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Woodworth Elementary Kindergarten teachers Aisha Blanchard-Young and Cicely Bingener had always believed in parent involvement as an integral factor in student learning. However, three years ago Mrs. Blanchard-Young and Mrs. Bingener decided to act on this belief by organizing the parents of their primarily Latino, African American and Tongan students from Inglewood into a coalition of parent educators. At that time, Woodworth Elementary, a school wherein 90% of the students qualify for free and reduced lunch, had enacted policies that struck Mrs. Bingener as a deterrent to parent involvement. Additionally, the school’s PTA was virtually defunct. Nonetheless, Mrs. Bingener and Mrs. Blanchard-Young began the Room 3 Parent Partners with the goal of helping parents to realize their power and influence as teachers of their children. “We regard the parents as our students' first teachers,” said Mrs. Bingener. Over the past three years, Mrs. Bingener and Mrs. Blanchard-Young have met with these parents monthly to inform and educate them on how to better support their children's education. “We give them what we know as teachers, so that they can bring that information home.” As a result of these monthly meetings, the students have shown measurable improvement in their skills.
“We haven’t had any retentions in the past two years,” states Mrs. Bingener. “In the past I always had at least one student who was retained.”
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“I have learned what I knew all along. We really need to work with the teachers, we need to communicate and be open with one another.” - Severa Turner
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Recently, several other Kindergarten classes have adopted a similar model and the Room 3 Parent Partners has become recognized by the administration as a legitimate group. Most importantly, however, the parents of the Room 3 students have begun to realize the power of working together with teachers and the school, and have recently taken steps to revitalize the PTA.
Severa Turner joined the Room 3 Parent Partners meetings to help her granddaughter, Briana, who had experienced difficulty in several other schools before coming to Woodworth. “I have learned what I knew all along. Which is that we really need to work with the teachers, we need to communicate and be open with one another.” Since attending the Room 3 Parent Partners meetings, Ms. Turner’s granddaughter has succeeded in her class work and Ms. Turner has found a community of like-minded parents and teachers who share her goals for their children’s future.
"I’m hoping that all of us will get stronger, more like a family," states Ms. Turner. I hope that we are learning from each other so that we can help our kids look forward to a better and brighter future out in the real world.”
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