The Harvard Family Research Project has just announced the formation of a Parent University Network. Here’s how they describe it: First launched in the 1980s, Parent Universities have become a promising capacity-building mechanism across the country to help families develop knowledge and skills that enable them be proactive in their children’s learning and growth. Parent […]
I’ve often posted about my concerns related to the parent “leadership” trainings many school districts offer. Today, Education Week ran an article about a parent university program in Middletown, Connecticut which certainly seems to get beyond they typical topics covered by programs of this kind (I wonder if it’s just a coincidence that there seems […]
I’ve previously posted positively about New Haven’s Parent University. Parent University 101: Launching a Successful Event is a new Education Week piece that describes it more extensively. It’s worth a look…
I’ve posted a lot about “parent academies” or “parent universities” around the country — and my critique of them for not being parent-driven by emphasizing issues that parents want to learn about. I’ve often contrasted it with the Parent University program at our school. I read an article in The New Haven Register today about […]
I’ve written a lot about school’s work with the Parent Teacher Home Visit Project and our parent-driven “parent university” program. Here’s a video Mai Xi Lee, one of our school’s Vice-Principals, made for last weekend’s national Parent Teacher Home Visit Project conference. For what it’s worth, that’s me speaking after the text introduction….
A very major effort is getting underway in Birmingham, Alabama, to create a series of “Parent Universities” throughout the school district. I’ve written quite a bit about “Parent Universities” in the past. Elisa Gonzalez, our school’s Parent Engagement Coordinator, has done an extraordinary job working with parents to create an extremely popular Parent University — […]
CNN produced this video story on “Parent University” in Philadelphia. It seems like an okay program, but it could be so much more. Elisa Gonzalez, the Parent Coordinator at our school, has, I think, developed a national model of what a “Parent University” can really become — by first asking parents what they want to […]
Cleveland Administrator Launches College Tours for Parents is the title of a pretty interesting Education Week article. It describes the work of the leader of parent engagement for the Cleveland school district. Here’s an excerpt: Among the administrator’s most successful parent-engagement undertakings are the Parent University College Tours, which provides parents a much-needed firsthand look […]
Parent Universities help districts tap into feedback required under funding formula is an article in Ed Source reporting on Parent Universities in California — particularly in Long Beach and Fresno. It sounds like some good work is being done. However, as I have written regularly in this blog, they do some to be falling into […]
The California Educator, bi-monthly magazine of the California Teachers Association, has just published a nice article titled Parent University. It sounds like the district they write about avoided many of the mistakes so many other districts made by actually asking and listening to what parents wanted to learn, and work with them in building the […]
Parent “universities” or “academies” seem to be all the rage these days, with school districts organizing these trainings typically to help parents understand how the school works. I’ve written plenty of posts about these types of programs, and have been critical of many of them. They tend to fall on the parent “involvement” side of […]
I’ve posted a number of videos related to parent engagement over the years, and I thought that it would be useful to collect the best ones in one post. You can find links to all my parent engagement “Best” lists here. Here are my choices for The Best Videos On Parent Engagement: The Annenberg Institute […]
It’s that time of year again, so here’s a listing of what I believe to be my best posts during the second half of the year on building parent engagement in schools. You can see Part One here. You might also be interested in a listing of all my parent engagement-related “The Best…” lists. Here […]
Last month, Joe Mazza wrote a guest post about Parent Teacher Chat on Twitter. Joe has accepted my invitation to write a short post on this blog regularly to announce future topics for these chats: Special guest Karren Dunkley joins #ptchat this Wednesday, 1/25 at 9PM EST. Ms. Dunkley, Deputy Chief of the School District of […]
The San Francisco Chronicle recently published an article about a series of “PTA School Smarts Parent Academies” that are being held at a local school and others around the state. The President of the California PTA also has written a column about this effort. I’m sure it’s a good experience for the parents involved, but […]
I’ve found several good resources ideas on how parents can best help their children learn (including ideas on how to best respond to problems their children are having in school), and decided to bring them together in one post. You can see all my parent engagement-related “The Best” lists here. Here are my picks for […]
I’ve posted a lot about good parent engagement/involvement ideas, but sometimes you can learn just as much from looking at bad examples. You can see lots of good ideas at all my parent engagement-related “The Best” lists here. Here are my choices for The Worst Parent Engagement Ideas: Putting Parents in Charge is a condescending […]
I’m a big proponent of teachers making home visits, and I wrote a chapter about it in my book on parent engagement. I work closely with the Parent-Teacher Home Visit Project, which happens to be based in Sacramento. I thought it might be useful if I brought together some of the related resources I’ve posted […]
“She pulls in parents with Starr power: In Brooklyn Center, one woman is on a personal mission to get parents involved in their children’s education” is a nice article about a good “parent university”-type program in Minnesota. I’m sure it’s a good program. However, I wonder if schools miss out on the possibilities of making […]
“The Notebook” describes itself as “an independent voice for parents, educators, students and friends of Philadelphia Public Schools.” It just published an article headlined Pedro Noguera at Parent University. The article is okay, but the real treasures are the multiple links within that article to previous pieces they’ve published about parent involvement/engagement. It’s definitely worth […]