PURE How-To Books now online
The Power of Parent Participation: A PURE How-To Book
For many years now, people all across the country (and the world) have been asking us – how did you become such a powerful parent organization? How can we start a PURE chapter in our city?
How DID we do it? Could we offer advice to other parents to help them become more powerful advocates for their children’s education? We decided to try pulling together some of our best practices, and sharing some of the lessons we’ve learned along the way.
We wrote one book about how we created a strong parent group (“The Power of Parent Participation”) and another book that takes a closer look at one of our most successful campaigns, our fight against high-stakes testing (“Chicago Parents’ Fair Testing Campaign”).
Chicago Parents' Fair Testing Campaign
The books were fun to write. We printed them out and distributed them all over the U. S. We think the books may have encouraged some parents start their own local PURE chapters.
The thing is, in 2002, we were barely familiar with the internet. These books were cut and pasted together – in many cases using actual paste and scissors! It has taken us this long to get tech-savvy enough to be able to ask our next generation to help us get the books up on our web site. And, of course, many of the strategies described in the books would be much different using today’s technology. But we think the fundamental ideas remain sound.
So, here they are. I hope they will continue to be useful to parents all over the nation and world, and strengthen even more the voices we raise on behalf of our children’s education.
The Power of Parent Participation: How to Create a Powerful Parent Organization
Chicago Parents’ Fair Testing Campaign: How Parents Used Multiple Strategies to Force Changes in the Chicago Public Schools Student Testing Policy
Tags: high-stakes testing, parent involvement, parent organizing, parent power
Julie Woestehoff is PURE's executive director. Julie's work has earned her a Ford Foundation award and recognition as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Chicago.