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What comes to mind when you think about the PTA - bake sales and school fairs? Local PTAs are often involved in such activities.

But did you know that the National PTA is also the largest volunteer child advocacy organization in the country? Working in cooperation with many national education, health, safety and child advocacy groups and federal agencies, the group provides parents and families with a powerful voice to speak on behalf of every child.

Betsy Landers was installed as President of the National PTA in June 2011, and has served on both state and local PTAs as well. She recently took the time to tell us more about the group, its advocacy efforts and where she hopes to focus during her tenure as President.

Public School Insights: You served as both a local PTA president and as Tennessee PTA president before coming to the National PTA. How have your experiences on those levels impacted the role you see for the National PTA?

Landers: It has afforded me invaluable grassroots experience.  Having served at the various levels of our PTA governance structure (from the local unit level to the state level) has helped me to experience National PTA's impact at each of these levels. It has also given me valuable insight into the needs of our leadership and membership at those levels.  Our members at the grassroots level are the heartbeat of this association.  This is where the true impact of our work is done.

Public School Insights: How has the role of the PTA shifted during your involvement with the organization, at both the local and the federal level? What sorts of challenges are unique to the current context?

Landers: Our advocacy efforts, whether on Capitol Hill or at the local board of education level, remains the hallmark of our impact on behalf of the families we serve.  Over the last 20 years that I have been involved, our advocacy efforts have become of even greater importance to our membership.

Inadequate education funding, unique language needs, the changing American family, military deployment, childhood obesity -- these are just a few of the challenges impacting communities across this nation.  Today's economy has affected how our schools are run and how our families experience not only school but their everyday lives. 

Public School Insights: Under your predecessor Charles Saylors, National PTA’s work focused on a number of important issues: male involvement, diversity, and legislative advocacy among them. In what areas do you hope to focus your work at National PTA? In general, what do you see as PTA’s priorities over the coming months and into 2012?

Landers: Legislative advocacy will always be a centerpiece of our work and our public policy agenda will remain aggressive on behalf of our children and their families. We will continue to focus our efforts on expanding male involvement and reaching families through our Urban Family Engagement Initiative.  Additionally, we are working with the US Department of Health and Human Services and Headstart to support the successful transition of families to k-12 education.  We recently met with US Education Secretary Arne Duncan to identify areas of mutual concern and opportunities where we can partner.  We’ve also put a big focus on bullying and created resources to help students, families and school communities.

Public School Insights: One PTA policy priority has been the Family Engagement in Education Act, which seeks to promote meaningful family engagement at the local, state, and national levels. Where is it in the legislative process? What exactly does it aim to accomplish?

Landers: The Family Engagement in Education Act (HR1821/S941) was introduced on May 10, 2011 by Representative Platts (R-PA) and Senator Reed (D-RI).  The bill is also championed by Congresswoman McCarthy (D-NY), Senator Coons (D-DE), and Senator Whitehouse (D-RI).  Developed by the National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group, this legislation is PTA’s top legislative priority.

Specifically, the Family Engagement in Education Act will empower parents by increasing local education agency resources dedicated to family engagement from 1 percent to 2 percent of Title I funding.  The bill also aims to improve the quality of family engagement practices at the school level by incentivizing local education agencies to develop and implement standards-based policies and practices for family-school partnerships.  The bill would also restructure Parental Information Resource Centers (PIRCS) to provide high-quality services and reach more families ---and, most notably, the bill authorizes no new spending.

Public School Insights: In addition to advocacy work, I understand that PTA is very concerned with on-the-ground practice and provides a number of resources to both parents and schools that address a wide variety of issues that students might face. Could you tell us about a few of those resources?

Landers: The PTA Back to School Kit is one of our most tangible resources. It contains multiple resource guides, membership support collateral and programmatic information.  Every year it is an eagerly awaited resource by our leadership at all levels.  PTA.org offers access to a vast variety of PTA information, resources, best practices, e-learning courses and so much more.  It is PTA central 24 hours a day!  Additionally, our field staff, as well as our core staff in Alexandria, Va., provides personal support and guidance to members and leaders alike.   We are always trying to meet the needs of our membership and leadership, so our resources are always evolving.

Public School Insights: One area of high priority in education these days is turning around poorly performing schools. The media often depicts such schools as lacking in parental engagement. Do you think that is true? How can PTA be of assistance in turnaround efforts, as well as efforts to engage parents at other schools where stereotypes suggest there is low parental engagement  - low-income schools, schools where a large number of students do not speak English as a native language and so on?

Landers: The research is overwhelmingly clear: when parents play a positive role in their children’s education, students do better in school. They have better test scores and higher grades, enroll in higher level classes, attend school and pass their classes, develop better social skills, graduate from high school, attend college and find productive work.

Often it is easy to cite lack of parent involvement as a contributing factor without knowing some of the challenges that may exist as barriers – unemployment, lack of transportation, single parents working two jobs, both parents working, childcare for younger siblings, etc.  The litany of challenges can be overcome with creativity and perseverance, as well as a clear understanding of what true family engagement encompasses.  Parents also might just need better information from schools on how to help their students be better prepared for college and career.

National PTA’s Urban Family Engagement Initiative provides an opportunity for parents, caregivers, administrators, policy makers, and community stakeholders at all levels to work together to ensure urban students reach their full potential.  PTA addresses the barriers and issues that prevent urban parents and families from being actively involved through exposure to collaborative community partners, relevant resources and grassroots leadership classes.