Back in September, Chicago teachers went on strike to push the school system to meet their demands. Now, Chicago schools are giving parents gift cards in an effort to get them involved in their kids’ education and academics.
In exchange for picking up their child’s report card and attending parent-teacher conferences, parents will receive a $25 Walgreens “Balance Rewards” card as part of a pilot program developed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The 70 public schools selected to participate have all had trouble engaging parents in the past. While the schools will track and analyze data to measure the program’s success, Mayor Emanuel imagines the initiative will close the communication gap between school students and their parents.
In response to those skeptic about the program, Beth Swanson, deputy chief of staff for education, stated, “This is about our educators and CPS leadership working to be innovative and creative in order to increase parent involvement in their child’s education, period.”
A North Carolina State University, the University of California and Brigham Young University study revealed that parental involvement is more important to a student’s performance than the quality of the school, itself.
Read the entire article on The Huffington Post.
BMWK–What are your thoughts on bribing parents to get involved? What could the schools do instead?