The Peel District School Board in Ontario has just completed a pretty ambitious series of focus groups with parents to identify ways schools can most effectively connect better with them. You can access the District’s report, and their recommendations, here.
It’s an impressive effort, and has some good recommendations. It’ll be interesting to see which, if any, are actually implemented…
The Sacramento Bee today has an extensive article about a troubled neighborhood. It’s titled Killings underscore challenges in Sacramento’s Arden Manor neighborhood.
The last part of the article tells about the local elementary school principal and his school organizing a meeting where 200 residents came to talk about how to improve the community. He called it an “encouraging start,” and I do hope the school and their parents continue to organize. It’s a great example of recognizing that a school is part of the neighborhood where it’s located, and that what happens outside the school’s walls is just as important as what happens inside.
Today’s Parade Magazine has a short interview with the first male President of the national PTA. It’s titled Schools Need Caring Parents.
Here’s the most interesting part of the interview:
The PTA has started lobbying for the first time in its history. We’ve worked with Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D., N.Y.) on a soon-to-be-introduced bill that provides incentives for schools to partner with parents to increase student achievement and drive school reform.
That sounds interesting, and is along the lines of something I’ve written about previously (see California “Race To The Top” Legislation Gets Curiouser and Curiouser).
In surfing the Net, I haven’t been able to find out anything more specific about what might be in the bill. I’m not too thrilled with the PTA’s first move into lobbying — pushing for national standards. I hope they can do a bit better in this second foray into lobbying.
If anybody knows why might be in the bill, please share in the comments section of this post.
I’m a big advocate of teachers making visits to their students’ homes, and include a chapter on the nationally-acclaimed Parent Teacher Home Visit Project in my book. In fact, I’m doing an interview with Carrie Rose, its director, that will appear in this blog next month.
Scholastic and the Gates Foundation recently released a report that surveyed 40,000 teachers in the United States. It’s called Primary Sources: America’s Teachers On America’s Schools. It has some interesting information regarding home visits. Here is what it says:
Forty-five percent of teachers are willing to have parent/teacher conferences
at their students’ homes to strengthen the school-to-home connection, and
the number increases to 51% for elementary school teachers.
While teachers are committed to building the school-to-home connection across all
income levels, this is even more true of teachers in low-income communities. These
teachers are more likely than are their counterparts in high-income communities to
provide students with their personal phone number or email address (51% vs. 41%),
and to be willing to have parent/teacher conferences at their students’ homes (54%
vs. 35%).
That seems like a pretty impressive number to me….
Now, the question is — will school districts take advantage of that willingness by providing financial support (for example, our district offers small stipends) for teachers to make those visits so you’re not trying to “squeeze blood out of rock.”
I’ve written about the family literacy project at our school where we provide computers and home internet access to immigrant families to help with English language development. This effort was developed together by families and school staff.
I recently learned about a a government program in the United Kingdom called Home Access. This is how it describes itself:
Get On In School: Get Online At Home
Home Access is a government drive which will help low-income families to get access to a computer and the internet to get online at home.
If you are a low income family in receipt of certain benefits you could qualify for a grant to buy a computer and/or a minimum of one years’ internet access. The programme is aimed at those that need it most and targets families that do not have access to a computer or the internet at home.
Depending on what you need, the grant allows eligible applicants to buy one of the following packages:
1. Full package (a computer, one year’s internet access, service and support)
2. A computer with service and support only
3. One year’s internet access
I don’t know how extensive, or successful it is (if anyone does, please leave a comment). Depending on how a program like this is structured, it can certainly be an effective tool for parent engagement.
Beyond the school gate: How schools and families can work better together looks like an important report from two organizations in the United Kingdom, Parentline Plus and the Teacher Support Network.
One of many findings include:
62 per cent of parents said they had been patronised, sidelined or ignored when trying to deal with an issue in their child’s school.
John Norton of the Teacher Leaders Network interviewed me for one of my favorite blogs (and I say that not just because of this interview :))
You might want to read Expert Advice about Parent Engagement: An Interview with Larry Ferlazzo.