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SALT LAKE CITY — Prioritizing education is "of the utmost importance" to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Cox's senior adviser of education Rich Nye said Tuesday during a discussion on Utah's education policy agenda.
The discussion was hosted by the Sutherland Institute, a conservative think tank that produces research and data to aid public policy discussions and featured Nye, Jim Moss, chairman of the Utah State School Board, and Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman.
"You've heard me say it before and I'll say it again at the outset: That relationship between the parent and the educator is nearly second to none," Nye said. "It comes with a great degree of trust when a parent brings a child to a school and says, 'Please help educate my child.' That priority is not lost on the governor."
This sentiment was at the forefront of Tuesday's discussion, especially on the day the Sutherland Institute released its latest issue brief finding parents and educators differ in their perception of parental engagement and access to curriculum.
The institute partnered with Salt Lake City-based Y2 Analytics, surveying 560 likely Utah voters and 610 teachers in the state.
Highlights of the brief include the finding that 17 states have passed legislation strengthening parent access policies, with Utah being one of them. Additionally, 41 Utah school districts have some parent access policy on the books, with 27 displaying information about curriculum directly on the district website.
The research also shines a light on some interesting discrepancies between teacher and parent perception when it comes to parent involvement in education.
More than 58% of parents believe they are "very involved" in their child's education, while only 7% of teachers believe parents are "very involved," according to data from the survey.
So, how can parents and educators work together to close this gap?
"I would say for parents, if you can give an hour a week volunteering in your school, please do it," Nye said. "Be involved in your child's education, because I've seen both sides. Even as a parent myself, I know better what's occurring in school if I'm actually around the school, even more than just looking at what comes home to me."
For local education agencies, Nye encouraged building "the capacity for parents to know how to access the resources that the district or school has."
Pierucci said she believes an engaged parent and a "phenomenal" teacher is the "secret sauce" to an effective education system built on communication between parents and educators.
"One thing that we've seen and I think where a lot of conflict comes is this lack of trust goes both ways, right, between ... teachers feeling like they're on the hot seat or parents feeling like they're left in the dark," Pierucci said. "I think that this idea of just having a basic way to communicate weekly is healthy."
Pierucci touched on another finding from the institute's survey — that 55% of teachers believe curriculum is "extremely" or "very" accessible, while 62% of parents believe it is only "somewhat" accessible."
In recent years, the Utah Legislature has taken big steps in making public schools more transparent for parents, passing SB55 in 2023, which requires school districts to create an instructional materials approval policy that outlines an open process, including having educators and parents of students enrolled in the local education agency review and recommend instructional materials for board approval.
The materials must be made public online and two public meetings have to be held for the public to express opinions on the material, among other steps.
"We've actually studied transparency in curriculum, we've studied communication between teachers and parents at great lengths in our (education) interim committee and there are some districts who do a phenomenal job and they have their policies in place and others who are still working on developing that," Pierucci said.
Recommendations from the Sutherland Institute include implementing incentives for teachers who proactively give parents access to curriculum information.
While the survey found there are gaps in the perception of both involvement and parental access, the panelists agreed that, by and large, the vast majority of educators and parents in Utah "want the absolute best for their child."
"I would also be so bold as to say, outside of the family, there's no one that wants to see that child succeed (more) than those teachers that are serving them day in and day out," Nye said.
The full study from the Sutherland Institute can be found here.
