If you're at all curious about the perspective on education running the Gates Foundation, you'll find
this a good read. On parents:
But back to parents - all they're supposed to do is pick a school and help their kids reach those "college-ready standards" (ie the new Common Core standards, at this point). This falls way short of any kind of genuine parental involvement, but markets are about financial transactions, not relationships.
On schools of ed:
Schools of education take a hammering from these very same reformers, but never for the right reasons. Instead of suggesting improvements to ed schools that would include intensive training (akin to med school residencies) and a solid grasp of how power, privilege, and culture plays out at the school and classroom level, these corporate reformers push for sycophantic neophytes in brief alt prep programs hopped up on positive psychology nonsense and drill-and-kill pedagogical approaches. The added bonus of stripping away all the "unnecessary" frill classes - like schools and society, intercultural communication, how to work with parents, etc - makes it that much easier for the pro-business reformers to control the debate about public education. You won't hear these reformers talking about getting more minority teachers into the classroom - they're too busy pushing pay-for-test-score programs like SB6 down in Florida
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