Parent-Teacher Association

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Parent Teacher Association (PTA) is a voluntary organization bringing together parents and teachers of pupils in a particular school or school district, usually for fund-raising, building parent involvement at school and other activities relating to the welfare of the school, rather than the progress of individual pupils. Technically, the generic term "PTO" refers to all parent-teacher groups regardless of acronym. The acronym most commonly utilized to refer to these groups is "PTA", though -- in the United States -- this acronym is technically reserved only for those parent-teacher groups formally affiliated with the National PTA. The PTA usage is common in the United States, Japan, United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries.

Estimates show that over 90% of all U.S. schools have some form of parent teacher group. Roughly 25% of existing parent-teacher groups are formally-affiliated PTAs. Roughly 75% of existing parent-teacher groups are independent PTOs.

[edit] United States National Parent Teacher Association (National PTA)

In the United States, the National PTA was founded in 1897 in Washington, DC as the National Congress of Mothers by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst at a meeting of over 2000 parents, teachers, workers, and legislators. In 1908, the organization changed its name to the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations. National PTA, as the organization is commonly called, is the largest and oldest child advocacy organization in the United States and claims 5.6 million members. The National PTA is based in Chicago with a staff of about 100 at national headquarters. Each of the 50 U.S. states also has a state PTA associated with the National PTA.

Among the early achievements that National PTA claims credit for are the creation of kindergarten, passage of child labor laws, establishment of a public health service, funding hot school lunch programs, developing a separate juvenile justice system, and enforcing mandatory immunization. As part of the No Child Left Behind Act, PTAs and other similar parent groups help schools fulfill the parent involvement requirement of the law.

Membership is open to everyone. Programs include Teacher Appreciation, After School Programs and Parent Involvement Schools of Excellence Certification. National PTA does not act alone; it works in cooperation with many national education, health, safety, and child advocacy groups and federal agencies, collaborating on projects that benefit children and that bring parent involvement resources to its members.

Membership in PTA decreased from more than 12 million in 1964 to barely 5 million in 1982 before recovering to approximately 7 million in 1995 (Putnam, 1995, Bowling Alone). PTA membership today stands at approximately 5.6 million members. Roughly 23,000 schools (out of 112,000 schools in the U.S.) have a formally-affiliated PTA. At the high school level, many PTAs include students, and are called Parent Teacher Student Associations.

[edit] PTOs

Groups going by the "PTA" or "PTSA" name are technically associated with their state PTA and the National PTA. There are also tens of thousands (best estimate typically: 40,000-50,000 -- there is no national register of PTOs) of independent parent groups not associated with the formal PTA. These groups go by many acronyms (HSA, PTO, PCC, etc.), but are known generally as PTOs. At the local level, PTAs and PTOs do very similar work, supporting their schools, growing parent involvement, supporting teachers, family events and the like.

Since 1999, PTOs and PTAs (though the service is more generally associated with PTOs) have also had access to the services of PTO Today, a for-profit publishing and services firm focused on the work of parent-teacher groups. PTO Today's magazine has a circulation of 80,000, primarily to K-8 parent teacher groups in the U.S. All PTOs are independent of PTO Today, though some choose to join and pay for an added-value membership groups called PTO Today Plus for access to discounts, group liability insurance and additional resources.

PTOs are not part of and do not have to report in to a national organization and because most PTOs do not charge dues, there is no current count of the number of parents who belong to PTOs nationwide.