Author Description

This booklet, part of the Education Policy Institute series about teacher union issues, clarifies the concept of parent involvement in educational reform, analyzing the treatment of parents in collective bargaining contracts between teacher unions and school boards and in union policy resolutions. Chapter 1 introduces the issue, offering an overview of the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Chapter 2 presents NEA/AFT policies related to parents, discussing NEA resolutions, AFT resolutions, parents in NEA's legislative agenda, NEA publications, and AFT publications. Overall, all NEA AFT materials on parent involvement define it in ways that strengthen or do not challenge teacher and union roles in education. Chapter 3 discusses how parents are treated in teacher bargaining and teacher union contracts with school districts, including actual union proposals and articles excerpted from teacher union/school district contracts. Chapter 4 reviews teacher union relations with the National PTA and its state and local affiliates. These relations help explain how collective bargaining affects parent involvement. Chapter 5 summarizes the issue, noting the huge gap between union rhetoric and union practice regarding parent involvement. The rhetoric praises and urges involvement, while the practice discourages it. The NEA and AFT use parent involvement more to support union policy and legislative objectives than to help children learn. (Contains 44 endnotes.) (SM)