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Engaging Parents With A Focus On Achievement

The Coalition for Community Schools2010 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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4Level 1: Basic Parenting

Level 2: Communication

Level 3: Helping Children Learn at Home

Level 4: Volunteering and In-School Support

Level 5: Advocacy and Shared Decision-making

Joyce L. Epstein, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University

Levels of Parent Involvement

Parent Leadership Institute Level 6: Engaging

Others

Levels currently targeted by existing organizations and agencies

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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

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

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 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 student-needs 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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1A

1. Relationship-building

A. How does your school build relationships with parents?8 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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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 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?

A. How does your school share achievement data with the community?

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Staff networks with community to support achievement Once a year in newspaper

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6. Community Partnerships

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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 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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•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

Academic expectations

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Parents reach more parents

30 Fellows Engage

600-900

Engages 10 New P

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Engages 10 New Parents

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Year 1 Year 2

Year 3

Engages 10 New P

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Engages 10 New Parents

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Year 1 Year 2

Year 3

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Institute days are long – but active and fun

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The Institute in action

…our dvd

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• 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

PLI projects

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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

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

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