Two recent Times stories bookend the issue of parent involvement. At the first Mayoral Control hearing, held by members of the State Asssembly last week, an engaged and occasionally boisterous crowd held officials for hours as they asked questions and raised grievances. (Detailed coverage on the hearing is here.) These parents had plenty to say, and it seems they welcomed the chance at last to enter the forum of public opinion and speak their minds.

Today, a story on the closing of PS 90 in the Bronx circles around the idea of parent involvement, with comments from DOE leadership (Garth Harries, again), teachers' union president Randi Weingarten, school leaders, and outside thinkers and education scholars -- but scant representation of parent voices. Paul Weissman, commenter # 8 in the Timesstring, uses a harsh term I'd never encountered before-- "educational orphans" -- to describe kids whose parents can't or don't engage in active advocacy. (The term itself ignores the challenges faced by parents from other cultures, who constitute a large fraction of the PS 90 community, according to Principal Pat West, who spoke about the issue in November) But nomenclature aside, the question is real: Is the DOE making choices for kids who are basically free agents in the city's school system?

Javier Hernandez' Times story today quotes Garth Harries on the 'nuances' in the process of deciding whether to close a school. From outside, this looks as if DOE is trying to play both sides of the field: On one hand, statistical data (test scores, progress report grades, standardized measures of student progress) drive up-and-down decisions. On the other hand, schools with similar or identical scores can face different destinies -- some closing, others surviving, depending on subjective factors. And no matter how DOE spins it, parents are systematically excluded from the decision-making dialogue that decides whether a school will close -- a reality that's sure to play a large role in the Mayoral Control debate. Another hearing will take place this Friday, February 6, in Manhattan. If you've got something to say, make the time to make your voice heard.