Strengthening Latino parental involvement forming community-based organizations/school partnership

Latino community-based organizations (CBOs) represent a natural, yet largely untapped, source of leadership and opportunities to encourage and strengthen Latino parental involvement in American schools. The authors challenge the assumption that Latino parents' lower levels of formal parental involvement indicate a lack of interest in their children's education and argue that traditional methods of involving parents in their children's education are not always effective. Their preliminary findings indicate that parental policy changes and practices are needed to promote genuine collaboration between Latino parents and the schools that their children attend rather than imposing agendas for an "appropriate" one-size-fits-all involvement.