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Last week, we interviewed Paul Houston, who recently retired from his 14-year position at the helm of AASA, about his legacy as an educator and his thoughts on the current state of education reform.

This week, we turn our attention to another education leader who is reflecting on a long and distinguished career: Warlene Gary, who in late June retired from her position as executive director of the national PTA.

In our exclusive interview, Gary speaks about what she has accomplished in her 35-year career, her commitment to equity, her efforts at the PTA to reach out to poor communities and communities of color, and her frustration with the "paralysis of analysis" that hamstrings so many education reform discussions in Washington, DC.

Hear five minutes of highlights from our interview with Warlene Gary (or read through the transcript below):

Or listen to the following excerpts from the full interview:  

• Overcoming the Paralysis of Analysis (2:59)
• Knocking Down Walls Between Parents and Schools (2:50)
• Reaching Out to Parents of Color (3:21)
• Accomplishments in a Distinguished 35-Year Career (1:23)
• What's on the Horizon? (1:35)

Interview Highlights:

PUBLIC SCHOOL INSIGHTS:  What have been some of the major concerns that have really animated your work in education for the past 35 years?

GARY:  I guess the major concerns that have animated my work have to do with making sure that all children get a really good and valuable education so they can make it in this world.

PUBLIC SCHOOL INSIGHTS:  And do you think there's been progress in the past 35 years?

GARY:  I think we've made some progress, but Martin Luther King used to talk about the "paralysis of analysis."  And I think education is stuck at constantly having the conversation and saying what the problem is, but never moving through all the actions that it takes to make sure that all kids can learn.

PUBLIC SCHOOL INSIGHTS:  How have these concerns motivated the work you've done at PTA?

GARY:  A lot of my work has to do with how we build a relationship between the school and the parents.  Parents' number one fear of the school is intimidation, and teachers' number one fear of parents is intimidation-[my work has been] to break down those walls.  A lot of my work has been focused on this issue of poverty and equity.

PUBLIC SCHOOL INSIGHTS:  How has the PTA worked under your leadership to bring in more parents in poor communities or more parents of color?

GARY:  We've developed an emerging minority leadership program in which every year we bring together at least two ethnic minority parents from communities in every state.  We basically train them on issues-we train them on how to work with the school, we train them on nutrition, we train them on leadership skills.  We use this process to have parents who can go back into their own communities to help build leadership.  So it's a grassroots program that then helps to provide us with other leaders who can help the PTA make sure that it is serving all communities.

We've created a community connections program with about nine urban communities, [including] Chicago, Sacramento...We've just put in a new PTA in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which is an urban, predominantly African-American community.

We're providing training leadership, and technical assistance for those communities, and we've just done a big programmatic thrust in Chicago schools itself.

Because, quite frankly, the work that has to be done for kids is at the grassroots level-it's at the community level and the school level.

PUBLIC SCHOOL INSIGHTS:  How do you think other big players in the public education world can help support the work of community connections?

GARY:  I think, quite frankly, that big organizations could provide us more mentors and coaches down at the grassroots level, and have them work on a volunteer basis.  Because the PTA is all volunteer.  Except for the staff, the people who do this work are volunteers.  I think it's going to take a lot of direct hands-on with communities and families.

PUBLIC SCHOOL INSIGHTS:  You mentioned also, earlier, this mutual sense of intimidation between parents and teachers.  I think that's what you were just talking about again now.

GARY:  Right.

PUBLIC SCHOOL INSIGHTS:  What are some other strategies, you think, that not only the PTA but some of the other public education groups out there can undertake to try to break down this wall?

GARY:  The research is done.  They know what skills and what abilities have to be [developed] around family-school involvement.  All of the stuff around family-friendly schools is out there. 

I just visited a school, a phenomenal school, in Atlanta, Georgia, where the principal understood that parent involvement was so important and powerful to the school that she had given [the PTA] a room so that parents, when they come in the school, have to pass the door to the parent center.  Just one room, nicely inviting for parents to drop in and see.  But the president of the PTA was working with the parent liaison, was working with the principal.

The school is in a relatively low-income, area and that school is meeting AYP.  You should see this school; it's phenomenal.  It actually shows that this can be done.

There does need to be a paid-for parent outreach person, whether it's part-time or whatever, out of that school, to reach out to a number of parents who don't feel comfortable coming in the school.  There was that common understanding between the principal and the parent liaison and the president of the PTA, "This is what we have to do together to help all these kids achieve."

PUBLIC SCHOOL INSIGHTS:  Over your 35-year career you've had quite a few accomplishments.  Which of these are you most proud of?

GARY:  I think all my work around family involvement and my work around the achievement gap.