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I teach in a 6th-8th grade functional special education room. My students fall into a pre-kindergarten to 3rd grade ability range. The parents of the 9 students in my classroom span the continuum for parent involvement and cooperation. I send home daily point sheets for all students in my classroom (2 of which have behavior plans that necessitate this), which also contain positive notes and daily classroom notes. I have parents who don't return calls, don't return forms, don't come to IEP meetings regarding their child (and never have, when looking at the file), to parents who are in constant communication and constant agreement and if not agreement, respect, to parents who think that their little snowflake never does anything wrong ("He stabbed you in the arm with scissors while you were helping a child who was having an allergic reaction because you must have done something") and that I'm a fool who is wrong about their child having little hope of age-appropriate functioning (He's in 8th grade. He reads at a 2nd grade level. He gained a half a grade level over a year. That's as good as it gets). It is immensely frustrating to have a parent of a child with a behavior disorder call and inform you that you are lying about their child being physical, and they know that because their little angel told them so. I believe that is the stuff the author of the article is talking about with the "Is that true?" statement.
I also make calls home, more often for positive things than for negative. I still hear the trepidation in parents' voices when I call them, even though this is now year 2 that I've been their child's teacher. Even if I am calling for something extremely negative (like the one child who punches. A LOT), I try to also include something positive (Like...your child punched but yay this time he did apologize and go to the office without argument). For many parents of students with special needs, the education world can be a big pile of "Your kid can't." Your kid can't read, your kid can't listen, your kid can't behave. I feel like if more teacher-parent communication was positive/praising instead of negative/correcting, this situation would be a bit better. I hear teachers at my school complain all the time about how hard it is to contact parents. Guess what? An e-mail takes you 2 minutes. Most phone calls take less than 5. A note home (I have a printout for good news from school) takes 3 minutes. Choose a few kids a week and make it a point to relay something positive from school to home. I have been making huge strides with both the student who is violent and his parents, and I think it's because I've kept at it, giving positive feedback. I haven't given up on this child, and I think that's what the parents were expecting me to do. They may have had a negative approach because they've only had negative experiences with the various schools their child has been at.
This issue is so much bigger than just parents and teachers. It is a cultural thing. Parenting styles and expectations have changed, and schools have largely remained the same. There needs to be major reform in education, but it won't happen anytime soon.
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