Educational Leadership

Welcome to the
Great Conversation

Forget community involvement. Instead, educators
should focus on building community support.

—Abraham Lincoln

Jamie Vollmer

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.

Ibelieve in strength- ening the relationship between the public and public schools to increase student success; I’m skeptical, however, about increasing community involvement in our schools.

Community involvement is a laudable goal, and I respect those who devote their professional lives to the cause. My experiences in community involvement campaigns, however, have convinced me that the effort is all but futile. Few districts have the time, the resources, or even the inclination to conduct a comprehensive community involvement campaign. Most teachers and administrators are already up to their eyeballs in work, and, truth be told, many have zero interest in involving the public.