ENGAGE! In Welcoming All Families

WELCOMEWelcoming all families is the first standard in the National PTA Standards for Family School Partnerships. While it’s no more important than any of the other standards, it’s certainly one of my favorites!

Standard 1: Welcoming All Families is achieved when all families are active participants in the life of the school. They feel welcomed, valued, and connected to each other, to school staff, and to what students are learning and doing in class. This standard has two goals: to create a welcoming climate and to build a respectful, inclusive school community.

Creating a welcoming school climate is critical to help families become more involved at school. When families enter the building, they should feel at home. Consider placing signs in highly visible entryways that say, “Welcome! We’re glad you’re here.” Make sure the signs are in all the languages families at your school speak.

Create opportunities for families to come and build relationships with teachers and school staff and volunteer to support the school. Trusting respectful relationships are the key to helping families feel like they are part of the school community!

Work with the school to help identify the barriers that prevent all families from participating and then break those barriers down! Some families have language or transportation barriers that might prevent them from coming to school. You can work with other community agencies to arrange childcare, translation, and even transportation (which falls under Standard 6: Collaborating with the Community!).

Build a respectful, inclusive school community.  It’s not only the right thing to do – it’s also a wonderful way to strengthen your school community by ensuring a rich diversity of perspectives. You can build a more respectful, inclusive school community by working with the school to identify any barriers. Make sure that any programs, events, or activities at the school are low-cost or free. Also, try to schedule activities at convenient times and places. You don’t have to have them all in the school building. Consider using local parks or libraries near where families live. Plan programs, events, or activities that the entire family can attend and enjoy!

For more information on all of the National Standards for Family School Partnerships check out our website.

ENGAGE! is a weekly column on Family Engagement written by Sherri Wilson, Senior Manager of Family and Community Engagement at the National PTA. Sherri is the former Director of the Alabama Parent Information and Resource Center and is currently responsible for developing and implementing programs related to family and community engagement at the National PTA.

ENGAGE! With the Community

Basic CMYKThe National Standards for Family School Partnerships offer an important framework for connecting families to schools in meaningful ways. Standard 6 is connecting with the community. The goal is to connect families and the school with community resources. Families and school staff should collaborate with community members to connect students, families, and staff to expanded learning opportunities, community services, and civic participation.  National PTA has developed several indicators you can use to measure your effectiveness in meeting Standard 6.

The first indicator is linking to community resources. Schools and PTAs that do this well often have a family resource center staffed by faculty and parent volunteers to inform families about services, make referrals to community programs, and plan activities. Some PTAs have worked with the community to connect with health or dental clinics,  coordinate used clothing exchanges, or host food drives for low-income families.

The second indicator is organizing support from community partners. Schools and PTAs can work with community and business representatives to assess needs and develop programs to support student success and find create ways to provide funding and staff.  For example, some PTAs have worked with local community based organizations and local universities to implement Parent Academies.

The third indicator is turning the school into a hub of community life. PTAs can work with their local school to ensure facilities such as computer labs, media centers, classrooms, and gyms are open year-round for community use. Offering year-round programs to families helps to keep them connected to the school, even when it’s not in session!

The fourth indicator is partnering with community groups to strengthen families and support student success. Teachers and families can work with local groups to develop solutions to local problems. PTAs can survey families to identify existing needs and then work with local service providers to connect families to their services. Some PTAs have community resource fairs to introduce families to all of the service providers in their local community.

For more information about the Standard 6: Collaborating with the Community as well as the rest of the National Standards for Family-School Partnerships, check out our resources!

ENGAGE! is a weekly column on Family Engagement written by Sherri Wilson, Senior Manager of Family and Community Engagement at the National PTA. Sherri is the former Director of the Alabama Parent Information and Resource Center and is currently responsible for developing and implementing programs related to family and community engagement at the National PTA.

ENGAGE! A Need for a Common Definition

DefinitionThis week, one of our state leaders contacted our office to ask for a simple definition of family engagement. This reminded me of one of the biggest challenges in this field: the lack of a common definition. Many people I worked with in the past defined family engagement as how many parents attended school events or volunteered in the school building. This type of “head count parent involvement” used to be the norm. Fortunately, a large body of research has opened our eyes!

We now know that the things families do at home with their children have the biggest impact on how well children do in school. It’s great if families can come to school and participate, and I hope that all of them do, but they can still be engaged even if they don’t! And in this day and age of hectic schedules and multiple jobs, some families can’t! That doesn’t mean they don’t care about their children or that they won’t do what they can to support their children’s education.

Our job is to promote a common definition so we can all work toward the same goals. The National PTA definition of family engagement is:

  • A shared responsibility in which schools and other community agencies and organizations are committed to engaging families in meaningful and culturally respectful ways, and families are committed to actively supporting their children’s learning and development.
  • From cradle to career, continuous across a child’s life, spanning from Early Head Start programs to college and career.
  • Across contexts, carried out everywhere that children learn – at home, in pre-kindergarten programs, in school, in after-school programs, in faith-based institutions, and in community programs and activities.

Once we are all speaking the same language, it will be even easier to help ENGAGE!

 

ENGAGE! is a weekly column on Family Engagement written by Sherri Wilson, Senior Manager of Family and Community Engagement at the National PTA. Sherri is the former Director of the Alabama Parent Information and Resource Center and is currently responsible for developing and implementing programs related to family and community engagement at the National PTA.

ENGAGE! What Do Lexington, KY and Rochester, MN Have in Common?

UrbanNetworkThe answer? Urban Network Teams!

In October, I was fortunate to attend meetings conducted by two of our National PTA Urban Family Engagement Network teams. My first stop was the 16th District in Lexington, KY. The Lexington team is led by James Brown and includes representatives from local PTAs, the United Way, Fayette County Public Schools, Head Start, NAACP, and the Urban League. After getting to know the team over delicious Hot Browns, we went to the local library to meet the parents participating in the program. At the event, parents learned about the value of engaging males in education and leadership. During the event, the team shared a video that really connected family engagement to student success. The parents decided that their two top concerns were engaging more families and advocating for more diversity among teachers.

My next stop was Rochester, MN. The team, led by Deborah Seelinger, includes representatives from the area council PTA, Rochester City Schools, United Way, Head Start, and the local diversity council. They are implementing their project in partnership with the local Head Start and we joined them at the local Boys and Girls Club to meet the families participating in their program. The topic of the meeting was parent rights and responsibilities and, although all of the parents attending were Head Start parents, many of them had kids who were also attending local schools. During the session, parents learned about how to have effective parent teacher conferences. They actually role-played a great conference with the local district’s curriculum director! Parents also learned about the chain of command and how they can use it to solve problems at school. The entire group participated in problem-solving, using a real-life situation that one parent was having with their child’s bus driver!

National PTA has Urban Network teams in 15 cities. These local teams are passionate and deeply committed to improving the educational outcomes of all children through effective family engagement. For more information on the Urban Network, please visit PTA.org/urban.


ENGAGE! is a weekly column on Family Engagement written by Sherri Wilson, Senior Manager of Family and Community Engagement at the National PTA. Sherri is the former Director of the Alabama Parent Information and Resource Center and is currently responsible for developing and implementing programs related to family and community engagement at the National PTA.

 

ENGAGE! in Effective Parent Teacher Conferences

Sherri_WilsonThis October, #PTchat discussed parent teacher conferences with special guest Dr. Heidi Rosenberg from Harvard Family Research Project (@HFRP).  HFRP has developed a set of tip sheets for parent teacher conferences and are currently working on updating the tip sheets to work with after school programs. You can access them here.

The key takeaways from the chat were related to communication and relationships (of course!). The perfect parent teacher conference consists of two-way conversations where parents feel valued as equal partners in supporting student learning. The conference also ends with clear action steps for the parent and teacher to take that build on the student’s strengths, while addressing any challenges. Parents can prepare for the conference by reviewing their children’s homework, tests, and projects and then create a list of questions to ask the teacher about their child’s progress. Teachers should be prepared to tell parents what they can do at home to support what their children are learning at school! Teachers should create a picture of the whole child, which conveys to parents that they don’t see their child as a set or numbers or grades. Teachers can also help parents understand the role of out-of-school time learning in supporting student development.

Administrators can help facilitate effective parent teacher conferences by ensuring that teachers have access to high-quality professional development on family engagement and communication. They can also provide families with ongoing access to student data through parent portals. Administrators should also check-in with families after the conferences–through surveys, focus groups or 1-on-1 interactions–to see what went well and what could be improved.

After the conference, follow-up is critical! Teachers should send home thank you notes that reinforce the follow-up plan and any action steps that were agreed upon. Parents should do the same!

If you want more information on improving parent teacher conferences, here is a podcast on why parent teacher conferences fail and how to make them better. The archive for the #PTchat can be read here.

Enjoy!


ENGAGE! is a weekly column on Family Engagement written by Sherri Wilson, Senior Manager of Family and Community Engagement at the National PTA. Sherri is the former Director of the Alabama Parent Information and Resource Center and is currently responsible for developing and implementing programs related to family and community engagement at the National PTA.

  

ENGAGE! Using Twitter to Reach Parents and Teachers

Sherri_Wilson

Sherri Wilson,
ENGAGE! columnist on
PTA One Voice Blog

Twitter has become a terrific way for parents and teachers to connect with others and create their own personal learning network (PLN). This year I was asked to be one of the moderators for #PTchat, a weekly chat where parents and teachers from around the world engage in a collaborative dialogue.

Every Wednesday night from 9 to 10 pm EST, parents and teachers from around the world engage in lively discussions. Each week features a different topic and many feature guest experts who contribute to the conversation.  Topics cover everything from planning back to school nights to engage all families to balancing academics with extracurricular activities.

To join the chat, all you need to do is log on to Twitter and search for hashtag (#) associated with the chat you are joining, in this case #PTchat. The moderators post a series of questions and participants respond.  #PTchat uses a “Q1, Q2, Q3…” and “A1, A2, A3….” format to organize the questions and their responses. The chat moderator asks the first question using “Q1” and everyone else uses “A1” in their response.

When taking part in the chat, everyone uses the hashtag #PTChat so the tweet remains linked to the chat. Most chats are archived so you can enjoy them later! You can read the archived #PTchats at http://www.iel.org/ptchat/index.html. If you are already on Twitter, join us! If you aren’t, it’s not too late to log on and join in now!

ENGAGE! is a weekly column on Family Engagement written by Sherri Wilson, Senior Manager of Family and Community Engagement at the National PTA. Sherri is the former Director of the Alabama Parent Information and Resource Center and is currently responsible for developing and implementing programs related to family and community engagement at the National PTA.

Experiencing the Family Reading Experience!

Kindle_Mom_DaughterWhen our team set out to develop a new reading program I had two thoughts in mind: one, it needed to help families better understand the role they can play in developing their children’s reading skills and, two, it needed to be fun. After all, I never enjoyed meetings where I sat in a tiny chair and just listened to teachers tell me what to do when my children were young! Our team decided the best way to engage families and teach them about reading was to make it into a game families could play together. Somehow that morphed into an evening full of games and then into an event where families moved from one game station to the next on a quest to learn strategies to help their children become better readers: Family Reading Experience, Powered by Kindle.

Smile_FingerWhile the games are simple and don’t require a lot of supplies, we really wanted to be sure that families and teachers thought they were useful and enjoyed them as well. Our team decided to test the Experience by taking it on the road. We worked with some incredible local PTA leaders in Albuquerque and Baltimore and set up a series of Experiences to see how they went. Each Experience was unique but the response was overwhelming. Teachers said the activities were useful and they liked having everything ready to use. They even said they were borrowing some of them to use in their classrooms. Families told us the event showed them new ways they could help their children at home. They said they liked trying all the different games and learning new ways to read with their children. One parent told me they were having such a good time they didn’t realize they were learning!

Sherri_WilsonI am incredibly proud of the Family Reading Experience, Powered by Kindle and I am humbled by the opportunity to work in an organization so full of talented and creative friends who can help me make these bold ideas a really fun reality!

Seen here at the PTA Family Reading Experience, Powered by Kindle pilot launch at Cecil Elementary School in Baltimore, MD, Sherri Wilson is the Senior Manager of Family and Community Engagement at National PTA in Alexandria, VA. Contact Sherri at swilson@pta.org.

 

 

 

 

 

Engaging Families to Promote Early Literacy

Family engagement is a key factor in many child outcomes including social competence, positive child-adult relationships and academic achievement. In fact, children whose families are more involved display higher levels of literacy achievement than children whose families are less involved. Likewise, shared reading between children and parents is linked to strong academic achievement. Title I regulations recognize the importance of family engagement by providing specific guidelines that support literacy achievement. This workshop will feature research-driven practicesband resources that bond families around reading and creating meaningful connections with the public library. The session is presented by Holly Kreider, Director of Programs, Raising A Reader.

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Making The Common Core Connection! How to Avoid ‘Lowest Common Denominator’ Teaching

This session at the 2012 National Title I Conference is presented by Alan Sitomer, California’s 2007 Teacher of the Year. The coming adoption of the Common Core Standards will present a host of challenges for administrators, classroom teachers, and students. In this session, Alan Sitomer, three time Teacher of the Year and author of 16 books for both educators and young adults, will guide attendees through a proven means of 1) nailing the Common Core Standards, 2) delivering solid test scores, and 3) avoiding the de-evolution of our classroom curriculum into ‘lowest common denominator’ teaching.

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Systemic Family Engagement: Generating the Necessary Forces to Take Flight in High Poverty Schools

Understanding the mechanics of a soaring bird can seem overwhelming and even next to impossible! Yet, every day the mechanics all come together-the air flow around the wings is just right and we are privy to witness one the most beautiful events: birds soaring effortlessly. Join us on our journey of integrating Systemic Family Engagement; applying a system through partnerships that allows children to soar effortlessly in times when it seems next to impossible. We will share video from parents, liaisons and administrators, offer budget ideas, and share data regarding student achievement. This presentation at the 2012 National Title I Conference features Jenni Brasington, Maria Paredes, and Kimberly Tobey.

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