Monthly Archives: April 2012

All My Best Resources On Parent Engagement In One Place!

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I’ve previously posted this collection, but I thought it might be useful to new readers — this blog has gotten quite a few new readers recently. Of course, I also keep them continually updated:

The Best Ideas On How Parents Can Help Their Kids Succeed Academically

“The Best Research Available On Parent Engagement”

The Best Reasons Why Parents Should Be Looked At As Allies & Not Targets Of Blame

The Best Overviews Of Parent Engagement

My Best Posts, Articles & Interviews On Parent Engagement

The Best Resources On Parent Engagement In Countries Other Than The U.S.

The Worst Parent Engagement Ideas

“The Best Examples Of Parent Engagement Through Community Organizing” — October, 2011

The Best Sources Of Parent Engagement Advice For Teachers

The Best Posts & Articles For Learning About Newark’s $100 Million From Facebook

The Best Resources For Learning About Teacher Home Visits

The Best Resources On Parent/Teacher Conferences

My Best Posts On Building Parent Engagement In Schools — 2011 (So Far) — July, 2011

My Best Posts On Parent Engagement Over The Past Six Months — April, 2011

The Best Resources For Learning Why The Parent Trigger Isn’t Good For Parents, Kids Or Schools

“Parent involvement and ideologies of Black mothers in an urban community”

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“We can speak for ourselves: Parent involvement and ideologies of Black mothers in an urban community” is project by Billye Rhodes, a Ph.D. candidate in the Culture, Curriculum, and Change program at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Education.

You can see a transcript of this video, along with information about Ms. Rhodes’ work, at Learn NC.

Here’s a short excerpt:

When we discuss parent involvement, the literature is often from a perspective of ‘how can we teach them how to be parents’ or ‘how can get them to come into the school to sign up for the agenda we have.’ When it is collaborative, oftentimes the literature doesn’t hear from the voices of the parents who need to be involved the most, want to be involved the most, or are capable of being involved.

“Molly Munger puts $2 million more into California tax measure”

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The multimillionaire (billionaire) supporting an ill-advised tax initiative for California’s November ballot just put up another $2 million for signature gathering.

The only reason this initiative has the little public credibility it has is due to the California PTA supporting it. I’ve previously posted about what a big mistake they’re making (see Mutual Assured Destruction Is Not A Good Political Strategy For School Funding and Great Parent Engagement Idea — Not So Good Execution) . There is still time for them to back-out. I can only hope….

“Important Questions for Engaging Every Family”

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Important Questions for Engaging Every Family is a good post from Steven M. Constantino at Parent Involvement matters.

Here’s an excerpt:

Engaging every family is a commitment from schools and communities that has far-reaching effects on the learning outcomes of all children. The courage and will to make dramatic change means that we have to examine the policies that govern our schools and districts but do so through a different lens. We must garner a different perspective with regard to our opinions, attitudes and beliefs about how we truly treat and engage families. It doesn’t stop at policies, but includes practices, processes and procedures as well. We must send a clear message that we wish every family to be engaged.

“L.A. Unified board OKs new parent center at Miramonte Elementary”

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L.A. Unified board OKs new parent center at Miramonte Elementary is the headline of a story in today’s Los Angeles Times.

That school is the site of the horrible situation where two teachers have been charged with molesting students, and where the entire teaching staff was removed (apparently without checking first with parents and, in my opinion, without really thinking it all through first).

I’m generally not a big fan of these kinds of parent centers, and think the money (in this case, $150,000) can be spent better in other areas.

Also, I’ve got to wonder how many parents actually participated in the decision to create the center. If the District realized their mistake of removing the teachers without parent consultation and tried to learn from it by wide-scale engagement with families, and then the families decided they wanted the center, that would be one thing. There are certainly some communities where those sorts of services are not available anywhere else.

However, if this is just another “top-down” decision by the District as part of a PR campaign, that would be a different story.

Anyone know anything more?

Family Engagement Framework Released By California — Yawn….

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I learned yesterday from Steve Constantino that California had just published a “Family Engagement Framework.”

The California Department of Education describes it this way:

The Framework describes 18 principles that are essential for family and community involvement with the school district. These principles are grouped into five action areas to: (1) help school districts build the skills and confidence of parents, (2) demonstrate leadership, (3) use resources, (4) monitor progress, and (5) ensure access and equity for everyone. Specific actions to engage families and the community are described for each principle, ranging from basic to progressive to innovative. The Framework is outlined in a way to help school districts evaluate their progress and plan for improvements.

With all due respect, though, I’d have to say that it pretty much reads like a typical bureaucratic government report, devoid of stories of successes. I predict few schools will spend any time looking at its recommendations.

On the other hand, though, pages 39 through 49 provides one of the best overviews of parent involvement/engagement research that you’ll find. It also includes an excellent review of related literature. That review stands out because it gives useful excerpts from each one and doesn’t just offer a dry list of them.

I’m adding it to “The Best Research Available On Parent Engagement.”

I hope the state education task force that I serve on (about a different education topic) comes up with a report that is more likely to be read….

This Week’s Parent Teacher Chat On Twitter

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Guest Post by Joe Mazza:

This week’s #PTchat Topic: What is the role of district leadership to promote best practice family engagement in schools? 

 

According to the Harvard Family Research Project (July 2009), school districts must do the following.

-Create infrastructure for district-wide leadership for family engagement

-Build capacity for family engagement through training and technical assistance

-Ensure reporting, learning, and accountability for family engagement

-Help all understand, design, and implement strong evaluation strategies

 

Dr. Steve Constantino will be on this week’s #PTchat to discuss ideas and proven research on how school districts can plan for a sound family engagement plan for all stakeholders. He currently serves as superintendent of Williamsburg-James City Country School District in Williamsburg, Virginia. He has traveled extensively as a speaker, capacity-builder and leader in the arena of family engagement and has worked in hundreds of schools in hundreds of districts on four different continents. He is the author of several books focusing on family engagement and is working on a new one called “Engaging Every Family: The New Standards for Global Family Engagement.”

 

I hope you can join us Wednesday night, April 13th at 9PM EST / 6 PM PST for a lively parent-teacher conversation!

 

For more information, please visit Joe Mazza’s eFACE Today Blog. #PTchat is a weekly chat where parents and teachers around the world come together using the hashtag #PTchat. The goal behind #PTchat is to encourage a transparent and collaborative dialogue between parents and educators. All #PTchats are archived here.

Tennessee Thinks Grading Parents Will Increase Engagement — Yeah, Right…

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You can read here about a bill under consideration in the Tennessee legislature that would have teachers grade parents on their school involvement, a surefire way to develop and strengthen a positive teacher/parent relationship.

Other states have considered this ridiculous scheme, but wisely have backed away.

Linda Darling-Hammond says “We can’t fire our way to Finland.” Likewise, we can’t grade our way to genuine parent engagement….

Another Reason Why We Need To Be Careful How We Speak To Parents About Their Children

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Steve Constantino sent out a tweet about a very interesting study titled The effects of parental involvement on students’ academic self-efficacy, engagement and intrinsic motivation.

Basically, it find that making calls home to parents when there are problems with the child at school generally leads to negative parent/child interactions. These, in turn, typically result in reduced student intrinsic motivation to learn and decreased academic engagement.

In some ways, these kinds of calls can have the same consequence that using extrinsic motivation causes. As Daniel Pink has found, using carrots and sticks can be effective in promoting mechanical work and obedience, but not higher order thinking development.

Of course, just as most of us, including me, sometimes have to resort to carrots and sticks because of certain circumstances, sometimes we have to make phone calls home because of a severe problem. Perhaps, though, this study might give some of us pause. In fact, I’ve found it much more effective to tell students who are having challenges in class that I am going to call their parents in a week, and that I only want to say positive things, and I’m confident they’ll give me plenty of reasons to say those good things in the coming days.

And when we do have to make those calls home, or have those parent meetings, in addition to asking the advice from parents on how we can best deal with the problem (which is how I always lead), maybe we might want to alert them to what this research has found and discuss positive ways they can help their child deal with the issue, too.

I’m going to add this post to The Best Sources Of Parent Engagement Advice For Teachers.

Here’s an excerpt from the study:

…the consequential reactions and behaviours of parents after conversing with teachers are likely to be associated with adolescents’ academic self-efficacy in maths and English, engagement and intrinsic motivation in maths and English. Parent–school communications concerning students’ school problems can easily lead to certain discouraging conversations, criticisms or punishments from parents, which decrease students’ confidence, interest and engagement in learning. On the contrary, parent–school communications regarding other school issues,such as academic programming and future educational plans, can assist parents by providing resourceful and useful information (Domina, 2005) that help their children to succeed. Parents are more likely to communicate with and provide guidance to their children in a positive manner following these informational contacts with teachers and, as a result, benefit students’ perceived competence, engagement and intrinsic motivation. These results, therefore, emphasise the importance of how parents communicate and intervene with their children, especially when their children are struggling at school.

“National PTA Seeks to Reverse Drop in Membership”

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National PTA Seeks to Reverse Drop in Membership is the headline of a lengthy Associated Press article that announced the election of a new National PTA President.

Here’s how it begins:

When Otha Thornton, president-elect of the National PTA, signed up to help lead the PTA at Maryland’s Meade Senior High School in 2005, the chapter had about 25 members. Within two years, membership soared to 400 as the school community mobilized to boost morale and academic performance. Now he’s trying to rekindle that spirit on a larger scale as the PTA strives to reverse a steady decrease in its national membership.

“I tell parents: ‘Other people are making choices for you and your children. We need you at the table,'” said Thornton, who will become the National PTA’s first male African-American leader next year.

“Parental Engagement Proves No Easy Goal”

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Parental Engagement Proves No Easy Goal is a good and fairly lengthy article that just appeared in Education Week.

It enhanced my respect for Ed Week — they note that their parent engagement coverage is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, but the article certainly doesn’t give any hint of influence by the Foundation’s ultra conservative agenda that is often not in the best interests of families.

“Beyond school councils: Engaging parents to help their children succeed at school”

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Beyond school councils: Engaging parents to help their children succeed at school is a very good report from an organization called People For Education. It’s located in Ontario, Canada.

I’m adding it to The Best Overviews Of Parent Engagement.

People For Education also publishes multilingual materials useful for parents. Though some of them are unique to Ontario, others can be used elsewhere. I’m adding them to The Best Ideas On How Parents Can Help Their Kids Succeed Academically. Here’s a sample in English.

What An Awful & Misleading Video About Our Schools

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Michele Molnar over at Education Week has just posted about a new campaign for school choice begun by the ultra-conservative American Federation For Children. The campaign is called Parents Know Best, and is immediately joining The Worst Parent Engagement Ideas list.

They’re kicking-off their campaign with an incredibly misleading video, with statements taken completely out of context, that I have embedded below:

The quote from Bob Chanin, formerly of the NEA, was made in the context of what made NEA an effective advocate — its power. Here is his full statement, and you can read more about it at the NEA site.

“So the bad news, or depending on your point of view, the good news, is that NEA and its affiliates will continue to be attacked by conservative and right-wing groups as long as we continue to be effective advocates for public education, for education employees, and for human and civil rights. And that brings me to my final and most important point. Which is why, at least in my opinion, NEA and its affiliates are such effective advocates. Despite what some among us would like to believe, it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children. And it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power. And we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year because they believe that we are the unions that can most effectively represent them, the unions that can protect their rights and advance their interests as education employees.”

For more information on how this campaign will hurt schools, students, families and teachers, you might want to see The Best Resources For Learning Why School Vouchers Are A Bad Idea.

For more information on the American Federation For Children, you can see:

Source Watch: The American Federation For Children

First Street Research Group

If you want to see another misleading video about schools, see a previous post, What A Terrible Video About Parents & Schools With A Terrible Message.

Very Important & Useful International Study On Parent Involvement/Engagement

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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently published What can parents do to help their children
succeed in school?

It’s relatively short, and I think it’s a “must-read.”

Here’s how it ends:

The bottom line: All parents can help their children achieve their full potential by spending some time talking and reading with their children…

I’m adding it to “The Best Research Available On Parent Engagement.”