  urlLink We are the parents. Is anyone listening? | csmonitor.com : "A decade has slipped by since a fiery group of mothers in the South Bronx set out to make their voices heard in their children's schools.
Lucretia Jones, whose two children are now grown, says that parents in her neighborhood had previously been viewed as outsiders, only as valuable as the cookies they brought to bake sales. Today, Ms. Jones says, at least she and her peers are 'sitting at the table' with the school administrators who once locked them out.
From her vantage point - as a lifelong Bronx resident and founding member of Mothers on the Move (MOM) - parents have made genuine strides toward opening educators' ears and school doors. But she offers no credit to the provisions in the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that call for a deeper dialogue between schools and families, particularly in low-income communities.
In fact, says the seasoned community activist, 'I really didn't realize parental participation was part of [NCLB]. ' It's been a problem for the implementors of the new education law. Some of its key provisions prompt states, districts, and schools to notify parents about everything from their children's progress to their options for transferring out of low-performing schools. But a study to be released this week, based on conversations with 26 grass-roots organizations, suggests that as of yet many parents - even those involved in their children's schools, remain unaware of these options, or bewildered as to how to exercise them. " 
