Of all the changes encompassed in the Children First agenda for the NYC public schools, the most positive impact is being generated by the hiring of 1200 Parent Coordinators. The creation of the paid Parent Coordinator position in every NYC public school demonstrates the city's commitment to invest in and partner with parents. As the country's largest public school volunteer organization, Learning Leaders, has joined forces with the Parent Coordinators to recruit, train and support the thousands of parents that have stepped forward to volunteer.

No other public school volunteer program has focused on parent involvement with anywhere near the scale and scope of Learning Leaders. The skills, which the parent volunteers learn through our training, are used to help struggling students in school and, as importantly, their own children at home. The Parent Coordinators requested our services in 120 additional schools, bringing the Learning Leaders program to a total of 970 schools.

Parent volunteers have an incredibly positive impact on schools. According to a study of Learning Leaders done by Arête Corporation, parent volunteers spend more time helping their children with homework, speak to their children's teachers more often and are twice as likely to join PTA's and SLT's. Language barriers, limited education and/or lack of confidence hinders so many parents from believing that they can help their children be successful in school.  After becoming volunteers, these parents gain the self-assurance and support to contribute to their children's educations and become active in their school communities.

Parents want the best for their children. By providing them with skills that enable them to help their children succeed, we are truly empowering them. As children see their parents become more engaged in their education, they become more enthusiastic about school.  Education becomes a family enterprise, not the independent endeavor of a single teacher.  With parents as active partners, teachers' jobs become more manageable, because they are no longer alone in what they expect from their students.

The unprecedented growth of Learning Leaders affirms that the hiring of Parent Coordinators was long overdue and shatters the myth that parents from diverse racial, ethnic and language groups don't care about their children's education. Learning Leaders is honored to play an integral part in these changes that have mobilized parents, and we stand behind our belief that parental involvement is crucial for changing NYC public education for the better.

Digna Sánchez is president of Learning Leaders, with 13,000 volunteers helping nearly 200,000 children in 970 NYC public schools. For more information, call (212) 213-3370 or visit www.learningleaders.org.