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Community C4K 1 Download a copy
of the briefing booklet. NEW Your support of positive youth development is the key to strengthening the lives of young people in our communities. Become an ACY Partner and help youth statewide. Contact ACY for membership info. |
June 26, 2002 The Conversation:
Academic achievement is an issue on the minds of everyone in the education sector. To illustrate the connection between positive youth development and academic achievement, ACY convened a forum of education leaders at the district and state level to hear how the Expect Success Project is enhancing parent engagement and school climate in five low and unsatisfactory schools in Denver. ACY and a research team member from the University of Denver presented early findings from the Expect Success Project. The June 26th Conversations for Kids Forum shared the strategies and the preliminary evaluation results of the Expect Success Project with community and educational leaders in Colorado. The briefing booklet shared at the meeting outlines many of the discussion points that follow. Participants were
asked to write answers to the following three questions:
These same questions were asked of educators in the process of evaluating the Expect Success Project. Ginger Maloney, Dean
of the College of Education at the University of Denver, welcomed the
group. She described the nature of the College of Education's evaluation
component to the Expect Success Project. The University of Denver has
a strong outreach arm, allowing the community to help inform the school
and, in turn, the school to help inform the community through projects
such as program evaluation. ACY Executive Director María Guajardo Lucero explained the preliminary exercise and the reasons for asking attendees to express their thoughts on how they define parent involvement and why it is important. "We're finding that educational colleagues, parents, and community members have varied responses to these questions and that there is no one way to view these issues," said Guajardo Lucero. Stephanie Hoy, ACY Director of Training and Community Services, described the strategies ACY employed with the Expect Success Project in the five separate schools. "In whatever field ACY is presenting, we try to connect people to the strength-based positive youth development framework and show individuals in that sector what that approach looks like," said Hoy. "Educators have found this approach to be very affirming and hopeful. It also resonates with parents, who are empowered when they are reminded of the important role they are playing in the children's lives." Hoy pointed out that national research by the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) shows that a significant barrier to parent engagement is that teachers and parents often feel intimidated by each other. Regardless of the barriers, said Hoy, "It is a big myth that parents don't want to be involved in their child's education, or that schools don't want the involvement of the parents." At a staff training at Horace Mann Middle School prior to the start of the 2001-02 school year, ACY outlined several practical ways that teachers could enhance parent engagement. Later in the fall, after the CSAP test scores rated Horace Mann "unsatisfactory," Principal Jim Trevino contacted ACY to ask if the staff and parent community could receive further training as a part of the school's reform plan. Superintendent Wartgow agreed, but expanded ACY's efforts into five low- or under-achieving schools. ACY's role was to provide training, strategic planning, and resource development to help enhance parent engagement efforts at the participating schools. ACY employed three different strategies to advance the project:
The visions for parent engagement and the movement to strengthen it evolved differently in all five schools according to their individual needs and strengths. Significantly, each school plans to continue the parent engagement efforts it began in 2001-02 during the next school year. Early Findings
from the Expect Success Evaluation
Teacher responses
Additionally, teachers at each school were asked to complete a three-page questionnaire regarding their definitions of parent engagement, their role, and what they felt could be done at their school to enhance it. More than 200 questionnaires were returned. Definitions of parent engagement were grouped into 13 categories. One group of educators stated that assisting in their child's academic success was not the role of parents. Many teachers responded that hosting events was their school's primary strategy for engaging parents, yet less than one-quarter of the teachers defined parent engagement as attending school events. Teachers also acknowledged the need for parents to be positive role models for their children by taking an active interest in their child's education. They believed students' academics, social skills, and attitudes would improve with increased parent engagement. "Eighty percent of the 206 teachers responding believed improving communications with parents was the primary action they needed to take to improve parent engagement. Most responses did not describe any strategies being implemented by teachers to connect to parents," Stuck said. In many instances, teachers believed the school first needed to focus on staff-to-staff relations and school climate issues before it could move ahead with any coordinated strategy for better engaging parents. As a result, 70 percent of the work conducted by ACY for the Expect Success Project focused on internal communication strategies and team-building. Parent responses As a result of the parents trainings, presentations, and planning sessions they were involved in, parents reported feeling supported, informed, and motivated. Implications for
the community "If 30 of 30 teachers in a school all have different definitions of parent engagement, the parents often receive mixed and confusing messages," Stuck pointed out.
Stephanie Hoy, ACY - Each school identified places in the community to reach out to parents. For example, Horace Mann Middle School distributed flyers for its Parents Night at a local church. We know that parents listen to other parents. In some cases, the parents established a phone tree; in another case, each parent had to identify another parent they would invite. Also, when Spanish-language parents found out the trainings and meetings were bilingual, their attendance increased. Castro Elementary's Spanish-language parents came out in droves to the parent training because it was bilingual. Many had not participated before. Robin Johnston,
Friends of Character Education- In teacher training courses at UNC,
I was shocked at the negative input I heard about parent involvement.
As the chair of the State Board of Education, I got a dialogue going and
found that teachers feared parents, and vice versa. What we're doing when
we bring character education into a school is getting parents and teachers
together in a planning role. What can we do about higher education? Parents
are not being involved as decision-makers. Ginger Maloney, Dean of the School of Education, University of Denver - The climate has changed. We now have state standards around teaching students about parent engagement. Still, when a group of students was asked who they would go to for information about a special needs child, none named the parents. Often, it is a developmental issue with young teachers. They don't feel their parents understand them, and don't think of a student's parents as a resource. Also, parent engagement has to be promoted and made a value in the work environment. Right now, there is no dialogue regarding parents as decision-makers. María Guajardo Lucero, Assets for Colorado Youth - ACY is trying to "unpack" what parent engagement means. If parents, school staff, and the community are not versed in parent engagement, they get stuck and don't know what they're supposed to do. Teachers are saying they don't know what to do besides invite parents to conferences. Both parties need to value parent engagement and move forward at the same pace. Judy Kaufman, Colorado Parent Information and Resource Center - The Expect Success Project is powerful because it concentrates on individual schools. We can teach professionals about parent engagement and get them excited, but then they walk back into their buildings and get right back into a rut. We need the entire school and community partnering in the effort. Lucy Trujillo, Colorado Foundation for Families and Children - How much access did you have to teachers for training? Were you in front of teachers at least monthly? Stephanie Hoy, Assets for Colorado Youth - Yes. We provided three-hour training workshops at each school, except for Lincoln High School where we trained only a group of teachers; and were in front of staff at staff meetings, grade-level meetings, and Asset Team meetings. We would have liked to have had more follow up with the entire staff at each school. María Guajardo Lucero, Assets for Colorado Youth - Our goal was to build capacity. We supported school communities to figure out how they wanted to move forward. This meant having to understand the politics, the personalities, and the dynamics of each school. Some of the schools were frustrated at first that we weren't going to come in and do this for them. Cindy Wakefield, Colorado Department of Education - What was the role of the administrative leadership in the project? Did the superintendent contact the schools? Did the principals schedule the meetings? Stephanie Hoy,
Assets for Colorado Youth - The Superintendent contacted two of the
Area Superintendents and we met with them to determine which schools to
target. Then we met with the principals and all the principals agreed
to be part of the project. We asked the principals to drive the effort
in their schools and support the project. Interestingly, the ways the
principals announced the project to their staff differed. One principal
immediately told his staff they were going to have a three-hour in-service
training on this, while another told us we needed to come in through the
back door. At most of the schools, the efforts became organic and were
driven by the Asset Teams. Barbara Volpe, Public Education and Business Coalition - Parent involvement is a goal with a lot of principals and teachers until the parents get involved. Then the teachers and principals often start to back-peddle and use passive-aggressive behavior and power plays. They don't know how to share power with parents. Stephanie Hoy, Assets for Colorado Youth - As we saw relationships begin to develop we saw barriers start to come down. For example, Kepner Middle School's Asset Team invited a parent group to lunch just to listen to their concerns, and didn't allow themselves to argue or defend their position. Afterwards, the Asset Team debriefed and decided to start inviting parents to the school more often to build relationships. María Guajardo Lucero, Assets for Colorado Youth - We didn't see the power plays happening, but we may as we more forward. The Expect Success Project started conversations around the need for communications and the need to share with parents what students are doing in the classroom. In addition, the skill level of parents can also be an issue. In some distressed neighborhoods, with a high percent of immigrant families, for example, there were barriers to parent participation. One parent was given a survey to fill out, and it was apparent that she didn't know she was supposed to check a box or circle an answer. Barbara Volpe, Public Education and Business Coalition - It's key to have systems that support principals and teachers in how to react to hard questions from parents and how to see these questions as a positive. Ginger Maloney, University of Denver - Higher Ed needs to look at the preparation of school leaders around these issues-how to create a school community that becomes a learning partnership. People need to understand that the questions being asked are an opportunity to learn and to figure out how to be better at what they do. Until school leaders understand how to do that, there will be barriers to parent engagement. Bruce Dickinson, Denver Classroom Teachers Association - I've seen a matrix on what all sectors need to contribute in order to improve a child's education. The question is: how do parents get the support they need to be engaged-whether it's language acquisition, communication skills, or whatever? The answer isn't always in the school. Parents may feel more comfortable in a church or in a community organization setting. The add-ons for teachers are huge. The real world doesn't allow us to do what we want to do to be our best. Judy Kaufman, Colorado Parent Information and Resource Center - With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Legislation, we are moving from a difficult to an impossible climate. We need a central clearinghouse where all the resources needed for true parent engagement, school climate, translation of materials, or whatever, can be accessed. Carol Wilson, Colorado Partnership for Educational Renewal - Education is trying to overcome the effects of super-specialization. We've been in a climate where parents wanted teachers to take care of their child's education themselves. It has taken a long time for meaningful communication to occur. Parents are just now realizing the role they have to play. We're overcoming a long period of separation and fragmentation. Aaron Gray, Denver Public Schools - I'm disturbed that I'm the only African American person here, and that the schools selected for the project do not have a high African American population. Now that I'm working inside Denver Public Schools, I know the district realizes the need for parent engagement internally. For the first time, the district has a unified literacy curriculum. The concern of our team is that parents aren't mentioned anywhere in the curriculum. How can we ensure they're included before the start of the school year? There are people inside the district working hard to change the climate. We need partnerships in the community. María Guajardo
Lucero, Assets for Colorado Youth - We need to challenge ourselves
to reach out and make those connections. We are making radical change
in how we educate children, and we need to be aware of how we show up
in this movement. How can we collectively be more inclusive, more able
to communicate with different groups, and more aware of the needs of the
disenfranchised? ACY intentionally selected this group to come together
today in hopes that we could stay connected and move forward in partnership
together. We can make more of an impact by working together. After the presentation, one educational leader commented, "The Expect Success Project is powerful because it concentrates on individual schools. We can teach professionals about parent engagement and get them excited, but then they walk back into their buildings and get right back into a rut. We need the entire school and community partnering in the effort." Meeting minutes and a briefing booklet were sent out to all attendees and those who were invited but could not attend, in order to keep the dialogue going. Download a copy
of the briefing booklet. |
Copyright 2005 Assets for Colorado Youth
