Partnering with Parents to Ask the Right Questions

Parents and caregivers, among the most important stakeholders in a child’s education, often don’t know how to talk to teachers and school officials—and educators often don’t know how best to reach out to them.

Partnering with Parents to Ask the Right Questions, by Luz Santana, Dan Rothstein, and Agnes Bain of the Right Question Institute, presents a deceptively simple strategy for how educators can build effective partnerships with parents—especially those who typically have not been actively involved in their children’s schooling. It distills complex, important ideas on effective civic participation into an easy-to-learn process that teaches parents two fundamental skills they can use to support the education of their children, monitor their progress, and advocate for them: asking better questions and participating effectively in key decisions.