PTA Wants To Play A Larger Role In Urban Districts

Kansas City, Mo. – Positive parental involvement - it's linked to everything from higher test scores to good behavior in the classroom, and for more than 100 years the PTA has been encouraging parents to get involved.

However, over the last five decades the non-profit's membership has steadily shrunk.

Today the PTA is about half the size it was fifty years ago and is largely clustered in the suburbs, leaving urban districts to account for just a fraction of it's membership.

And the Kansas City Missouri School District has PTA in only three of its schools, opting to replace the non-profit with district-sponsored groups.

But those numbers aren't discouraging the PTA from trying to get back into urban schools.