance. I don't even really see the point of it except to try and make parents who are involved in their children's school feel stupid and irrelevant. Good for her.

Thanks for your research. I think the paper is

http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/oeceduaab/73-en.htm
Parental Involvement in Selected PISA Countries and Economies
by Francesca Borgonovi and Guillermo Montt
No 73, OECD Education Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: Studies have highlighted the beneficial effects of parental involvement in children’s educational lives. Few studies, however, analyse parental involvement in a cross-national perspective and few evaluate a wide array of forms of involvement. In 2009, 14 countries and economies implemented the parental questionnaire option in the PISA 2009 cycle. This working paper evaluates the levels of parental involvement across countries and sub-groups within countries, as well as the relationship of involvement with both cognitive (reading performance) and non-cognitive outcomes (enjoyment of reading and awareness of effective summarising strategies). Findings suggest that some forms of parental involvement are more strongly related to cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes than others. These include reading to children when they are young, engaging in discussions that promote critical thinking and setting a good example. Findings also show that levels of parental involvement vary across countries and economies. Inequalities in parental involvement exist in practically all countries and economies. Policy implications signal the possibility that promoting higher levels of parental involvement may increase students’ both cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes, and that high-quality parental involvement may help reduce performance differences across socio-economic groups.

As far as parents volunteering, I have no opinion. It was helpful to me when my son was in preschool to see how the program was taught, but I don't volunteer much now except the occasional field trip.

Tangent, but where I live, it seems that priorities are skewed. It is not unusual to hear of kids in three competitive sports in one season, during the school year. Doing the math, it shows that the child literally has hours of practice or games six, even seven days a week. For families with two or more children there are after-school activities scheduled every blessed day-- with kids attending their own and their sibling's activities. Where is the study time, play time, and academic emphasis? It's maddening not to give in to the pressure of feeling like my DS has to play several sports to fit in and make friends.

I have another hypothesis here-- SOME parents (especially in that higher SES group) are volunteering because it is about their own egos.

These are the "class parents" who basically play Martha Stewart all year long any time the teacher allows it.

It's not a surprise to me in the least that such activity doesn't do a darned thing to elevate their child's performance. For most of that group (and I've seen a few) it's not about their kids. I mean-- parenting isn't. For them, parenting (like everything else) is about fulfilling their own personal agenda.

Their kids are-- to make a generalization-- often simply objects, stage props in their drama of Perfect Parenting.

I think that people volunteer in the schools for a variety of reasons, definitely some of them are doing this. I have a friend who's kid's school is very high SES and their PTA raises thousands of dollars every year with fancy silent auction formals and things like that. My kids' school PTA is nothing like this and raises nowhere near as much money.

Another hypothesis is that middle class neighborhoods have a lot of well educated stay at home moms who once held jobs and careers. Trading that for full time parenting can leave some feeling empty and PTA involvement can fill that void. Also not about the child's performance (but imo, also not necessarily harmful or irrelevant).

Unfortunately, the Slate article provides no real data on American parents. Just makes a lot of generalizations about them instead.

Our public school PTA last year raised $120,000, 2/3 through an auction, etc. We have a lot of highly educated stay-at-home moms who sit around and volunteer a lot at the school. I think volunteering in school does help, partly since your child sees you there and understands that school is important.
I finally this year stopped volunteering in the class since I work full-time and can't do it, but hubby still does. It's definitely a lot of fun, and it gives you a birds-eye view of what is going on in the classroom.

I'm a regular classroom volunteer. (DH comes home early so I can go in, so it takes a bit of effort on both our parts.) Last year I helped in K every week, doing messy projects with the kiddos. Like Jack's Mom, I found it fun.

Before kids I was a regular literacy volunteer on my lunch hour, so I'd started out volunteering simply because I know how much volunteers can help, bringing the adult:child ratio down and helping to facilitate some different types of activities in the early elem classrooms.

An unexpected outcome was that I was able to see firsthand what was happening in the classroom academically, which was helpful when it came time to consider a skip. Didn't expect it, but it ended up making our decision clearer.

Our PTA is hyperactive. I voluteered too much in my son's K class last year - thinking that it might help bring down the teacher - student ratio. I was hoping that it would allow the teacher to be more effective if someone took some of their workload off their plate. There were parents 3 days of the week in the classroom. And in my area, most families have 2 working parents and hence the volunteers were all trying to accomodate those hours they spent at school into their schedules and none of them to my knowledge were there for purposes other than helping the school out.
I was able to observe first hand what the "top notch" school was like and since my son was in a mixed grade 1st grade/K class, what the next year was going to look like. Long story short, I pulled my son out of our top rated school and have put him in a private school for 1st grade.

Good things about volunteering:
My child knows that his mom was showing up regularly to help the teacher because his welfare and his education were a high priority in his family. He even says that he would like to volunteer in a classroom when he finishes college!
I got to know what the levels of giftedness were with all the kids in my son's grade and what the levels of motivation were of the teachers in that school.
I also saw first hand how bored my Kindergartener was even when he attended 1st grade math and LA and how he was singing to himself, reading books and playing with Legos and blocks to entertain himself.
I also know exactly what little they do when they use the words "differentiated instruction".
All factors that helped me decide to afterschool more intensely for the K year and make an informed decision on what to do for the future schooling of my child.

Cons of volunteering:
Any layperson who is a parent could volunteer for a job which could be done so much more effectively by a person who is qualified for it (a real teacher's aide).
I know too much about the kids, their personal lives and any learning issues they have which I am not supposed to know (privacy issues? a lot of them are our neighbors, so we meet them outside of school).
I am still surprised that while my son's Little League did a background check on me before letting me volunteer the PS just let me walk in and work with kids (just a TB test was required)! Though teachers are supposed to be vigilant and nothing bad could happen to the kids on their watch, it still struck me as odd.

Cons of volunteering:
Any layperson who is a parent could volunteer for a job which could be done so much more effectively by a person who is qualified for it (a real teacher's aide).
I know too much about the kids, their personal lives and any learning issues they have which I am not supposed to know (privacy issues? a lot of them are our neighbors, so we meet them outside of school).
I am still surprised that while my son's Little League did a background check on me before letting me volunteer the PS just let me walk in and work with kids (just a TB test was required)! Though teachers are supposed to be vigilant and nothing bad could happen to the kids on their watch, it still struck me as odd.

[/quote]

These reasons, particularly the privacy issue, are why parent volunteers are very limited in what they can do in our district. As far as I know, parents are never in a role where they directly teach or do work with students- one can shelve books, help out spotting in gymnastics during gym, etc, but they do not want parents to have intimate knowledge of the other kids' abilities or problems. Also, I consider the PTA to be very different from parent volunteering in the schools; they are separate here. The PTA here is primarily involved in fundraising (and socializing) as far as I can see, and seem to have no interest in academics at all.

This will be my first year not volunteering in the classroom; DD is very sad about this, as am I. Both kids really liked me being in their classrooms, even if I wasn't interacting with them at all. And I agree, it's a great way to see what is going on in class, what the teacher is like, etc. Now I have to rely on DD to tell me what's going on, which is sometimes like pulling teeth!

I am still pretty involved in PTA, although I have cut my time down from the last two years. I loved being on campus to volunteer, since I got to know the staff and principal, plus the fun of helping the school. I'm sure the dozens of impromptu meetings I had with the principal (because I was on campus) helped DS's case.

I'm too much of an introvert to volunteer at my kids' school - not to mention the fact that they needed to learn to function without me (I'm a SAHM) when they were younger. Now they're pretty independent.

I also have big concerns about privacy and gossipy parents. However, it was a huge advantage as a parent when I was mildly venting to another parent about DD's kindergarten experience. The teacher wasn't responding to DD's learning rate of learning, as she was moving through DRA reading levels at a rate of 2-3 a week. This mom had worked with my DD in class, and clued me in that DD's learning was far from the norm and that I'd have to involve myself closely if DD's needs were going to be met. This was actually my first clue that DD's needs were not average, and therefore I needed to step in and advocate. This was not information I would have gotten from the school, but was something another parent had noted.

My kids have benefited nicely by my PTO volunteering. I identified a big problem (traffic safety for kids walking) and got another mom on board to address the problem with me. Together, we've cut the traffic around the school in half and have leveraged money to encourage walking and police enforcement to deal with red light runners. We have the approval of the principal for everything we've done, and we've been both quite careful to not complain, but instead to note problems, offer suggestions that we'll do with his approval, and rally the troops as necessary.

Most of this is done in a 1-2 hour meeting monthly, and about 10 minutes of volunteering before school starts weekly. The other woman was a stay at home mom, who was able to do a lot of the detail & follow up work in about 2-3 hours a week. All in all, it's been a positive and effective partnership.

As a result, the principal views me as someone who can get things done, who has a very positive attitude towards public schooling, and understands rules and regs. So when I go into an IEP meeting, I'm viewed as a partner in the school, not an outside complainer.

Volunteering is basically discouraged at DD's gifted magnet. They essentially say--we occasionally will need you for a special event or field trip, but otherwise, we don't need you. I don't mind. I wonder if this is because GT parents tend to be a bit, uh, much.

They are more open to volunteers in the gen ed program, where my DS is.

Wow, that is a lot of money! Just curious, what do they do with it?

The charter DS is going to attend (starting tomorrow!) expects a high level of parental involvement. They don't receive all the funds for each child that the public school does and so need parents to help raise money in their annual auction/Bingo games, etc. I'm okay with that. It's something DH and I did at DS' private school Kindergarten last year, anyway.

As someone who is basically an introvert, I'm not interested in becoming a "Martha Stewart mom". I like to work with things more than with people and would be happy to clean, file, etc. to show support.

I don't think that's at all detrimental to my son's achievement.

Our charter uses parent volunteers to help facilitate learning centers, sometimes prepping materials, stuffing folders, and just organizing events etc. I did folders in K bc I have a toddler and needed to help him nap during center time. This year he's down to shorter naps, so I hope to get into the classroom to really see what goes on! At least a big chunk of the parents are teachers, too. But yes it was odd last year hearing from parents about my daughter--the cat was out of the bag pretty quickly about her reading. Some brought it up just from her reading my note at lunch though. At least our school is very small and the kids are always in the same class, so it's very much like a family. But yes a bit odd to me coming from a school where TAs couldn't do hardly anything bc of privacy.

Because we're a small charter (and really locally grown, not part of a big chain or anything) or PTO is really important. We pay for a lot of "extras" that aren't really extra, like art, PE, special classroom supplies, speakers, trips, etc. but yes the nonstop fundraising is a bit much.

No way to know if volunteering helps the kids academically, but at least it lets the teacher focus on reading groups.

This is what happened with us for the beginning of Kinder at the public school. My DS started rolling around on the floor in a kind of zoned-out-ness! Through our insistence, the principal got DS tested in reading. His teacher was informed he could read at a 4th grade level and exclaimed, "That explains a lot! No wonder- he was bored!" Their solution: send him to the third grade for reading. When I overheard the teacher being told by another volunteer in that third grade class that my DS had a book report to turn in (news to me!), I knew the "differentiation" was only superficial. DS was never treated as a Kindergartener who happened to read at a high level. He had no idea what a book report was!

In one month of volunteering, we discovered that teacher was over her head even with volunteers; the school was allowing children who obviously needed more one-on-one attention to disrupt the overall class, (one child chewed pencils, knocked over desks, got up and jumped around like a monkey, etc.); and also (right before Sandy Hook incident), they were horribly lax on security (they didn't even lock doors). After attending PTA meetings and bringing these issues to the attention of the board and Super with no results, we decided to pull DS in October and place him in a private Kinder. It was not perfect, but waaaay better than the public school.


Our son's school said they couldn't afford a teacher's aide.
I know what you mean about knowing so much about the kids and their personal lives. I felt my heart constrict thinking about one little girl in particular as we were pulling our DS out of the public. She needed so much. If she were mine, I would have held her back a year. As it was, she was placed on the bus, expected to remember her backpack when she got off (she went into a full-on meltdown when she left it), and when she got to class, she was not in any way receiving enough one-on-one help to understand what she was expected to do.

I still wonder what happened to her.

That's a wonderful example of how the school should respond to suggested ideas to address problems.

Wish that had been our experience.

An email we received from one of the other parents who attended meetings of the board declared we shouldn't be discouraged, that we would all somehow get through the year together.

They had to go it without us, though. When we realized the Super wasn't concerned, we pulled our DS. It was the most stressful one month I can remember.

I can't volunteer in DD's class as I'm pretty sure the teacher would drive me more nuts than she already does and there would be words, and I have resolved to not engage with her for the rest of the year

AvoCado, my DD has the same teacher as last year... Things devolved beyond repair with her over my DDs ADHD late last year, I figured, "I can be polite but basically absent the last few weeks..." And then DD was assigned to her again this year. I didn't protest because DD loves her and she does seem to like DD... Its hard to express how much I regret that decision. A full year of a teacher you can't engage with unfortunate.