Formative Evaluation of the Community Liaison Program

1
Formative Evaluation of the Community Liaison
Program

• Phase One Evaluation Report
• March 17, 2005

2
Overview

• For approximately ten years, SMMUSDs Community
  Liaison Program has engaged parents with the
  intent of building their capacity to support
  their children throughout their schooling
  experience. The theory of action is that through
  this engagement with parents, we are
  establishing the conditions that will promote and
  support student achievement.
• SMMUSD -- The Community Liaison Program, 9/10/02

3
Why evaluate?

• The Board of Education requested an evaluation
  that focused on this program and answered four
  concerns
• Is the program cost-effective?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the
  current program(s)?
• Does the community liaison program positively
  impact student achievement?
• What concrete steps can be put into place to
  strengthen the program?

4
Literature Review Excerpts from National PTAs
Research Summary

• When parents are involved, students achieve more,
  regardless of socio-economic status,
  ethnic/racial background, or parents educational
  level. The more extensive the parent
  involvement, the higher the student achievement.
• Children from diverse cultural backgrounds tend
  to do better when parents and professionals
  collaborate to bridge the gap between the culture
  at home and the learning institution.

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Literature Review (Continued)

• The benefits of involving parents are not
  confined to the early years there are
  significant gains at all ages and grade levels.
• The schools practices to inform and involve
  parents are stronger determinants of whether . .
  . parents will be involved with their childrens
  education than are parent education, family size,
  marital status, and even student grade level.
• The more the relationship between parents and
  educators approaches a comprehensive,
  well-planned partnership, the higher the student
  achievement.

6
Research Design

• Two-phase research design
• Phase One The Shape of the Program (Formative
  Evaluation)
• Collect information about the overall program
• Collect information from the community liaisons
  about the way they do their work
• Phase Two Impact of the Program on Stakeholders
  (Summative Evaluation)
• Interviews, surveys
• Analysis of data to assess what we can say about
  impact on student achievement

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Research Tasks in Phase One

• Collect demographic, fiscal and other information
  about the community liaison program.
• Work with the community liaisons to shape the
  design and creation of individual portfolios of
  their site-based work.

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Overview of the Program

• 13 community liaisons serve 12 school sites and
  Child Development Services.
• 11 are Bilingual community liaisons.
• 2 are African American community/pathway
  liaisons.
• Their hours per week at different sites range
  from 5 to 40.
• Funding comes from several sources.

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Allocation of Community Liaison Staff to Sites in
Adams Pathway
10
Allocation of Community Liaison Staff to Sites in
Lincoln Pathway and CDS
11
Allocation of Community Liaison Staff to Sites in
Malibu Pathway
12
Bilingual Community Liaisons

• Community liaison program began with the creation
  of positions to meet state and federal
  requirements to have someone on site to assist
  non-English speaking parents.
• Began at Title I sites.
• Focused on language issues, but also other
  barriers and issues that impede full
  participation of English Learner students and
  their parents.

13
Number and percent of Spanish-speaking students
at each site served by a bi-lingual community
liaison -- Elementary
14
Number and percent of Spanish-speaking students
at each site served by a bi-lingual community
liaison Secondary
15
African American Community Liaisons

• The Bilingual Community Liaisons served one
  important need in our school communities.
• The Minority Student Study and Intercultural
  Advisory Council advocated to expand the
  Bilingual Community Liaison Program and develop a
  program to provide liaison support to African
  American families with children attending SMMUSD
  schools.
• Funding from the City of Santa Monica enabled the
  expansion of the Bilingual, and the creation of
  the African American, community liaison positions.

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Portfolio Development and Review Process

• Standards-Based Portfolio
• Review of the Portfolio
• Thematic analysis
• Common and unique tasks
• Relationship of the portfolios as a group to the
  standards

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Frameworks for Organizing the Community Liaison
Portfolio

• SMMUSD Job Description
• Parent Outreach and Engagement
• Parent Leadership Development
• Cultural Interpretation
• Increasing Student Achievement

• National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement
  Programs
• Communicating
• Parenting
• Student Learning
• Volunteering
• School Decision Making and Advocacy
• Collaborating with the Community

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Standard 1 Communicating

• Communication between home and school is
  regular, two-way, and meaningful.
• Working with parents to set up meetings, I.E.P.s,
  conferences, relay community information.
• Simultaneous translation of meetings
• Translation of school newsletters, forms, etc.
• Parent to parent networking.

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Standard 2 Parenting

• Parenting skills are promoted and supported.
• BAC/ELAC meetings (translation by liaison)
• Hispanic/African American Support Groups
• Parent Advocates/Mentors
• Parent Expectations Support Achievement (PESA)
  and parenting lectures
• Parents are aware of AP, AVID and other advanced
  and learning support activities
• Help parents understand parent and teacher
  collaboration for student success

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Standard 3 Student Learning

• Parents play an integral role in assisting
  student learning.
• Helping parents understand how some learning
  experiences in the U.S. might differ from
  learning experiences in home country
• Pinnacle training for parents
• Overviews of the SBRC
• Homework assistance training
• Tips for parents to help students with math,
  reading, verbal comprehension, and oral expression

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Standard 4 Volunteering

• Parents are welcome in the school, and their
  support and assistance are sought.
• African American Museum during Black History
  Month
• Weekly parent meeting to help prepare materials
  for classes
• Parental assistance for field trips and school
  yard supervision

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Standard 5 School Decision Making and Advocacy

• Parents are full partners in the decisions that
  affect children and families.
• Governance Council Meetings
• ELAC/BAC
• PTA

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Standard 6 Collaborating with the Community

• Community resources are used to strengthen
  schools, families, and student learning.
• Project LEAD
• Liaisons organize tutoring by members of the
  community
• Community referrals for health, housing,
  parenting, counseling, etc.
• Translation simultaneous translation and
  written translation of key documents
• Works with Tech4All to provide students and
  families with computers

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Finding 1

• Overall, the work of the community liaisons is
  addressing the six national standards for
  effective parent and family involvement in
  education and the five research findings cited
  earlier in the literature review.

25
Finding 2

• However, the community liaisons work looks quite
  different at different sites and emphasizes
  different components of the national standards at
  the different sites.

26
Finding 3

• The work that most of the liaisons emphasized the
  most was serving as cultural translators. It
  is the role of the liaisons to clarify the
  expectations of the school system for the
  families. It is also their job to clarify for
  different parts of the school system the needs of
  the families in part by respecting the values and
  the differences that families bring to the table.
  The liaisons are both community insiders and
  school insiders.

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Finding 4

• Many of the community liaisons are doing
  significant amounts of work that relate to
  student achievement. This includes both working
  with parents to help them support their
  childrens academic learning, but also working
  with individuals or small groups of students on
  such tasks as organization, clarity of
  expectations, and asking for assistance.

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Finding 5

• One area where community liaisons work seems to
  differ significantly is in the ways that they are
  balancing the work they do to support individual
  students and families with the work they do to
  help those students and families become
  participating members of the school community.
  Most emphasize the individual work and outreach
  work that they do more than the participation in
  groups that are the decision-making entities at
  the school sites.

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Finding 6

• The amount of translation both simultaneous
  oral translation and written translation -- that
  most of the bilingual community liaisons are
  doing is staggering. Many expressed concern that
  this aspect of their work was overwhelming them
  and interferes with their ability to complete
  other, needed work with students and families.
• Translation appears as a task for many of the
  standards.

30
Finding 7

• There appear to be inequities in the allocation
  of community liaison support to individual school
  sites.

31
Recommendation 1

• Establish a floor for district fiscal support
  for the community liaison program at an
  individual site.
• CDE has a guideline that when 15 of a school (or
  districts population) speaks another language,
  all materials should be translated into that
  other language.
• If 15 were the floor for district support for
  the bilingual community liaison program, some
  changes to the program might occur.

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Changes to Allocations of Community Liaisons
Using the 15 Floor for District Support

• Olympic (33) would have a community liaison at
  least partially supported by the district.
• District resources might be reallocated from four
  sites (Cabrillo, Webster, Lincoln, and Malibu)
  that are below the floor OR district resources
  might be allocated in parallel fashion to Grant
  which is below the floor as well but which
  currently self-funds its program.

33
Recommendation 2

• Consider allocating bi-lingual community liaisons
  to sites based on the number of Spanish-speaking
  students at the site. For example, there might
  be a ratio of up to 175 Spanish-speaking
  students to 1 community liaison. (Edison would be
  an exception since the entire staff is also
  bi-lingual.)
• This would reconfigure the existing secondary
  school bilingual community liaison staff.

34
Secondary Bi-Lingual Community Liaisons Current
Allocations and with Proposed 175 Student
Allocation
35
Recommendation 3

• Seek alternative ways to support translation
  needs both for simultaneous translation and
  translation of written documents.

36
Recommendation 4

• At all sites, continue to work on both elements
  of the necessary, but difficult, balance to be
  struck between
• Working with parents, family, and students to
  build their capacity to advocate for their
  children/themselves throughout their schooling.
• Working to insure that school-wide venues --
  committees and activities -- include the
  participation of the individuals and smaller
  groups with whom they work.

37
Recommendation 5

• Expand the number of community liaisons and base
  them in the six houses at Samohi. The focus of
  student support and intervention at Samohi is
  shifting to the houses and both the recent WASC
  visit and the USDE independent evaluation
  applauded that effort. This fundamental aspect of
  student and family support should also be part of
  the house structure.

38
Recommendation 6

• Portfolio development should become a regular
  part of the evaluation cycle of the community
  liaisons.
• The evaluation process should include
• Selecting 3 to 4 of the national standards as
  part of individual goal-setting,
• Peer review of proposed entries,
• Structured opportunities throughout the year to
  reflect on their work, and
• An evaluation conference with the principal and a
  relevant district office administrator.

39
Goals of the Portfolio Evaluation Process

• The goals of this evaluation process should be
  to
• target areas for growth,
• identify professional development needs, and
• recognize the extraordinary contributions of the
  individual community liaisons.

40
Recommendation 7

• Staff in Educational Services (including Student
  and Family Support Services), administrators in
  Title I schools, and community liaisons need to
  attend training about the changes in expectations
  for parent and community outreach included in the
  No Child Left Behind Act and begin addressing new
  requirements in their work.

41
Recommendation 8

• The National Standards for Parent/Family
  Involvement Programs from the National PTA should
  be the starting point for a school wide review of
  current practices at each site in SMMUSD. The
  community liaisons are one piece (albeit an
  important one) of our family and community
  outreach and involvement. We should take stock of
  how each schools entire set of programs and
  practices meet these standards and use the
  community liaisons portfolios and this needs
  assessment to begin setting priorities as
  individual sites and for the district as a whole.
• Staff in Educational Services (including Student
  and Family Support Services), administrators in
  Title I schools, and community liaisons need to
  attend training about the changes in expectations
  for parent and community outreach included in the
  No Child Left Behind Act and begin addressing new
  requirements in their work.

42
Recommendation 9

• Undertake phase two of the community liaison
  evaluation. Phase two is intended to focus on
  data about the program from key stakeholders
  parents, students, administrators and some
  exploration of data to determine what, if any,
  connections to student achievement can be made.
  This portion of the evaluation should be linked
  to recommendation 6 (the site based needs
  assessments/program reviews) based on the
  National PTA standards.
• Timeline 2005-2006 academic year