'Obama Effect' at school: Black parents volunteer, expect more

Greg Toppo:

A new survey suggests that President Obama's victory last November had a positive effect not just on the academic expectations of black Americans -- it may have raised parents' interests in volunteerism.
The "Obama Effect," documented last winter, showed that Obama's rise during the 2008 presidential election helped improve African Americans' performance on skills tests, which helped narrow a black-white achievement gap.

In the new findings, African-American parents of children in K-12 schools say they're much more likely to volunteer in a classroom this fall, in effect narrowing a volunteering gap.

The survey, being released today by GreatSchools, a San Francisco non-profit that promotes parental involvement, finds a jump of 37 percentage points in the portion of African-American parents who say they'll volunteer in their child's school -- 60% vs. 23% a year ago.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at August 7, 2009 1:11 AM
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