The Limits of the Grant Model: The End of Parent-Teacher Teams

Hope Leichter, TC: "It came to an end. We didn't get the funding. I think it was partly that we couldn't deliver on the career ladder. It's partly that one of the funding models at that time, and subsequently, was seed money. That was very prevalent. And I can't tell you the details of how that worked out ... whether we were supposed to, for renewal, we had to bring in a certain amount of money or not. I can't tell you that. It may be in the files. And I didn't do all the financial negotiations. But the model was seed money. And again, I think that's often [the case] with start-up community projects, not just then, but subsequently ... there's some notion of "a foundation or a government gives a grant, if it's really good, then somebody else is going to pick up the tab to continue it." And it doesn't happen that way, always. So it had very heady moments ... and very painful aspects to it. And for me, it was very hard because I failed. I managed to run a very exciting, good program, bring people here and have a lot of people just cheering and thrilled and happy ... But I didn't get anywhere in negotiating a career ladder or some sort of admissions preference."

In the clip above, Hope Leichter describes some of the factors that led to the end of the Parent-Teacher Teams program. While it proved both popular and effective, the program lasted only two and a half years, and was shuttered in the spring of 1970. Ultimately, a trio of factors rooted in the larger challenges facing New York City's public schools undid this program:

Decentralization of the School System: In 1970, the State of New York split the New York City School District into 31 sub-districts, a partial concession to demands for decentralization and community participation that had emanated from Harlem for decades. While the intention of this decentralization was to provide increased opportunity for programs like Parent-Teacher Teams to evolve, existing programs were often shuttered as District lines were redrawn. 

Limits of the Career Ladder at Columbia: As Leichter notes, Columbia University's School of General Studies (TC did not offer undergraduate degrees) did not ultimately approve a college program for parent educators, which became a point of frustration for participants as well as the District. While paraprofessional educators were often promised the opportunity to become teachers in early programs, these opportunities did not materialize until paras in New York City unionized and bargained a measure for training into their contract in 1970. 

The Grant Funding Model: Perhaps the biggest challenge, as Leichter notes, was the grant funding model. Both the Ford Foundation and, to a lesser degree, the ESEA, initially worked on a grant-and-demonstration-model basis. While such grants allowed for tremendous innovation, they also left projects vulnerable when priorities and politics shifted. After conflict arose around Ford-Foundation-funded community control districts in New York City in 1968, Ford began moving away from these sorts of direct interventions in community schooling, leaving programs like PTT with few options.