PARENT ENGAGEMENT IN DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Project Overview
and
Evaluation Plan

Evaluation Summary of Findings

What Is The Expect Success Project?

The Expect Success Project is an effort to increase parent engagement in schools. The project resulted from a partnership between Assets for Colorado Youth (ACY) and five Denver Public Schools (DPS) in fall 2001 after ACY was invited to talk about its work with parent engagement in education before the Denver Public Schools Board of Education. Working closely with the district’s superintendent, the area superintendents and principals, ACY focused its efforts in five schools rated “low” or “unsatisfactory” on the Accountability Report Cards. As part of their reform plans, the five schools worked with ACY to positively impact parent engagement and school climate—two factors identified by research as necessary for high student achievement. An evaluation team from the University of Denver College of Education was hired to conduct an outside evaluation of the project from November, 2001 to June, 2002.

The schools involved in the Expect Success Project in 2001/2002 included two elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school in the same feeder system, representing close to 4,000 students.

Average school population demographics:

Latino – 86.78%
White – 7.24%
Asian – 2.86%
African American – 1.9%
American Indian – 1.22%

Qualify for free/reduced-price lunch: 86.76%

Key Findings about Parent Engagement

• Parent engagement must be seen as an enhancement to the work done by teachers to support academic achievement.
  
• Within schools there is a wide range of definitions of parent engagement, which can often be a barrier to connecting with parents.
  
• Teachers and principals need to develop shared agreement about the key components of parent engagement.
  
• Communication between school staff, between parent and child, and between schools and parents is central.
  
• A positive school climate supports effective parent engagement and effective parent engagement enhances a positive school climate.
  
• Efforts to create a climate for increased parent engagement need to address school staff and parents simultaneously and separately.

Recommendations to Denver Public Schools

• Teachers need opportunities to deeply understand the positive connection between parent engagement and academic achievement, and to see their role as central to this connection.
  
• School staff needs to develop a common vision for parent engagement in order to move forward as a team. That vision cannot be deficit-based.
  
• Parent engagement can be advanced if teachers and principals commit to a staff development process that lays a strength-based foundation for focusing on positive youth development, parent engagement and school climate.
  
• Consistent messages about parent engagement must be delivered throughout Denver Public Schools.

Goals of the Expect Success Project

The overall goal of Expect Success is to impact student achievement by increasing parent engagement. The framework of Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets is the foundation for this strength-based effort. Assets for Colorado Youth’s role in the project is to provide training, strategic planning and resource development to help enhance parent engagement efforts at the participating schools.

Project objectives included:

• Increase school staffs’ knowledge about tools for increasing parent engagement and improving school climate;
  
• Increase parents’ knowledge of the asset framework and of ways to be more actively engaged in their child’s education;
  
• Increase all participants’ use of strategies and daily actions that will contribute to building the strong relationships and connections necessary for sustained parent engagement in a school community.

What Worked?

The University of Denver research team identified a number of effective strategies employed by ACY in the Expect Success Project. Among them were:

Staff Development
“I was very encouraged after that meeting. Morale had been low. I felt empowered to change things in my classroom. It was very motivational.” —Castro Teacher

Staff development workshops:

• Laid the groundwork for a strength-based project
  
• Began to diminish the negative concepts teachers have about parent engagement
  
• Began to broaden school staff views about parent engagement
  
• Provided opportunities for teachers to share ideas with one another
  
• Provided tips and techniques for building stronger relationships among school staff and between the staff and students, and staff and parents
  
• Resulted in multiple requests per school for “hands on ways” to build relationships with parents

Staff development trainings were provided to the full staff in four of the five schools (one principal chose to have only a portion of the staff involved). Teachers’ ratings of the workshops were high: nearly 90 percent rated them highly and reported that they gained a lot of knowledge. Teachers reported that the trainings enhanced team building among the staff and broadened their views of parent engagement. The Expect Success Project offers teachers and other staff opportunities for immediate follow-up and involvement.

Parent Trainings
“Keep doing this so you can continue to motivate children and parents.” —Kepner Parent

ACY offered parent training workshops at each school. These were offered bilingually in English and Spanish. Parents, teachers and other school staff recruited attendees. At these parent training events:

• Parents were taught to view the school as their a partner in their child’s academic success;
  
• Parents felt invited and welcome in the school;
  
• Parents learned practical strategies for becoming more involved in their childrens’ education at home;
  
• School staff provided key messages to parents about how they can support the school’s efforts;
  
• Parents heard from students (at two schools) about how young people want their parents to be engaged.
  
• Staff received multiple requests per school for more workshops at a variety of times.

The workshops averaged two hours in length. Parent opinions on evaluation surveys were nearly 100 percent positive, reporting that the Expect Success trainings were worthwhile and that they would encourage other parents to attend future workshops.

Asset Teams
“It’s like the basement in building the house. The relationship of the teachers needs to be first before parent engagement.” —Castro Asset Team Member

Teams of Expect Success Project coordinators, called “Asset Teams,” were formed at each school following the staffs’ initial introduction to the project. Most were composed of teachers, mental health professionals and support staff who had shown an interest in furthering the asset integration in their schools following the staff trainings.

The asset teams:

• Improved staff morale
  
• Began to improve school climate by taking small, intentional actions
  
• Provided a forum for parents to share their voice
  
• Identified and implemented ways to make their schools more inviting
  
• Began to help the entire staff integrate the assets framework into classroom and school-wide activities
  
• Demonstrated their commitment to parent engagement by planning activities to continue into the 220-2003 school year

ACY provided initial coaching and support to the five separate Asset Teams. The Asset Teams that became effective were those that were empowered and supported by the administration, and could easily communicate with one another and with the administration.

Addressing School Climate Issues
“How can we be expected to communicate effectively with parents when we can’t even communicate with each other?” —Smedley Teacher

Follow-up support to the schools after the staff and parent trainings was centered around school climate issues. In fact, 70 percent of the overall Expect Success Project focused on improving staff relations. This focus was critical, as researchers found that school climate was the primary factor that influenced implementation of Expect Success across sites.

When ACY staff and the asset teams worked to address school climate issues:

• Teachers became more receptive to focusing on parent engagement as a critical element for academic achievement
  
• Parent engagement was viewed as a natural component of a caring school climate rather than “one more thing for teachers to do”
  
• Teachers reported being able to focus on positive connections rather than negative ones
  
• Teachers reported thinking differently about connecting with students and parents
  
• Staff expressed that team building and idea exchanges with colleagues are important and valuable

The Asset Teams initiated most of the school climate activities. ACY coached the teams and facilitated follow-up discussions and activities in support of team-building efforts. ACY was also able to share ideas across the sites. In one school, ACY facilitated team-building exercises in three separate faculty meetings. In another school, ACY support led to posting a “Caught You Doing Good” bulletin board in the staff lounge, which collected some 75 postings in its first week.

Contact ACY for more information.