Parent Involvement in Schools

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Parent Involvement in Schools

• A CYFERnet Interactive Telephone Training

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Presenters

• Karen DeBord
• North Carolina State University
• Harriett EdwardsNorth Carolina State University
• Wally Goddard
• University of Arkansas
• Susan Jakes
• North Carolina State University
• Geraldine Peeples University of Illinois
• Delphine Sellars Durham County, NC Cooperative
  Extension

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Agenda

• Defining parent involvement in schools
• Why involvement?
• Barriers to parental involvement
• Creative solutions for getting parents involved
• Promising practices

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The Why and How of Parental Involvement in Schools

• Susan Jakes, Ph.D.
• North Carolina State University

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Why Get Involved?Cotton and Wikelund (2006)
Greater achievement
Greater active involvement

Earlier involvement
More powerful effects

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Benefits of InvolvementSouthwest Educational
Development Laboratory (2002)

• Earn higher grades and test scores, and enroll in
  higher-level programs
• Be promoted, pass their classes and earn credits
• Attend school regularly
• Have better social skills, show improved behavior
  and adapt well to school
• Graduate and go on to post-secondary education

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Parent Involvement at Home

• Respond to school requests
• Help with homework and schoolwork
• Provide encouragement
• Arrange appropriate study time and space
• Model desired behaviors
• Talk about school experience
• Expect children to do well in school

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Parent Involvement in the Schools

• Communicate with teacher about child
• Attend school functions
• Volunteer to help with activities
• Volunteer to work in the classroom
• Serve as source of support to teacher
• Serve on school volunteer boards
• Leadership
• Fundraising

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Parent Involvement in the Community

• Act as school advocate
• Take an active role in planning, developing, and
  governing education at the community level
• Support education policies and bonds

Durham NC charter school policy group
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See Resource List and Search CYFERnet forParent
Involvement
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Parent Involvement

• Karen DeBord. Ph.D.
• North Carolina State University

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Ask Parents

• What are your hopes and dreams for your children?

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How Will Children Reach This Goal?

• Positive environments (home, school, community)
• Positive role models
• A sense of belonging, a sense of hope and future
  (a bright tomorrow)
• Loving with limits and parameters
• Acceptance, autonomy

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What Will Make a Difference?

• Highly stressed lives, economy
• Technological world
• Disengagement
• Face time

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Parents Who Are Involved

• Baking brownies?
• Connections throughout the lifetime
• How to do it?
• Gaze, meet needs
• Play, attend and attune
• Backpack checks
• Home-school/care communication
• Monitoring
• Recognizing opportunities to connect

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Whats the RISK When Families and Communities Are
Disengaged?

• Child neglect
• Increased mental health referrals, foster care,
  attachment issues, relationship issues
• School failure/retention issues
• Disengaged at school, school reform backfires
• Unskilled workforce
• Unprepared, employers not able to find qualified
  workers
• Weak economy

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Total Package

• Involvement of parent with child
• Involvement of school with parent and child
• Investment of community with schools and families
• All of our responsibility

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Why Dont Parents Get Involved at School?
Barriers to Parental Involvement

• Harriett Edwards, Ed.D.
• North Carolina State University

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What Are the Barriers?

• Discomfort with formal education setting for
  parents
• Schools comfort level with inviting parents into
  the building
• School systems tolerance for risk
• Parental attitude
• Traditional concepts of what school volunteers do

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Discomfort With Formal Education Setting

• Memories of less than pleasant school
  experiences
• Lack of personal success in formal education
  endeavors
• Issues with (perceived) authority figures

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Schools Comfort Level With Inviting Parents Into
the Building

• Teachers willingness to empower volunteers
• Additional work to set up program and supervise
  additional people
• Open to public involvement can mean additional
  public scrutiny
• Teachers/administrators may need training to
  involve volunteers

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School Systems Tolerance for Risk

• Application screening process
• Administrative support for volunteers
• Volunteers are not free just cost-effective

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Parental Attitude

• Teachers are paid to educate, so why should I go
  do their job
• Already involved in too many things
• Let one of the other parents do it this time
• My child wouldnt want me there

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Traditional Concepts of What School Volunteers Do

• Library work
• Class Mom
• Babysit for teacher meetings
• Cafeteria lady
• Reading group monitor

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Cultural Competence Diversity Factors in School
Parental Involvement Why Does It Matter?

• Gerri Peeples
• University of Illinois

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The Run Down

• Current situation
• Things to think about
• Diversity competence
• Redefining spaces
• Diverse populations and academics
• Spotlight on barriers to parental involvement
• Closing thoughts

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Current Situations

• White non-Hispanic population growth
• African-American population increases
• Latino population increases
• Other population groups
• Asian/pacific islander
• Native American
• Recent immigrants

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Current SituationPersisting Educational
InequalityCredit to Lleras, C., University of
Illinois

• By the end of high school, Hispanic and
  African-American students have math and reading
  skills that are comparable to White middle school
  students
• (U.S. Department of Education, 2002)

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Current SituationPersisting Educational
Inequality Credit to Lleras, C., University of
Illinois

• In 2003, only 55 of African-American and 52 of
  Hispanic students graduated from high school on
  time with a regular diploma, compared to 78 of
  Whites
• (Greene and Winters 2006)

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Current SituationPersisting Educational
Inequality Credit to Lleras, C., University of
Illinois

• 35 of Whites have a bachelors degree or higher
  compared to 17 of African-Americans and 11 of
  Hispanics

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Current SituationPersisting Educational
Inequality

• Empirical evidence shows racial gaps in
  achievement are present prior to kindergarten and
  persist and grow throughout elementary and
  secondary school years
• (Jencks and Philips 1998 Lee and
• Burkam 2002 Fryer and Levitt 2005)

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Things to Think About

• What do we really know about
• Recent immigrants?
• Hispanics the diversity within?
• Middle income, married African-Americans?
• Low income whites?
• American Indians/native Americans

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Things to Think About

• Diversity competence for
• Schools and educators
• Making the case
• Diverse populations and academics
• Expanding the focus

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Diversity/Cultural Competence

• Individuals become culturally competent when they
  develop an awareness and acceptance of
  differences along with cultural knowledge, an
  awareness of their own cultural values,
  understanding of the dynamics of difference, and
  an ability to adapt their practice to the
  cultural context of the community
• (Broadwater, 2001)

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Redefining Spaces

• Parental involvement for diverse populations
• Shared spaces
• Parents
• Schools
• Communities

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Barriers Faced By Parents Credit to Behnke, A.,
North Carolina State University
Language/Literacy
Unfamiliar and intimidating systems
Attitudes of Personnel
Life factors
Past Educational Experiences
Work schedules
Child care
Lack of Information
Transportation
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Creative Solutions

• Engaging, Involving, and Sustaining
• Parent Involvement for
• Non-Traditional Parents
• Gerri Peeples
• Harriet Edwards
• Wally Goddard

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Informing the Process from Diverse Points of View

• Latino
• African-American
• Recent Immigrants
• Culture Ethnicity

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Essential Elements

• Collaboration
• Build credible partnerships
• Creative communication strategies
• Address multiple domains

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Critical Elements in Outreach for Sustainable
Parent Involvement

• Family involvement
• Active teacher outreach
• Parent involvement
• School-family partnerships

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Toward Creative Solutions

• Learn about different models and best practices
• Appreciate the complexity and interrelationship
  of strategies
• Early prevention and intervention
• Invest in training and development for all
  involved

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Barriers Inform the Paths Toward Solutions

• Language and communication
• Mainstream orientation
• Information and resources
• Fear factors

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Think Parents Communities!

• Teens want (and need) to be involved
• Extension volunteers (4-H, ECA, etc.) are looking
  for opportunities to contribute to their
  communities
• Extension staff can offer models of volunteer
  management that will support increased parent and
  volunteer involvement in schools

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You Have to Ask!

• Ask other volunteers to ask!
• Hard to say no when asking a parent to contribute
  to his/her childs success
• Have position descriptions ready before
  recruiting begins
• Accept no as a response

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Variety Is Key!

• Create numerous position descriptions to meet
  classroom or school needs
• Flexibility in scheduling when possible
• Are there virtual jobs?
• Are there tasks with little or no student
  contact?
• Are there jobs for all educational levels?

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Recognize, Reward, Retain

• Personal thank yous go a long way
• Appreciation from students has special meaning
• Small rewards can mean a great return on a small
  investment
• Positive experiences contribute to continued
  involvement

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Parent Involvement in Arkansas

• Wally Goddard, Ph.D.
• University of Arkansas

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Act 603 Mandated

• Parent information in schools
• Training of teachers in parent involvement

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Unfunded Mandate

• Unique opportunity for Extension

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The Parenting Journey

• Map

DVD
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The Parenting JourneyCont.

• 7 Travel Guides

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Spread the Word At

• State Parent Involvement Conference
• State Parent Education Conference

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Train School Personnel With Parenting Journey
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The School Need Fits With Our Resources
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Strengthening Families Coalition

• Parent and Family Advocacy and Support Training
  (PFAST)
• Latino Parent and Family Advocacy and Support
  Training (LPFAST)
• Delphine Sellars
• NC Cooperative Extension

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Who We Are?

• Parents,
• Grandparents,
• Community volunteers,
• Organizations,
• PFAST LPFAST graduates.

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What is PFAST and LPFAST?

• PFAST and LPFAST
• six-session advocacy training for parents, family
  members or other involved adults who want to
  learn how to help their child achieve and better
  navigate the public schools.
• Topics and sequence are identical cultural,
  language and translation required contextual
  changes

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Training Structure

• Sessions focus on a different topic each week
• From 600-800 p.m. weekly
• 2 co-facilitators some are former PFAST
  parents.
• Parent support
• Onsite childcare
• Dinner
• Transportation (case-by-case)

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What Topics Does PFAST Cover?

• Each session has a different theme, but are
  interconnected.
• Goals for each session are shared.
• Each session includes time for reflection and a
  simple homework assignment.

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Session Topics

• Parent involvement and advocacy
• School communication
• Communicationputting it all into practice
• Standards and testing
• Exceptional children and support systems
• Moving to action

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Outcomes Through Evaluation, We Have Learned

• Some parents develop an interest in leadership
  and helping other parents Others have the time
  and energy to only focus on their child(ren).
• Parents know how and when to call for a
  parent-teacher conference and display some
  familiarity with key school lingo (EOG,
  site-based, NCLB, etc.).
• Parents report greater comfort at being able to
  find out what they need to know and knowing who
  to ask.
• Through self-report, parents report a positive
  change in style or approach to school concerns,
  which is more focused on problem-solving and
  finding partners.
• Parents learn from each other (and we learn from
  them) new resources and approaches to challenges.

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Unique Qualities PFAST and LPFAST Benefits for
Parents

• Not a one-shot trainingGraduates receive
  ongoing support and information
• Parents interested in Leadership can participate
  in a more intensive Parents as Leaders Academy
  (PAL) leadership training.
• Some parents become part of Coalitionour
  governing body
• Each parent creates a personal plan for action
• CEU credits offered through NC State
• Parents receive a resource notebook with
  materials from each session

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Lessons We Learned

• Create a vision for the issue
• Keep it together lead agency
• Build commitment and leadership
• Respond to the varied dimensions of
  accountability

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Create a Vision

• Create a vision for the issue.
• Who will take the initiative?
• Keep it together.

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Lead Agency Keeping It Together

• Team mission, goal and vision
• When you know there is no money
• Its OK to leave
• New members mission clarification

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Building Commitment and Leadership

• Collaborations partnerships develop, nurture
• The art of negotiation
• Adapting to change group dynamics, knowledge
  level, capacity
• Stages of leadership initial, shared,
  development within
• Shared vision promoting your efforts

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The Varied Dimensions of Accountability

• Value parents, families, community, funders,
  stakeholders
• Resources
• Awareness
• Utilization

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Funding

• Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation Community
  Problem Solving Grant
• Support from Fiscal AgentDurham Cooperative
  Extension
• Contributions (in-kind) from coalition members
  and community partners
• Grant for LPFAST from North Carolina A T
  University

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Contact Information

• Strengthening Families Coalition
• Durham Cooperative Extension
• 721 Foster Street
• Durham, NC 27701
• Delphine Sellars [phone]
• dsellars_at_co.durham.nc.us
• Donna Rewalt [phone]
• drewalt_at_co.durham.nc.us

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Conclusion and Questions