Transcript Beyond the Bake Sale

BEYOND THE BAKE SALE
Chapter 9
Scaling Up
• Why can’t all schools in a district
create strong partnerships with
families?
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Scaling Up
• So far, this book has been all about what schools can do
to welcome families, bridge differences, and promote fair
and open ways for working together to improve student
achievement. This is what we mean by strong
partnerships.
• Now it’s time to step back and look at the context in which
schools operate.
• All schools are part of a larger
school district.
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Scaling Up
• For a school district to be serious
about closing the achievement gap, it
will also have to be serious about
closing the gap between Fortress
Schools and Partnership Schools.
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Scaling Up
Chapter 2 discussed 4 levels of achievement for
Partnership:
• Partnership School
• Open-Door School
• Come-if-We-Call School
• Fortress School
These four types of schools illustrated levels of Partnership
with Families. SCS goal is for every school to be a
Partnership School.
Scaling Up
• This chapter explores what a district can do to develop
system-wide policies and practices that support families to
enhance their children’s experience in school.
• Boston Public Schools and New York City Schools along
with several others serve as examples to explore how a
system can achieve high standards for family
engagement.
• These school’s examples illustrate how a district can build
a structure to support partnership with families across the
system.
Pages 220-225
Scaling Up
These schools show how to…Build a structure to support partnership
with families by:
1.
Creating a culture of Partnership - by setting high standards for
family-friendly schools and by expecting all district and school staff
to meet those standards.
a)
Gather Information - Engage community members in setting goals
for family and community engagement by completing surveys,
community forums, direct mailings, email, phone, and face to face
interviews. Ask key questions such as:
What services should parents expect? What is working well in the
schools and community to help children succeed in school? What
services should be added, changed, or eliminated to improve parent
involvement and communication between home and school?
Pages 225-226
Scaling Up
b) Analyze school satisfaction surveys
b) Set a clear standard for “What’s Expected” at Schools
and Offer help to meet the standard
c) Build trust at the school & community level and offer
families the opportunity to participate on an action team
to complete a walk-through of the school to examine:
• The physical environment
• School Practices and Policies
• Home-School Communication
Pages 227-230
Scaling Up
2. Connect the family-school partnerships directly to the
district’s school improvement initiative and performance
goals for students. For example: The Office of Family and
Community Engagement in Boston had 3 goals, all focused
on student learning:
1. Cultivate and sustain partnerships to improve student
learning among staff, families, and community
members.
2. Support families and community members’ efforts to be
engaged in children’s learning.
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Scaling Up
3. Support staff to create strong and effective school,
family, and community partnerships that support student
learning.
New York City Example:
NYC used benchmarks 3 times per year and shared the
benchmark information with families within a week of
implementing the benchmarks. Teachers targeted lessons
to meet their students’ individual needs located on a
website that offered lessons to address targeted
weaknesses. Parents also had assess to this same website
and could view the child’s results and provide assistance at
home with the web-based program.
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Scaling Up
Examples from San Diego:
• Hire teachers as parent coordinators
• Offer classes to families at a district parent center to
support students with homework, reading, writing, study
skills, and math
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Scaling Up
3. Organizing District Resources So All Schools Can
Establish and Sustain Strong Partnerships
• Boston and New York are both large cities, but they used
their funds to hire staff to coordinate services for families
on a large scale whereas SCS does this on a smaller
scale.
4. Offer technical assistance, funding, and other supports
• Partner with nationally recognized outside family
organizations to assist in the family engagement
process.(more information in Chapter 10)
Pages 237-240
Scaling Up
5. Support Parent Decision-Making Structures at Schools
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through:
Parent Associations (PTA/PTO)*
President’s Council – a group for all PTO/PTA
president’s to share ideas
School Leadership Teams – composed of parents,
principal, PTO/PTA president, and teachers – (SIT)*
Community Education Councils – (Parent Advisory
Council)*
*Items in ( ) indicate SCS structure for this group.
Pages 241-242
Scaling Up
6.
Develop Written District Policies – this would be compared to
SCS district parent involvement policy to ensure that:
• Parents are involved as partners in school governance,
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including shared decision making
Effective two-way communication is established between home
and school at all schools
Structures and strategies are developed in each school to
enpower parents to participate actively in children’s education.
District coordination and support is provided
Schools are used to connect students and families to
community resources (school social workers, district, and
school staff)
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Scaling Up
One final thought from Chapter 9…
“To make sure that every one of our children meets high
standards of achievement, all of us – teachers, parents,
administrators, office holders, community members,
students, family members, and local organizations – must
work together to make it happen. This requires strong
leadership, constant and open communication, and a
passion for partnership.”
Page 246
Homework
• Complete the checklist at the end of chapter 9 on “How
Well Does Your District Support Family and Community
Engagement” This document is scanned and located at
http://www.stanlycountyschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalI
d=284934&pageId=16642070
• Using the checklist, discuss the areas in which your
school/district is doing well and areas of concern.
• Return checklist and attendance to
[email protected]