You have got to be kidding me. Did Mr. Sarbanes and crew draft this letter? If they truly belive this there should be names on this letter. This Board has been invisible for years and now it pops up with an unsigned press release. Thing must be worst than I thought.

"The Parent and Community Advisory Board serves to advise the CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools and the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners regarding ways in which parents, families, the community and educators can best collaborate to help our children succeed."

I appreciate that you want to comment on the MSAs; however what does that have to do with your mission. What are you doing to serve your mission in terms of providing, suggesting, mandating ways that all vested parties: staff, parents, etc, can collaborate or work together to provide the best support to children's success. My experience as a Baltimore City Public School employee is that two of the biggest problems are: absent or poor parenting or poor communication between schools and parents.

There was supposed to be a program on the BCPSS website called Powergradebook where parents could access grades, homework, etc. Schools gave up programs they had paid for in previous years b/c the mandate was powergradebook, a program which did not work at all. Unlike in counties,, the technology in Baltimore City, and parents ability to electronically connect is prehistoric. This is just one way that the system has provided POOR support to schools; making them less than they had been in previous years.

Some schools are doing an excellent job. My guess is that this is most true in more affluent schools (i.e. Roland Park, Mount WAshington). What is your office doing?

A second to that emotion! PCAB is a travesty to the goal and necessity of connecting parents to the school system. Has PCAB ever released an initiative? Or even Minutes from their meetings (held the Thursday before the Tuesday Board Meeting)? A truly lost opportunity. Perhaps Sarbanes likes it that way.

One of the numerous ills of urban education is the lack of parental involvement. While PCAB is a noble goal, it seems to have allowed itself to be co-opted by the powers that be. I do not remember seeing any statement that the students were accused of cheating. This falls squarely on the adults. This statement seems to back up adults making excuses.

But this is symptomatic of failing systems where the will of the parents is subverted to a few who are in lock step with the administration, whether in be at the school level or the central office. Support for the students has not waivered; support for the teachers has not increased.

The BCPSS Parent Engagement policy, which I believe was originally authored by PCAB and revised by the current administration, requires that every school have PTA. Erica track down the presidents of the PTAs at some of the troubled schools (if you can find any) and maybe a different perspective on the cause for this reversal can be discussed.

PUBLIC OPINION SAYS THE CURRENT PCAB MEMBERS ARE A NON-FUNCTIONAL GROUP

Frequently Asked Questions about PCAB
>What have they done?
>What have they done?
>What have they done?
>What have they done?
>What have they done?

This letter suggests very laudable goals. But laudable and lofty usually equates with unrealistic and unachievable when figuring in the human equation. Getting all parents to provide necessary support to children is about as realistic as getting all students to score proficient on MSA by 2014. A noble goal, but it's not going to happen.

BS Paper @ PCAB the City schools' parent advisory group

The PCAB full component number of (14) members was established in 1997 by SB 795, why are only eight members posted on the BCPSS web page link?

What happened to the phantom six (6) other members? Did they quit the parent community advisory board since September 2010?

I agree with another comment, why is the Inside Ed posted PCAB letter not signed by the chair of PCAB with all the serving members names not attached on the letter. It appears very unauthentic and fake to me.

Am I the only one who see the irony here? Just a few weeks ago in this post ("Should school board members have children in the public schools?" http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/education/blog/2011/06/should_school_board_members_ha.html) everyone was saying how you must have parents on the school board. Now on this post, all the comments are about how poor the PCAB is and how finding involved parents in City Schools is impossible.

"your the only one is right" exposes you for someone who has never served on a board. enjoy being the only one.

I am dissatisfied with the level of non-increase parent involvement opportunities exposure not created by the current PCAB members. Regarding not providing school level parent programmatic education work-sessions/forums citywide. So that we (parents) can influence and promote change(s) in the site schools primary and secondary curriculum(s) models implemented by the site school administration and its staff.

First of all it appears that some of you are getting PCAB(parent community advisory board) mixed up with the Office of Parent and Community Involvement which has been a Sarbanes debacle since he came here. The two offices should be communicating with one another to make sure that the CEO is advised of concerns and steps taken on specific parent/school issues. As far as PCAB is concerned it is just a Board that most do not know the purpose of and do not see them. They have been around for years and I have never known them to do anything productive to help our parents or inform the community. I could be wrong, but I said that I haven't seen anything, if I am to be corrected please let me know so that when I go to a school and speak to staff and parents I can use PCAB as a valuable place for them to go to instead of just 4 letters and half a staff. And please do not think that it was any better when Michael Carter was there, he was just loud and as he is showing now, he is not doing anything but trying to keep one foot in the door to keep a position that he should not have gotten and that he knows nothing about or cares about. If he did care then our parents would be more knowledgeable and aware of things that are happening that they should be apart of. Having 5-10 people at a Parent Involvement meeting is not good compared to the amount of parents that we have out there. Both of these titles need to do what the job description says that they should be doing.

PCAB organization needs critical major overhauling to find its meanigful worth to the BCPSS technology network, with visability/ informational entries for parent involment link news to post on the BCPSS Main Web Page link tab.

I find PCAB's leadership/members to be weak and nonresponsive to local district community critical electronic and telecommunication agendas for what are the parents and local district education community priorities to influence systemic changes at the central office level for more parent involvement and access.

So, this letter comes to my email in box. I open it, curious. It says - do you want to be a member of PCAB? You know, 'cause I help out in my kid's school and all. And I say to myself - so I already volunteer too many hours at my kid's school trying to figure out solutions to unsolvable problems. Now I can take the frustration to a higher level across multiple schools with even more difficult and unsolvable problems? Then I think of all the lovely comments I've read to this post. Jeeze, I'd have to be a total schmuck to sign up for that kind of misery. Maybe they are looking for total schmucks. I guess I'll miss out on "Mr. Jeek" calling me weak and nonresponsive.

@ Anon- The mission of PCAB is a noble one. It's execution that needs to be addressed. You could be that "superperson" to push them back to relevancy. Think a little harder, go to a meeting and decide for yourself.

Anonymous did OTT read your post?

Your volunteering at the site school is your first priority. The technology challenged PCAB needs to tap into functioning in the 21st century for using the free in kind BCPSS IT network resources available to them. The BCPSS IT network has resources for responding to an IT Work-Order request from PCAB for posting to the main BCPSS web page tab a dedicated link for posting its PCAB meetings agenda, PCAB SY 2011-2012 organization agenda, PCAB announcements, free assigned PCAB email address with a @bcps.k12.md.us domain, etc....

@ Mr. Jeek,

Yes I did read the post, did you? What good is all the IT wizardry if the Board is not staffed with knowledgeable people?

You must be a digital native that thinks that fb and twitter discussions are the way business is done. At some point, you need butts in seats and heads in a room to hash out opinions and come to a consensus.

Dedicated and independent people, no parents, who have been involved at their children's schools and know firsthand the challenges of the system are what PCAB needs. PCAB meets two times a month. I don't know how long their meeting are but let's say its 8 hours a month. Is that really too much for a dedicated person?

Yes, Anon school is her/his first priority but, as much as some would like to forget, no school is an island. If the system suffers from the lack of parental involvement at the highest levels, so will the individual schools. Decisions are being made at North Ave with little to no input from parents. That is the role PCAB was established to fulfill. If BCPSS goes down, so will our precious individual schools.

I know I was the first to respond to this blog posting but it that was out of the impression that PCAB has been coerced into to a body of head nodders much like the school Board. The CEO has been allowed to pick and chose and has in effect weakened that body. That needs to change.

My suggestion to Anon is to not listen to people like me and you, to go gather information and make that decision on their own.

OTT & Anon

The stone and chisel, hunter/gather, butts in the seats, days are over and long gone as the primary people communication and visibility outreach method. The budget expensive BCPSS internal IT (Information Technology) on-line network systems are very under utilized. This IT 21st century systems network tool should be used more and better for remote information access in our City Schools district global connect communication to stakeholders and parents.

@ MR. Jeek - If you think BCPSS has anything 21st century you need to come out of your time capsule and be amazed at what is going on in the real world.

That being said, it still does noone any good to have uninformed, uninvolved citizens at the helm of whatever means of communication.

Re: City schools' parent advisory group is Anonymous.

OTT displaying that you’re very much uniformed and unaware regarding the remote access technology features to provide communication/visibility capabilities from the BCPSS IT department just like PCAB members for free.

Because you have no personal knowledge regarding technology access, and the remote technology tools use of the BCPSS IT department and its communication menu of recourses for free. Every communication/visibility item you see placed on the BCPSS main web page by City Schools can be replicated by PCAB to communicate citywide to the parents for free.

What does no one any good is to be uninformed period. Now that you know!

@ Mr Jeek - I will play along.

Have you ever heard of the "digital divide"? It is real and working in this city. Visit any Pratt library right after school lets out and you will see the students who flock there because they do not have access to the internet at home. Most of the schools push the students out of their "media centers" after school because of the lack of staffing. BCPSS has a well know problem with backpack, snail mail and even maintaining valid phone numbers, so the other end of the communication pipeline has been is historically weak. Therefore, if the system were to put a heavy emphasis on remote access technology, and some think they already are, I can speculate that a large percentage of BCPSS households cannot access the message.
Finally, PCAB is not a part of the "system" and BCPSS should not be releasing parent contact information to them. I would once again assume that is why the former PCAB website had an email submission page. The whole system has communication problems so why put that on a volunteer board. But thanks for the knowledge????

Have you ever heard of the "digital divide"? It is real and working in this city. Visit any Pratt library right after school lets out and you will see the students who flock there because they do not have access to the internet at home. Most of the schools push the students out of their "media centers" after school because of the lack of staffing. Quote by Mr. Jeek: “Parents and students all over the city at home/church/ work/school have access to on-line remote communication.”
BCPSS has a well know problem with backpack, snail mail and even maintaining valid phone numbers, so the other end of the communication pipeline has been is historically weak. Therefore, if the system were to put a heavy emphasis on remote access technology, and some think they already are, I can speculate that a large percentage of BCPSS households cannot access the message. Quote by Mr. Jeek: You’re an expert at speculating very well on this PCAB’s lack of on-line access to use BCPSS IT networks for free topic, and you could be believable to those unaware about misleading folks on BCPSS technology networks disconnect, for the myth you create for others whom you want to believe you know something about using the BCPSS IT network. You have no hands-on experience using for display visibility/communication on the BCPSS main web page or its IT network. Yes I have.

Finally, PCAB is not a part of the "system" and BCPSS should not be releasing parent contact information to them. I would once again assume that is why the former PCAB website had an email submission page. The whole system has communication problems so why put that on a volunteer board. But thanks for the knowledge???? Quote by Mr. Jeek: Refocus your commentary it is again misleading about releasing parent contact info to PCAB. No one implied anything with regard. Then you generalize further the entire BCPSS IT network by saying the whole system its broken. You are some how stuck, and lost in cyber-space with your own limited BCPSS IT experience. Not everyone agrees with your inexperienced viewpoint.

Ridiculous, illiterate posts like many in this string have have driven most people away from this blog. The uninformed content and the lack of writing skills make the blog a joke. I wander by occasionally hoping for the old days and leave disgusted. How I long for an educated education forum.

@ wise educator

you have a choice to make don't you. you don't control this free form blog

@Mr. Jeek,

I do have a choice. I have made my choice as I mentioned. I left the blog. Very infrequently I read the blogs written by the Sun staff and take a quick peek to see if any of the responders have educated,open-minded, and coherent posts.I enjoy discussing education but I am offended by writing that is incoherent and by inaccurate statements passed off as facts. Write away. With a couple exceptions, the brightest bloggers have given up.

@ wise educator,
What writing are you referring to? The Sun staff writing, or the comments?

I know that you were very active on the blog when I first started the beat one year ago, and I never want to lose a voice in our education discussions on the blog.

However, I'm a bit confused by your feedback--particularly your reference to "uninformed content" and "incoherent writing."

I don't write posts that are "uninformed," as I am relentless in obtaining information from the school system, and always attribute information in my posts. For example: the very post you have commented on is strictly devoted to affording one of the most important stakeholders in the city school system a platform to express their views.

Sometimes, that's necessary--and in the wake of such a blow to the city school system's morale, this was one of those times.

The comments--I don't censor, as I shouldn't, unless they're libelous or defamatory.

I would hope that those who want to engage in a healthy discussion about education in Baltimore City would do so by providing the kind of informed and productive insight you assert is lacking. We can start with some productive feedback.

Thanks,
Erica
Feel free to email me: erica.green@baltsun.com

Erica-In no way was I referring to the Sun or the Sun writers! Sorry for that confusion! I return to the blog to read what you write. I subscribe to the Sun and read every word. I was referring to "responders" to your posts who are often uninformed and frequently mean spirited. Too often the responder's writing is so poorly written that I can't even understand the point they are trying to make. Not worth my time trying to decipher. I enjoy intelligent discourse and certainly know we will not all agree. But I believe in keeping posts civil and informed. The convoluted and misinformed posts are what I am not going to read.

I believe that the Sun writers are doing an excellent job exploring issues of the city and county school systems. My only request would be more investigative journalism.There is so much to be exposed and changed.

I apologize for any misunderstanding. I wanted to say this to you publicaly.

Erica-In no way was I referring to the Sun or the Sun writers! Sorry for that confusion! I return to the blog to read what you write. I subscribe to the Sun and read every word. I was referring to "responders" to your posts who are often uninformed and frequently mean spirited. Too often the responder's writing is so poorly written that I can't even understand the point they are trying to make. Not worth my time trying to decipher. I enjoy intelligent discourse and certainly know we will not all agree. But I believe in keeping posts civil and informed. The convoluted and misinformed posts are what I am not going to read.

I believe that the Sun writers are doing an excellent job exploring issues of the city and county school systems. My only request would be more investigative journalism.There is so much to be exposed and changed.

I apologize for any misunderstanding. I wanted to say this to you publicaly.

@ Wise Educator - Please don't abandon us. We need you.Don't let the ankle biters scare you off. Stand tall and led the fight.

@ Wise Educator,
Thanks so much for responding--no apology necessary. I was a bit confused about whether you were referring to blog posts or the comments--and if was the former, I wanted to make sure that it wasn't the quality of the blog. I apologize to you if I came off too defensive.
I do hope you'll check in from time to time, and think it's unfortunate that the dialogue in the comments disengages you.
As far as your request for more investigative work, I completely understand. It's hard for various reasons (the beat is so active day-to-day), but I agree with you that there's still so much to be uncovered if we devote the time and resources to it.

Thanks for the feedback :-)
I depend on you all to keep me on my toes.

Erica

Re: City schools' parent advisory group topic

What a group you two responders make.

The digital divide does exist in Baltimore City. Some schools are computer rich and others are devoid of access to computers for students except for once or twice a week. There are various reasons for this and we are all aware of most of them. The sad thing is that BCPSS develops curriculum, particularly at the high school level, that presumes teachers and students are able to access online materials every day. The filter system also is a joke in that there are some topics that cannot be researched from the school system. I realize that we don't want students (or teachers for that matter) going on to inappropriate websites but, when sites are quoted in Bridge projects and can't be accessed from school, something is wrong. You can ask for the sites to be unblocked but shouldn't someone have looked at these sites previously and made them available? I find the unblocking process to be time-consuming and frustrating as it can take weeks to get an appropriate response. One of the best examples of frustration is the SMS that teachers use to take roll and enter grades. The default setting for the system is to show the student as "present." A teacher must mark a student absent or tardy for the day. If the teacher is absent, all students show up as present. It then takes an act of Congress to get the attendance corrected. Makes me wonder about attendance stats. Some teachers don't know how to take care of attendance or computers in general and training is done online. Amusing and frustrating!

@ over the top- Thanks. I always enjoy your posts and read them carefully. We need more like you, Robin, a parent, and calamity. There are others. I will keep an eye on Inside Ed but I can't respond to the "ankle biters,"