Collaborative Leadership in Promoting Family/Community Involvement

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Collaborative Leadership in PromotingFamily/Comm
unity Involvement
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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

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Collaborative Leadership in PromotingFamily/Commu
nity 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

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Movement Favoring Family/Community Involvement

• The school-based movement of late 1960s and
  1970s
• 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 site-based or community-based committees
• To improve academic achievement in the,
  particularly in poor and minority districts

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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

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Possible Roles of Parents in SchoolPrincipals
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

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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

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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

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The Continuum of Parent Education

• 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

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• 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)

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• 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

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Determining Needs of Families/CommunityThrough
Needs Assessment

• Generic Steps
• Meet with group of parents representatives of
  diverse ethnic/socioeconomic levels within the
  community
• Jot down the issues that interest or concern them
  (brainstorming is strongly recommended)
• Use reports from reports or Gallup polls to
  facilitate the session
• Construct a need-assessment tool listing possible
  topics or format for parents
• Formulate questionnaire and disseminate them to
  adults in the school/community
• Choose the items that received the most requests
• Develop programs to meet the needs of the
  community

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Examples of Issues FromPhi Delta Kappa/Gallup
Poll (2001)

• 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

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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)

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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

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What Are Looking For in Leadership Training?

• Leaders 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
• Leaders knowledge and skills
• Knowledge of discussion methods
• Knowledge of the opinions of authorities
• Skills in asking questions

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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

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• 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

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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

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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

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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 childrens health and
  educational growth

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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

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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

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Implications from Jennifer Wees 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

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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

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National Standards for Parent/FamilyInvolvement
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

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Advocacy What does it mean?

• An act or process of advocating or supporting a
  cause of proposal (Merriam-Websters 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

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How do you prepare yourself to playthe 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

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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 schools 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 problem-solving skills
• Involve the parent council in planning ways to
  extend learning opportunities

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• Advocacy Roles
• Parents provide input to policies that affect
  education
• Parents feel in control of their childs
  learning environment
• Parents and childrens 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

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Rights, Responsibilities andAdvocacy

• Rights to select their childs 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

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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 familys 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

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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

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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 schools
  PTO
• Among the councils 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

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• Define and adopt policies governing curriculum,
  schedules, space usage, instructional planning,
  discipline, classroom management, extracurricular
  activities, technology usage, and
  responsibilities of all school constituents

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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 (Websters
  New World Dictionary)

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Purposes of Program EvaluationImplications 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

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Evaluation Process(Payne, 1994)

• 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