Improving Public Schools Through the Dissent of Parents

Opting Out of Tests, Demanding Alternative Curricula, Invoking Parent Trigger Laws, and Withdrawing Entirely

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8923601
AutoresSarah M Stitzlein (0000-0002-2486-2831, University of Cincinnati, autor de correspondencia)
Año2015
Volumen51
Número1
Páginas57-71
Fecha de publicación2015-01-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEducational Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0013-1946 • E-ISSN: 1532-6993
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00131946.2014.983640
OpenAlexW2149781069
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas17

Some parents and caregivers, frustrated by low academic performance of their local school, emphasis on testing, or the content of the curriculum, have worked independently or formed parent groups to speak out and demand improvements. Parents and families enact solutions such as opting out of tests, developing alternative curricula, invoking parent trigger laws, and withdrawing their children from public schools. When engaged well, these outcries of family dissent can be used to improve public schools and to keep them truly public. In this article, I define good dissent and show how it keeps schools healthy. I examine the actions, publications, and web sites of major parent organizations and individual parents to argue that some parents are demonstrating good and admirable dissent that can help improve school quality, parent satisfaction with schools, and student experiences in them; others not only fail to employ good dissent, but may actually be hurting the viability of our public schools and the type of graduate they produce

Curriculum · Dissent · Pedagogy · Political science · Public relations · Quality (philosophy · Sociology · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms · Family and Disability Support Research · Law · Parental Involvement in Education · Psychology