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Citation:

Kroll, J., Sexton, R. F., Raimondo, B. N., Corbett, H. D., & Wilson, B. (2001). Setting the stage for success: Bringing parents into education reform as advocates for higher student achievement. Lexington, KY: Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. http://www.pewtrusts.com/return_results.cfm?content_item_id=844.

Annotation:
The purpose of this evaluation was to assess the work of the Prichard CommitteeÕs Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership and evaluate the modelÕs strengths and areas for improvement. Specifically, the evaluators wanted to find out whether the Institute increased parentsÕ understanding and participation in education improvement efforts, whether parents were able to use their skills to take on leadership roles, and to find out if the Institute worked equally well in diverse communities. Evaluators found that there are five ways that parents can reasonably be expected to promote educational change as a result of their leadership training. Parents can accept and communicate education messages, gather and present data related to schools, communicate effectively with both parents and educators about education issues, initiate activities to support parent engagement in education and schools, and leverage the contacts they make during training into additional resources. However, the Institute expectation that parents would take action to directly affect student achievement sometimes proved to be too high a standard. The evaluators also note Òparents involved in the Institute far exceeded the kinds of actions they had previously taken in schools.Ó The evaluation was conducted collaboratively between Institute staff and outside evaluators. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Data sources included school demographic data, Institute participant surveys and open-ended interviews, and interviews with principals from participantsÕ school communities. The article also provides Òlessons learnedÓ for other groups wanting to promote parent involvement and information about how a program evaluation can facilitate program improvement. The results of this study are reported in general terms and it is primarily descriptive in nature.