Those of us in the K-12 education arena puzzle over parent involvement a lot. Our new report helps education leaders, reformers and policymakers take a step back, examine what parents themselves have to say about the issue, and determine how education leaders can best tailor their approaches to meet the concerns and capacities of parents.

School leaders should focus on parents' distinct priorities, concerns and strengths if they want to engage more parents in school improvement.

To help them do so, we provide a series of practical recommendations, based on the research and our deep expertise in stakeholder engagement in K-12 education.

From Public Agenda's President, Will Friedman:

Yesterday, the Senate voted down a gun control bill strongly supported by the public. On this issue, our leaders have failed to take even modest measures aimed at controlling gun violence, defying the public's judgment that beefed-up background checks are worth trying.

Valid arguments certainly remain on both sides of the issue, and most of those who are uneasy about restricting gun access cannot and should not be reduced to a pawn of extremists. But that doesn't mean we can sit back and try nothing, especially when the public overwhelming supports reasonable measures that might improve the safety of our children and communities.

Here's a link to my statement on the Huffington Post. It still pertains, I think, to the critical questions on immigration and the budget that are on the policy agenda. We hope leaders will not continue to ignore the public's voice. And if they do, we hope the public will stop standing for it.