A new poll shows how teachers view parent involvement in schools

Policymakers discussed ways to bridge the so-called parent-teacher perception gap on parent involvement in children’s education, as well as curriculum transparency, during a Sutherland Institute event on Tuesday.
The conservative think tank presented new polling data, as well as policy proposals to improve K-12 education by strengthening trust between parents and educators. The findings of the poll showed Utah parents and Utah teachers see each other very differently compared to the way they see themselves.
The poll, conducted by Y2 Analytics among 560 likely Utah voters and 610 Utah teachers, found that 96% of parents believe they are very (58%) or somewhat (38%) involved in their children’s education. Only 4% felt they were not very involved.
Teachers rated parent involvement differently. Less than two-thirds, 63%, of teachers believe parents are very (7%) or somewhat (56%) involved in their children’s education, according to the poll.
The parent-teacher divide extends to classroom transparency, too.
The poll found that just 16% of Utah parents believe instructional materials and curriculum are easily accessible to parents. A large majority of parents, 62%, believe classroom content is only somewhat accessible. But a majority of teachers, 55%, believe classroom content is extremely or very accessible. Another 32% of teachers said their curriculum is somewhat accessible, and 13% said it was not very accessible.
“Full transparency in terms of what’s occurring in the classroom — and how we define that really, really matters — is all about endearing trust,” said Dr. Rich Nye, the governor’s senior education adviser.
While they were divided on how accessible instructional materials are, parents and teachers were much more aligned on the importance of making these materials accessible. Over 85% of parents said it is very or somewhat important that classroom content be easily accessible to parents. Nearly 75% of teachers felt the same way, while nearly a quarter (23%) of teachers felt it is “not too important.”
A Sutherland Institute analysis found that of Utah’s 41 school districts, only 21 have easily accessible curriculum information. And only five have a policy requiring teachers to do specific things to maker their learning materials more accessible.
“This lack of trust goes both ways,” said state Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Riverton. “There’s teachers feeling like they’re in the hot seat, or parents feeling like they’re left in the dark.”
Sutherland Institute hosted a panel discussion on Tuesday at the Thomas S. Monson Center in Salt Lake City, which houses the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
Panelists included Pierucci, the architect of the Utah Fits All Scholarship program; Nye, the former superintendent of the Ogden and Granite school districts; Dr. Jim Moss, the chair of the Utah State School Board of Education; and Christine Cooke Fairbanks, the author of the institute’s new policy guide focused on increasing parent engagement by incentivizing teachers to provide greater access.
“A theme of today is the health of the parent-teacher relationship,” Cooke Fairbanks said. “If that is strong, then students can learn better and actually find success. That requires coordination from the district level, from the state board, the Legislature and the governor’s office.”
In the policy booklet she authored, Fairbanks encouraged school districts and the state board of education to post Utah’s core education standards in plain language for parents on their websites.
She also recommended that school districts improve their implementation of an already existing state requirement to make instructional materials “readily accessible and available for a parent to view.” And she proposed creating a grant program to reward teachers with job benefits if they take steps to increase access to all curriculum information.
As a mother to a kindergarten-age child, Pierucci said she appreciates regular emails from her child’s teacher, as well as the requirement for her to sign off on that day’s course work every day.
“To me, that feels like a contractual relationship of I’m doing my best as a parent to be engaged in the classroom and be helpful, and the teacher’s doing their best job to inform you,” Pierucci said.
But while she has consistently been a voice for empowering parents in the education system, Pierucci said parents also need to do more to “step up” and take seriously their responsibility of monitoring the children’s school activity and volunteering in their children’s schools.
Pierucci pointed to the Wasatch School District which employed parent volunteers in school hallways to address chronic absenteeism by redirecting kids who are attempting to leave school.
Pierucci, who said she supports Sutherland’s proposal to reward teachers who increase parental access, said lawmakers can do more to enable school districts to experiment with policies to reduce class size, improve student attendance and increase parent engagement.
State code recognizes, and research data shows, that parents, not teachers, have the most important role in ensuring their child gets a quality education, according to Nye.
“For teachers to be successful, yes, they absolutely need that parent engagement,” Nye said. “Never in the history of public education has there been more personalized opportunity for children or families as there is today.”