¡Parent-Educator Partnership Project

¡According to Epstein (School, Family, and Community Interactions, 1994), “frequent and positive school-to-home communication helps parents feel more self-confident, more comfortable with school, and more likely to become involved.”

¡Data-Evidenced Student Need

¡This is a tremendous need at our school based on student attendance and discipline.

¡There is a sense of apathy among many of our parents, especially our economically disadvantaged, Hispanic/African American, and special needs families.

¡We are not meeting these groups where they are, finding out what their concerns are, and communicating ineffectively with them regarding the importance of their involvement as it relates to their students success.

¡Benefits for Student Achievement

¡By creating more frequent and positive methods of communication with parents from the school such as phone calls, progress reports, conferences, personal notes, newsletters and home visits, schools will be able to make parents and “families feel more welcomed and accepted in the schools.”

¡Educators  will contribute to a positive school climate by “demonstrating openness, enthusiasm, and understanding toward all students by showing respect for parent diversity.”

¡Parents will feel valued and will more likely accept mutual responsibility for their students’ education. (Epstein, 1994)

¡Parent-Educator Partnership Project – Gina G. Lunsford

¡EDLD 5326/PEDG5326 School Community Relations

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¡Proposed Activities/Strategies

¡Training for all staff in how to better communicate with parents and how to establish various ways to do so (newsletters, phone webs, parent/teacher conferences, web sites, etc.)

¡Informal, after school meetings with all staff in which the community provides babysitting, food, door prizes, etc. to elicit parent involvement.

¡Provide Professional Development to staff regarding visible and invisible culture.

¡Outline ways in which parents can become involved with their child’s education at the high school level (what that looks like in exact terms and provide them with a “schedule of opportunities”).

¡Develop systems of positive communication with parents using a variety of techniques, such as websites, newsletters, and monthly conferences/meetings.

¡Provide staff with adequate planning periods to insure accessibility and availability to meet with parents

¡Proposed Process for Planning and Implementation

¡Develop numerous ways of parental involvement (classroom tutors, classroom sponsors, teacher “helpers,” etc.)

¡Create a variety of ways in which the school will communicate with parents such as phone webs, web sites, classroom/teacher newsletters; require all teachers develop at least one of these ways to communicate regularly with parents

¡Develop family nights, after hour meetings – informal ways in which the parents can come to the school to “visit” with teachers, school staff in an informal, non-threatening way; involve community members to provide child care, food, door prizes, etc., to elicit parent participation

¡Allow teachers to earn professional development hours and/or comp time based on the number of “extra” hours spent outside of regular school day communicating with parents

¡What I Want from My Audience

¡Teachers will be more likely to engage parents as partners in student achievement. The school will be seen as a welcoming place that desires for parents to be involved – and where parents actually feel that being involved is worthwhile, and not just another way for the school system to point fingers at them. This will become a partnership between family-school-community that fosters the education of THEIR students.

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