Transcript No Slide Title

Engaging Parents With
A Focus On Achievement
The Coalition for Community Schools
2010 National Forum
Philadelphia
April 7, 2010
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Objectives:
 Focus attention on the ability of
trained parent leaders to support their
schools and students’ achievement
 Employ a tool to assess a school’s
parent involvement commitment
 Provide direction for parent
engagement options that affect
student achievement
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3
Levels of Parent Involvement
Parent Leadership Institute
Level 6:
Engaging
Others
Level 5: Advocacy and
Shared Decision-making
Level 4: Volunteering and InSchool Support
Levels currently
targeted by existing
organizations and
agencies
Level 3: Helping Children
Learn at Home
Level 2: Communication
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Level 1: Basic Parenting
Joyce L. Epstein, Ph.D.
Johns Hopkins University
We develop parent leaders
• Prepared to partner with schools, other
parents, and community resources
• Focused as advocates for improved
student achievement
• Ready to engage in higher level work to
support quality schools
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Our challenge to you today
is to ask….
How do we move from seeing parents as
recipients of services to being collaborative
partners with our community schools?
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An example of parent partnership
 CPAC Charge: “outstanding practice to
involve parents in every school in Kentucky”
 Result: The Missing Piece of the Proficiency
Puzzle-Recommendations for Involving
Families and Community in Improving Student
Achievement
To read the entire document go to Centerforparentleadership.com
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Six key objectives
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
Relationship-building
Communication
Decision-making
Advocacy
Learning Opportunities
Community Partnerships
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Relationship building
Indicator:
The school staff builds productive, personal
relationships with parents and their students
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The Missing Piece: Engaging parents to complete the proficiency puzzle
Objective 1: Relationship-building
School staff builds productive, personal relationships with parents* of all their students.
Distinguished
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Proficient
Apprentice
Novice
Teachers and staff have developed
collaborative partnering relationships
with all parents and students to improve
teaching and learning.
Parents report that school staff
understands and demonstrates how
strong relationships with parents
contribute to effective teaching and
learning.
Parents report their relationship with
school staff is about discussing student
academic performance and/or behavior.
Parents report that teacher/parent
relationships are limited to discipline
issues and/or reports of poor academic
performance.
Administrators and school staff welcome
and actively seek parents of all new and
ESL students to encourage early
relationship building.
School staff implements systematic steps
to welcome the parents of new and ESL
students (e.g., home visits, personal calls
or letters, open houses, and other
methods).
Relationships with parents of new and
ESL students are informal, occasional, or
accidental, and information is provided if
requested.
School staff has limited involvement with
parents of new and ESL students.
District and school staff provides training
to involve all stakeholders in the process
of improving the interaction between
school, home, and community.
Parents and other stakeholders report
they are actively welcomed when they
visit the school.
Some parents report they are welcome to
visit school.
Parents report that school staff makes
little effort to welcome parents or
community members when they visit the
school.
Parents and community stakeholders
have authentic participation and help
plan and implement school and district
improvement activities.
School staff implements systematic steps
to encourage parents to attend school
activities and participate in decisions
about their children’s learning.
Parents are invited to attend school
activities related to their own child and
are encouraged to attend parent teacher
conferences.
Parents receive information on school
activities and are invited to conference if
child is not doing well.
District and school staffs encourage
continuous and meaningful
communication with all parents about
their student’s academic goals and
progress.
School staff involves parents in personal
communication about their students’
progress at least once a month.
Administrators and school staff are
available to parents by appointment only
to discuss their student’s progress.
Most communication from administrators
regards safety and discipline issues.
District and school staffs identify family
interests, needs and barriers and provide
services to ensure academic success.
School staff completes needs assessment
with all parents to determine resources
necessary for their child’s academic
success.
Teachers informally collect some studentneeds data and some parents are
contacted to discuss those needs.
School staff has no plan for gathering
information about students’ learning
needs.
Student/family feedback data on school
welcoming and engagement efforts is
retained in a useable confidential format
and can be retrieved for district or school
assistance to families.
All parents are asked for feedback on
school’s efforts to welcome and engage
parents, and the feedback is used to
improve school’s efforts.
Staff occasionally asks for feedback on
school’s efforts to welcome and engage
parents, in an informal or casual way
with no regular data collection.
Student/family feedback is not included
in any assessment of the school’s efforts
to welcome and engage parents.
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1. Relationship-building
A. How does your school build relationships with parents?
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7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Staff collaborates w/parents to improve learning  Staff calls only when there’s
trouble
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1A
Guided self-assessment
 Turn in your Parent Involvement Inventory to:
1. Relationship-building
 Rate how well your school performs each
descriptor
 8 is the high score;1 is lowest
 Write your examples on a post-it
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Sharing best practices
 Tell us how your school exemplifies
distinguished or proficient behavior
 As a group we will decide where to score
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Categorically Speaking
 Total your scores for Objective 1
 Find your category:
 Novice (7-17)



Apprentice (18-31)
Proficient (32-45)
Distinguished (46-56)
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Community Partnerships
Indicator:
The school staff engages and partners with
community members to plan and implement
substantive work to improve student
achievement.
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The Missing Piece: Engaging parents to complete the proficiency puzzle
Objective 6: Community Partnerships
School staff engages and partners with community members to plan and implement substantive work to improve student achievement.
Distinguished
a
b
c
d
e
f
Proficient
Apprentice
Novice
School staff networks and partners with
multiple businesses and organizations to
support student achievement at a school
council and a programmatic level.
School leaders regularly share
information on student achievement and
involve business and community leaders
in school improvement efforts.
School leaders periodically meet with
some business leaders to discuss
information on student achievement.
School leaders inform the community
once a year about student achievement.
(For example, letter to editor or
newspaper article).
District and school staff leverages all
partnerships to gain maximum benefit to
support all students learning from the
human and financial resources available.
School leaders develop partnerships with
several businesses, organizations, and
agencies to support student learning and
create mentors for students and parents.
Some teachers ensure that students
participate in programs within the
community that are linked to student
learning.
After-school programs are offered to
some students.
School leadership and council compacts
with an employer network that promotes
adult participation in education.
School leaders collaborate with
employers to support parent and
volunteer participation in students’
education.
Employer-partners adopt practices to
promote and support parent and
volunteer participation in students’
education.
School leaders rarely invite employers to
support adult participation in education.
District and school staff collaborates with
all willing organizations to support
parents and advocates in addressing
individual student needs.
School staff collaborates with businesses,
organizations, and agencies to address
individual student needs and shares that
information with parents.
School staff occasionally collaborates with
community agencies to address individual
student needs. Information is provided to
parents upon request.
Staff sometimes collaborates with
community agencies to address general
student academic needs.
School staff and parents have seamless
integration of consistent and sustained
family support services from school and
the community to reduce student barriers
to learning.
Parents make active use of school and
community resources and report they
provide meaningful help to resolve family
challenges that could interfere with
student learning. (For example, FRYSC or
Title 1 coordinators connect family with
community resources and follows up).
Parents are made aware of family
support services in school and in the
community that are provided for
students. (For example, families know
about community resources through
school coordinators, but it is up to the
family to access those resources)
Parents are given information about
community resources from school
program coordinators or school staff.
District staff and school leadership
ensures all stakeholders are aware of
community-based learning opportunities
that are linked to student-specific needs.
School staff offers and publicizes
community-based learning activities,
such as tutoring linked to the curriculum,
for all students and parents.
School staff maintains a resource
directory on some agencies, programs,
and services that will provide services for
students.
School staff rarely updates or
communicates with local agencies or
programs that provide learning services.
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Guided self-assessment
 Turn in your Parent Involvement Inventory to:
6. Community Partnerships
 Rate how well your school performs each
descriptor
 8 is the high score;1 is lowest
 Jot down examples of Proficiency+
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A. How does your school share achievement data with the community?
6. Community Partnerships
A. How does your school share achievement data with the community?
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7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Staff networks with community to support achievement  Once a year in newspaper
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6A
Sharing best practices
 Tell us how your school exemplifies
distinguished or proficient behavior
 As a group we will decide where to score
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Categorically speaking
 Total your scores for Objective 6
 Find your category:
 Novice (6-14)
 Apprentice (15-26)
 Proficient (27-38)
 Distinguished (39-48)
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Putting the pieces together
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Parent Leadership Institute
Parent Leaders as effective partners
• Skills
• Information
Themes
• Parent engagement
• Student achievement
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Institute includes…
• Six-day training
• Information and skills
• Data
• Project in two years
• Student achievement
• Involve parents
• Lasting impact
• Coaching and support
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Academic expectations
•Bring parents and schools together
•Create family friendly schools
•Take action to improve student achievement
•Discuss a state’s standards-based education
system
•Design and implement a project
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Parents reach more parents
Fellow
Fellow
30 Fellows Engage
Year 2
Year 1
Year 3
Engages 10 New Parents
Year 1
Engages 10 New Parents
600-900
Year 3
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Year 2
Institute days are long –
but active and fun
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The Institute in action
…our dvd
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PLI projects
• Student-led conferences
• Curriculum guides related to standards
• Reading projects-tutor training, reading nights,
reading intervention programs
• Writing projects-family portfolio nights, writing
workshops, evenings with authors
• School Programs-Destination Middle School,
parent’s primer, transition camps
• Arts & Humanities projects-renaissance fairs,
school-wide productions, art in schools
• Science projects-outdoor classrooms, curriculum
audits, assistance for teachers, science fairs
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Parent leaders:
• Are accountable – make wise decisions
• Take advantage of training opportunities
• Knock on doors
• Ask the hard questions
• Organize efforts
• Foster effective communication
• Know how the system works
• Want their schools to succeed
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PLI honors social capital  Ethnicity
 Socio-economic status
 Age
 Gender
 Education
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A parent voice
“My vision as a Parent Leader is to see our local school
as a community learning center with extended hours,
building relationships with community leaders across
ethnicity and class divides, and improving school
safety. Through the Parent Leadership Institute (PLI), I
have experienced growth as a Parent Leader in the
community. PLI encourages parents, school
administrators, teachers, and community leaders to
form partnerships in order to help all our children
become more successful in education and life.”
Cindy Walls, NE MS PLI Class of 2009
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How does this fit the
community schools model?
 Parents become partners with the school
 Parents understand the need to partnership
with other community resources
 Parents can be the initiators and coordinators
of events at the school
 Parents will continue their own education
 Parents can promote the community school
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Parent Leadership
Institutes
 Delaware statewide
 Fairmont, West Virginia
 Mississippi statewide
 Oklahoma statewide
 New Orleans, Louisiana
 Ohio statewide
 Waco, Texas
…..as well as Kentucky
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Parent leadership results
 1502 parent leaders in Kentucky
 972 parent leaders in other states
 108 parent leadership facilitators nationwide
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Parent leadership training
creates partners who:
 Do substantive work that will help you develop
community schools
 Become the community school coordinators
who can mobilize resources and drive the work
 Build on your community’s strengths
 Foster strong relationships
 Set high expectations for all
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Educators say…
“I have not seen as sophisticated a program as
this…one that prepares parents with the knowledge and
skills to become full partners in education.”
Former KY Commissioner of Education
“Tremendous impact on district…makes parents more
knowledgeable and, thereby, makes it easier for them
to partner with schools.”
Daviess Co., KY Superintendent
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A CPL Parent Leadership
Institute leads to:
 Parents as full partners in their
children’s educational success
 Advocates for equitable opportunities
for all children in the community
 Organizational development through
capacity-building
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Our CPL Parent Leadership
Institute:
 13-year track record
 Research-based proven work
 Curriculum adaptation process
 30% of curriculum adapted to
location
 Capacity-building process
 Train local trainers
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CENTER FOR PARENT
LEADERSHIP
 P. O. Box 1658
 Lexington, KY 40588-1658
 859-233-9849


Bev Raimondo, Director, ext. 227
Nita Rudy, Manager, 601-829-1181
www.cipl.org
www.centerforparentleadership.org
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