Do parents and students expect too little from their schools?

This is a tricky one.

Do they expect too little or are they accepting what is before them?

I think it is up to the community to push the school to be what it is the community needs/wants it to be.  If you are passive and accept that what is there is what you get... then the answer to your question is - yes.

I think we're asking too much of our schools, but too little of our school district and our elected officials.  An individual school can't possibly provide all the things that we ask of it with the resources it gets.  Parents, even the busy ones, need to step up and be more active.  At the same time, the district and electeds at all levels continually fail to ask hard questions or deal with tough issues or demonstrate in any way that they are prepared to face the huge financial, social, educational challenges of MPS: declining enrollment, poverty, an increasingly out of balance ratio of retirees to current employees, etc etc etc.  Instead, they do things like circulate a plan to move half of a school to another location... then withdraw the plan two weeks later.  Is anyone in charge? 

Reverse the question and then you really get to the heart of the matter. 

Put in more, and get out more. It's not only what you expect, but what you do to make those expectations a reality. I think that if the public becomes involved in public education, then the accountability administrators hold teachers and principals to will be the same for them as well. As of now, teachers and principals are held to one standard, and administrators are held to...what? I don't know. Right now, the school board has some checks and balances on central office, but the firing of good principals is left to one or two people. The public needs to be that other piece, balancing the power of the superintendent and his team. Read BAY VIEW MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL!

Yes they do, because if students and teachers gave more input/effort, we wouldn't have one of the worst school systems in America, quite possibly the world (MPS). On the other hand, parents are making their voices heard all over Milwaukee by opting out of MPS and enrolling in the choice program. At this point it's tough to tell.

i expect too much, parent teacher communication, the teacher to actually know my childs name etc etc, but how can i blame the teachers who are given 40/50 students per class, we are lucky if the class is controlled, it's considered a good day, MPS is starting to seem more like a babysitting service, we have all the essentials, schools, teachers, students, but nothing connects them