Clients, Consumers, or Collaborators? Parents and their Roles in School Reform During Children Achieving, 1995-2000

The Children Achieving reform plan envisioned parents as critical players in school reform, a vision that freshly emphasized the need to transform relations between local schools and parents and communities. This vision represented a departure from the passive view of parents as clients and consumers to an active view of them as collaborators with education professionals in shaping children’s school experience. This report provides an overview of the many roles Children Achieving envisioned for parents between 1995- 2000, with particular attention to their role as education leaders and collaborators with teachers and principals in school reform.