Transcript Leadership in Promoting Family/Community Involvement

Collaborative Leadership in Promoting
Family/Community Involvement
Learning Outcomes
• Students are able to:
• Describe the importance of collaborative leadership in
promoting family/community collaboration
• The importance of group process in enhancing
participation
• Differentiate participation and collaboration according
to context
• Ways to promote advocacy roles among
parents/community members
• Discuss effective ways to deal with parents’ rights
Collaborative Leadership in Promoting
Family/Community Involvement
• Students are able to:
• Describe the importance of collaborative leadership in
promoting family/community involvement
• Recognize the importance of group process in the
leadership process
• Identify various ways to promote advocacy and
governance in leadership role among
parents/community members
• Recognize the importance of evaluating involvement
programs for improvement
What is Collaborative Leadership?
• "...if you bring the appropriate people
together in constructive ways with good
information, they will create authentic
visions and strategies for addressing the
shared concerns of the organization or
community.“
David Chrislip and Carl Larson
It is a leadership of a collaborative effort
• You are a collaborative leader once you have
accepted responsibility for building - or
helping to ensure the success of - a
heterogeneous team to accomplish a shared
purpose
Hank Rubin
• It is a process to guide a diverse group of people to
fine solutions to complex problems that affects all of
them
Movement Favoring Family/Community
Involvement
• The school-based movement of late 1960’s and
1970’s
• School-based management means locating the power
to make decisions about budget, personnel, and
school organization and curriculum at the school level
• Goals 2000
• As educational leaders in providing leadership in
community or collective collaboration in site-based
management of schools
• Teachers need leadership skills to encourage problem
solving and critical thinking when served on sitebased or community-based committees
• To improve academic achievement in the, particularly
Leadership Roles Of Administrators in
Family/Community Involvement
• As a morale builder
Enabling staff members to feel positive, enthusiastic
and secure in their work with children and parents
• The development of principal-parent relationship
• Program designer in implementing programs that
involve parents
• Program coordinator for teachers initiating family
involvement programs
• Developing site-base management and leading
advisory councils and decision-making committees
Possible Roles of Parents in School
Principal’s Leadership in Making a Difference
• Parents as:
As spectators
As temporary volunteers
As volunteer resources
As employed resources
As policy makers
As teachers of their own children
Continuum of Collaboration
• Informing
One-way communication
• Involving
Parents supporting agenda determined by the school
staff
Only limited trust exist
• Engaging
The stakeholders create the agenda, make decisions
and then take actions
• Leading
Partners create a norm of engagement and all play
appropriate roles and work towards a shared vision
The Importance Group Processes
• Principals/teachers who can support and
motivate group can accomplish the goals of
the group without undermining the
responsibilities of the participants
• It helps if participants have a basic
understanding of group processes and
communication, whether the group is led by
students, parents, principals or professionals
• Parent involvement includes shared goal
setting and decision making
Parent Education
• Belief in the autonomy of parents inspires the
promotion of their decision-making abilities
and allows them to be full partners in the
education process
• Active parent collaboration means including
the parents in mutual accountability – beyond
the bureaucratic control
The Continuum of Parent Education
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Parent leader with no training
Parent leader with leadership training
Parent leader with a structured curriculum
Parent leader with professional support
Professional leader with parent support
Professional teacher
• Parent leader with no training
Unstructured meetings with no goals, curriculum or
trained leader
• Parent leader with leadership training
Meetings led by leaders to get comments, solve
problem, study an issue, or become better
acquainted
• Parent leader with a structured curriculum
Meetings led by lay leader who follow a curriculum
devised by professional, such as Active Parenting,
Parent Effective Training (PET)
• Parent leader with professional support
Meetings led by parent or professional that
involve members and respond to their
concerns with professional support.
• Professional leader with parent support
Meetings led by a professional, with
participation by lay members
• Professional teacher
Meetings called, led, directed, and controlled
by the professional, with members of the
audience as observers only
Determining Needs of Families/Community
Through Needs Assessment
• Generic Steps:
1. Meet with group of parents representatives of diverse
ethnic/socioeconomic levels within the community
2. Jot down the issues that interest or concern them
(brainstorming is strongly recommended)
3. Use reports from reports or Gallup polls to facilitate the session
4. Construct a need-assessment tool listing possible topics or
format for parents
5. Formulate questionnaire and disseminate them to adults in the
school/community
6. Choose the items that received the most requests
7. Develop programs to meet the needs of the community
Examples of Issues From
Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll (2001)
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Lack of discipline
Lack of financial support
Fighting, violence and drugs
Overcrowded schools
The use of drugs and dope
The difficulty in obtaining high-quality
teachers
Guidelines for Brainstorming
• Choose a recorder and a facilitator
• Encourage all members to contribute ideas for programs (round
robin is suggested for specific reasons)
• Past successful/exemplary programs can be used as guide
• Write ideas on chalkboard, white board, newsprint, or OHP
• Caution members not to judge any suggestions good or bad at
this point
• Have members choose (in writing) three to six ideas that
interest them most
• Develop your program from the interest that received the most
votes (ranking process)
Problem-Solving Format
• Recognition of the problem – state the
problem/hypothesis
Example: Does violence on the television impact our
children and cause them more violence in the
country?
• Understand the problem
• Data collection
Identify resources and read them before meeting
• Analysis of the problem
• Conclusion and summary
What Are Looking For in Leadership Training?
• Leader’s personality
Ability to think and act quickly
Ability to get along with others
Respect for the opinions of others
Willingness to remain in the background
Freedom from prejudice
• Leader’s knowledge and skills
Knowledge of discussion methods
Knowledge of the opinions of authorities
Skills in asking questions
Collaboration Vs. Participation
• Collaboration is a consultative process at best, where
the new actors share the burden with the traditional
administrators of education and help to improve
conditions of the classroom teaching, to enhance the
effectiveness and efficiency of schools, and to deliver
their services, without becoming quite a partner in
the process
• Participation would add ‘intervention’ into the process
– the ability to get involved in governance, policy and
administration; to serve as equal partner in planning,
managing, and evaluation, and to gain power
(empowerment) through the process
Levels of Collaboration/Participation
• Parent as active partner and educational leader at home and at
school
• Parent as decision maker
• Parent as advocate for the school
• Parent actively involved as volunteer or paid employee
• Parent as a liaison between school home and school to support
homework
• Parent as supporter of the educational goals of the school
• Parent as recipient of education and support
• Parent as member of parent educational classes
• Parent as representative and activist in the community
From low to high
Conditions and Factors
Facilitating Collaboration
• Organizational norms
Open and ready for change
Higher level of commitment to change
Trust and support NGO/other agencies activities
• Structures and procedures
Decentralization and local autonomy to adapt
Committees and councils
A focus on process
Publicity
• Knowledge, skills and attitude
Characteristics of Effective Collaboration
• Principals, teachers, child-care providers, staff, and parents who
believe in parent/family involvement
• School and child-care centers that encourage parent
collaboration by encouraging parents to participate at the level
that best fits their interests and time
• An open-door policy and climate that respond to parent
concerns with effective communication
• Children, new to the school or center, are paired with a
classmate to help the new child become a class member more
easily
• Conferences are held at times that make it possible and
convenient for parents to attend
• A feeling of family, schools, center, and community joined
together in a collaborative manner to support children’s health
and educational growth
Problems of Collaboration
• A lack of resources in terms of finances, personnel,
labor and time
• The inability or resistance of institutions and
individuals to change
• Organizational and administrative obstacles
• Political and cultural constraints
• Inherent weaknesses of other partners
• The surrender of education to schools
• The lack of standard and invariable approaches to
collaboration
Research Findings by McLaughlin
and Shield, 1987)
• The general conclusion is that most strategies for
parent involvement have not been carried out as they
were intended. Parent advisory councils have been
pro forma, giving parents little genuine involvement
in the decision-making processes … The hesitancy of
school administrators to establish meaningful
advisory roles for parents. Low income parents have
shown themselves unwilling to serve on ‘paper
councils’ or to spend time in non-substantive roles
Implications from Jennifer Wee’s Study
• The lack of school-based parent involvement
practices suggests that schools need to take
leadership role in soliciting and involving
parents in the various parent involvement
programs
Rational Behind the Advocacy Move
• When children perceive that the school is an
extension of or substitute for their families, academic
performance is enhanced
• Parents’ choice among schools and school options not
only improve academic achievement, but also
increase parents’ satisfaction and teacher morale
• Parents today are more consumer-oriented, well
educated, and activist minded in their interactions
with teachers and other school personnel
• Advocacy, though time consuming and difficult, when
supported by the best available data, is helpful to the
community, parents, and schools
National Standards for Parent/Family
Involvement Programs
• Standard V: School decision making and advocacy
• Include parents on all decision-making and advisory
committees areas such as policy, curriculum, budget,
school reform initiatives, safety, and personnel.
• Enable parents to participate as partners when
setting school goals, developing or evaluating
programs and policies, or responding to performance
data
• Treat parental concerns with respect and
demonstrate genuine interest in developing solutions
• Promote parent participation on school district, state
and national committees and issues
Advocacy: What does it mean?
• An act or process of advocating or supporting a
cause of proposal (Merriam-Webster’s New Collegiate
Dictionary, 2003)
• Advocacy in our discussion means organized efforts
and initiatives whose goals or cause is to improve
services and programs for young children in general
or target groups of children with defined needs
• It is the act of pleading a cause and defending,
endorsing, or promoting particular ideas, principles,
or individuals
• The range of involvement in advocacy efforts varies
greatly in most school settings
How do you prepare yourself to play
the advocacy role for kids? (Whitebook &
Ginsburg, 1984)
• Know about child abuse and the rights of children
• Recognize the process of social change
• Become aware of the effect of technology, power,
class, and race have on families in a given society
• View children as the future of society and as a
protected class
• View child care in a positive light, as a profession
with ethical guidelines
• Identify the use of resources in the community, state,
and nation
How to Provide Governance and
Advocacy Roles for Parents?
• Governance Roles
Involve parents in student goal setting at regular parent-teacher
conferences
Involve parents and community members in developing the
school’s mission and goals
Keep parents informed of leadership opportunities on school
committee and in the community
Form a parent council with advisory committees to support each
academic area
Provide training for parent leaders in collaboration and problemsolving skills
Involve the parent council in planning ways to extend learning
opportunities
• Advocacy Roles
Parents provide input to policies that affect education
Parents feel in control of their child’s learning
environment
Parents and children’s rights are protected
Benefits for children and parents are linked to
educational policies
Educators give equal status to interaction with
parents to improve educational programs
Educators become aware of parent perspectives for
school policy development
Rights, Responsibilities and
Advocacy
• Rights to select their child’s education
• Student records
• Rights and responsibilities of students and parents
Search and seizure, suspension and due process,
racial discrimination, sex discrimination, children with
disabilities, corporal punishment
• Developing criteria together
• Child advocacy
• Child advocate
Parents’ Rights to Select
Their Child Education
• Use of school vouchers
The voucher system allows parents to choose the school in
which they enroll their child
It could be a private school or a public school in or outside the
family’s attendance district
• Charter school
Charter school may allow parents to help plan the school,
determine the curriculum, and select teachers with expectation
that the school will be more responsive to the parents and
community
• Homeschooling
Most states permit parents to teach their own children, but the
states have varied requirements
Barriers to Advocacy Efforts
• Feelings of powerlessness to change anything
• Lack of knowledge regarding government
regulations
• Fear of the political process
• Lack of confidence in their own expertise
• Lack of time
Reform Program in Kentucky
• School develop a school council, composed of the
principal, three teachers (elected by the school staff),
and two parents selected by the school’s PTO
• Among the council’s authority and discretion:
Set school policy, particularly to improve student
achievement
Appoint both staff and principals when vacancies
occur
Identify and purchase needed instructional materials
Identify and allocate district supply funding for
student support services
Define and adopt policies governing curriculum,
schedules, space usage, instructional planning,
discipline, classroom management, extracurricular
activities, technology usage, and responsibilities of all
school constituents
Assessing and Evaluating
Family-School Involvement
• Definitions of evaluation:
• Measuring the effectiveness, accuracy,
success, or general positive gains of a
process, educational program, or other
initiative
• To determine the worth of: to appraise
(Webster’s New World Dictionary)
Purposes of Program Evaluation:
Implications for Administrators and Teachers
• Provide the administrators and teachers with
feed-back about the effectiveness of a
program
• Effective programs can be replicated by other
teachers/schools
• Funding agencies need to know the program
outcomes for continuation purposes
(accountability issue)
• Parents and families can benefit from
knowing the effectiveness of these programs
Evaluation Process
(Payne, 1994)
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Stating program goals and evaluation objectives
Determining specific objectives
Planning suitable evaluation design
Selecting data-gathering methods and techniques
Collecting data
Processing, summarizing, and analyzing data
Reporting results ti appropriate individuals
Determining program effectiveness and financial
feasibility