Engaging Families and the Community to Address Disproportionality

PresentersJulie Havill-Weems and Maura Robinson

Today We Will…• Begin to learn how to communicate with

families and the community to develop a relationship that addresses disproportionality

• Explore how the parent-professional relationship impacts student outcomes

• Review frameworks for understanding family values, beliefs, and actions

• Look at examples of practices to connect with families and the community

Post-it!• What would you like to know?• Beginning your question with, “How to…”

write on a post-it what you would like to know “how to” about family and community engagement to address disproportionality.

• Include your contact info.• Maura will collect post-its .• We will review together.

Take a Gallery Walk

• Review the statements on the charts around the room.• Note your thoughts and reactions

to the statements• We will discuss them when we re-

group

Why Are So Many Minority Students in Special Education?

• Beth Harry and Janette Klinger, 2006• Studied 12 schools in one school district over 4 years: included; interviews with

parents, students, school and district personnel, observations of classrooms and meetings, psych. evals., and home and community settings, and review of relevant documents

• Found that…

“overrepresentation of minorities in special education programs is caused by much more than the existence of intrinsic or family based deficits. Indeed, the perception that a child is disabled results from a complex weave of

widely varying beliefs, policies, and practices at all levels – family and community, classroom, school, district, state and federal government, and society at large (p. 182).

The Posture of Cultural Reciprocity

Identify the cultural values that are embedded in the professional interpretation of a student’s

difficulties or in the recommendation for service.

~ Kalyanpur and Harry 1999

The Posture of Cultural Reciprocity

Find out whether the family being served recognizes and values these

assumptions and, if no, how their view differs from that of the professional.

~ Kalyanpur and Harry 1999

The Posture of Cultural Reciprocity

Acknowledge and give explicit respect to any cultural difference identified, and fully explain the cultural basis of

the professional assumptions.

~ Kalyanpur and Harry 1999

The Posture of Cultural Reciprocity

Through discussion and collaboration, set about determining the most

effective way of adapting professional interpretations or recommendations to the value

system of this family.

~ Kalyanpur and Harry 1999

Decreasing Cross-Cultural Dissonance

“It is imperative that professionals recognize that much of special education policy and

practice emerges from the prevailing values and ideals of the dominant mainstream –

values that may not always be held by minority cultures – so that they may decrease the potential for cross-cultural dissonance.”

~ Kalyanpur and Harry 1999

Affixing Blame

“Too often, however, information about inadequate family resources or family

instability is used to affix blame, creating an adversarial climate between home and school.

Rather than simply blaming parents as the cause of discipline problems, effective

disciplinary programs forge a partnership with parents and the community.”

Skiba and Peterson, 2000

Parent Training“Many school systems have attempted to institute ‘parent training’ programs for poor parents and parents of color. While the intentions of these programs are good, they can only truly be useful when educators understand the realities with which such parents must contend and why they do what they do. Often, middle-class school professionals are appalled by what they see of poor parents, and most do not have the training or the ability to see past surface behaviors to meanings behind parents’ actions.”

Lisa DelpitOther People’s Children

Consider…

• What are the attitudes and assumptions held by school staff about the families of the students who are disproportionately represented in your district?

• How do they expect families to act and react?

• What do they think about families who don’t act/react the way they expect?

Consider…

What structures, procedures, policies, and/or practices are in place that are

barriers to communication and relationship building with the families of students who are

disproportionally represented in your district ?

So, What Can You Do?

Develop a Posture of Cultural Reciprocity among school personnel

Review structures, procedures, policies, and practices to identify which are barriers to connecting with families; revise as necessary

Focus on the development of individual relationships among school staff and families to combat negative assumptions and cultural bias

Family Core Values – Acting & Reacting in Society

Oral traditionValue on Education

Faith and Spiritualism

Distrust of mainstream establishment

Disciplining ChildrenTaking orders

Allocentrism – CollectivismIndividualism

Matriarchal Patriarchal

HumorMusicDance

What is a Family?Expressing Personal Style

Being AssertiveBouncing Back

What are the supports for families in the community?

Survival skills

© 2000 M. G. Robinson, Inc.

Social StatusFidelityResponsibility of power

Dealing with Forgivingness

Bonding and building relationships with others

Building learning skills of survivalMaking sense of societyUse information to share with othersInformation learned may not be acquired information – (Old wives tales).

Past experiences with authority figures

Who is the primary care giver?

What I learned from others

Talents and gifts each family member has or brings

Parents and Teachers Talking Together

• What do we want for our students? (These are wishes and dreams)• What do we need to do to get what we

want? (These are actions)

Anne T. Henderson, Karen L. Mapp, Vivian R. Johnson, and Don Davies. Beyond the Bake Sale, 2007.

Community Involvement

Community Involvement

Which leaders in our community can best connect us to groups that work with minority and low income parents, residents and others?

In what ways will we ensure these leaders and organizations are involved early on?

What considerations – time, expense, outreach efforts – must be made to accommodate participants?

Building Support for Better Schools. SEDL 2000 www.sedl.org

Harlem Children’s Zone Pipeline

www.hcz.org

Building Capacity – Check List

1. Is the school’s racial and cultural diversity openly discussed at school meetings and includes the staff, families and community?

2. Does the school’s curriculum reflect the cultures of families? Are books and materials about families’ cultures in each classroom, library and media center?

3. Are extra efforts are made to recruit staff, volunteers that reflect the diversity in the cultures in the school?

4. Is the PTA/PTO dominated by any one group of parents? Do the officers reflect the school’s diversity?

5. Do activities and events honor all the cultures in the school throughout the year?

6. Do images around the school, including information going out in the community, honor and represent the cultures in the school?

7. Are families’ cultural traditions, values, and practices discussed in class?8. Is the student culture in the school setting considered? What is

acceptable behavior among the student population?

Improving Your Family & Community Engagement Efforts

• In light of the information shared so far, let’s review the “How to…” questions posted at the beginning of the session.

• What ideas do you have to answer these questions?

The Indiana Partnerships CenterA Parent and Information Resource Center

• Parent Information and Resource Centers (PIRCs) support the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and its most important goals: parent involvement and school accountability.

Offers Schools and Districts…• The Indiana Academy for Parent and School Leadership - The

purpose of the Indiana Academy for Parent and School Leadership (Academy) is to grow leaders, who work to improve family, school, and community partnerships for student success.

• Workshops including:– Fathers Too, The Right Question Project, Books on Board, Developing Parent

Centers, Family Math and Science, Family Literacy and more• Newsletters and materials to support meaningful connections with

families and the community• www.fscp.org; 1-866-391-1039

References and Resources

• De Anda, D. (1984). Parent education, cultural pluralism, and public policy: The uncertain connection. IN R. Haskins & Adams (Eds.), Parent education and public policy (pp. 331-345).

• Sue, D.W., & Sue, D. (1990). Counseling the culturally different (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

• Wasserman, G.A. Rauh, V.A., Garcia-Castro, M., Necos, B. (1990). Psychosocial attributes and life experiences of disadvantaged minority mothers: Age and ethnic variations. Child Development, 61, 566-580

• Kalyanpur, M. & Harry, B. (1999). Culture in Special Education: Building Reciprocal Family-Professional Relationships. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. Baltimore, Maryland.

References and Resources• Harry, B. & Klinger, J. (2006) Why Are So Many Minority

Students in Special Education? Teachers College Press, New York.

• Henderson, A. T., Mapp, K. L., Johnson, V.R., & Davies, D. (2007). Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family-School Partnerships. The New Press, New York.

• Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. Building Support for Better Schools: Seven Steps for Hard-to-Reach Communities. www.sedl.org.

• Delpit, Lisa.(2006) Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. (2nd ed.) The New Press, New York.

• Indiana’s Vision for RTI: Family and Community Partnerships http://www.doe.in.gov/indiana-rti/partnerships.html