Last week the Washington Post released the results of a poll they conducted in early January, asking 1,000 randomly selected adults about the state and future of the District of Columbia Public Schools.

Chief among their beefs with the roughly 50,000-student school system was the lack of parental involvement. More specifically, seven out of 10 District residents cited apathy and disconnection among parents as the largest single problem with the city schools.

I certainly don’t make sweeping conclusions based on a newspaper poll, but it did seem to mirror the turnout for a series of public hearings the school district held to discuss their plan of closing 23 schools in the fall. Less than 500 people showed up to the 23 simultaneously-running meetings at each of the schools, with 16 of them over in less than an hour.

Now, I’m not trying to pick on parents; everyone knows how busy and hectic raising a family can be. But, everyone also knows that clear and conclusive evidence has linked student achievement to parent involvement and expectations. Schools can’t do it all by themselves. It takes a partnership between teachers and families to give kids a fighting chance at success.

In my feature article, “The Importance of School and Parent Partnerships,” I explore this subject further, through the eyes of three distinct parents, who each had her own struggles, but made sure to place her child’s education as a priority.

Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor