Our school has done many little different activities to include and encourage parents involvment. One of the biggest and most positive is the Honor Roll ceremonies. Parents (and extened family) are invited to come celebrate students acheivements. We also tried a new idea this year of having students go roller skating to give teachers a two hour window to talk about the ciriculum etc. The Principal never wants to have half days so the roller skate field trip is an idea that was thought of. The jury is still out on this idea, some loved it and others hated it. As I told the Principal today, it's a great idea that needs a little work.
Our school also has a program to help students that are a grade level (or two) behind others. Example, in the middle school (we are K-12) we have a class of 15 that are in the 5th/6th math class but are 7th grade students. This summer the same teacher was able to help 5 students improve from a 4th grade level to a seventh grade level and they are still in her class but doing great! SHe loves what she does and what she has been able to do. They are good kids, just fell behind or lost in the system. I'm so happy they are at our school and have a new lease their self asteem. A+++
I guess I can say I have seen No Child Left Behind work.
I'll be honest I don't know much about what went on last year in our school, but i did participate in a make and take night. We now have a new principal and last night they had a night for free pizza, an explanation of the new reading curriculm, free babysitting, and make n take. We had maybe 40 people show up, out of a school of over 800 K-2 students. What does it take to get parents involved? We also elected PTO of course most positions only had 1 person running. We also have the teacher - parent problem. I have parents telling me they signed up meet the teacher night to volunteer and haven't heard a word since they got the note that she would be contacting them. I had to ask and ask my child's teacher a few times before I got the okay. Some teachers have expressed to me the parents would just come in if they really wanted to help. I think everyone is at fault somewhere.
One idea that helped (not cured) the barrier between the staff and parents is our Artist-in-Residence.
Every year, our PTO sets aside $2,000 (yes, two grand!) for an artist/scientist/?? to work for two or three whole days in our school as one of our staff. One of those nights is set aside as a family night (so the parents can see and get buy-in). The teachers are involved, because the PTO asks their permission and buy-in on the specific event.
In the past, we have had:
writer
african dance
earth balloon (excellent by the way)
Ac-Rock - rock accapella
and this year, I hear they're having a Polynesian culture experience - plants, volcanoes, trying foods from Hawai'i and polynesia. Even a dance troupe that will perform a true luau show with 5 native costume changes. (and we live in the frigid Midwest!)
This has grown every year. It's actually like a field trip that COMES to the school. The teachers didn't understand it at first, but if you get the buy-in of the teachers, and hold a family night in conjunction with the event, it will grow.
This is a difficult thing to say, but I sometimes think that the teachers and administrators would prefer that parents stay out of the way. They say the right things, but actions can speak louder than words. I recently talked to a new principal in our district, and he said that he was disappointed in the low number of parent volunteers involved in the school and that he wanted to work to change that. However, he also revealed that whenever he brought up suggestions for ways for parents to be involved, he got resistance from the teachers. He also said that he was pretty sure that parents who called the office to volunteer were being put off by the front office staff. Hopefully, his new attitude will make a difference. In the meantime, I'd be interested in others' ideas and thoughts on whether they feel welcomed and valued at their schools -- or whether they are "just in the way" or "meddling".
Depending on which parents you talk to within our school district you would probably get a wide variance in answers. Speaking for the school where my children attend-I'd probably give them a B+. As in the corporate world and just about every organization that exists, communication could be better. The teachers don't always communicate with the parents or the principal, because they think they will just handle the problem on their own. The parents don't always communicate what's going on in their children's lives because they don't think the school needs to know or they don't know who to talk to or feel comfortable with anyone in the school. Getting those doors open and the communication flowing requires putting aside some of the control issues adults unfortunately sometimes have and remembering that the school and the family HAVE to work together if the child is to receive the best education. Our school is probably better than most in that our PTO and principal work very closely to improve communication and to make the school and welcoming and comfortable place for our students and their families. We have many ways for parents to get involved and our principal strongly pushes for 100% participation in parent/teacher conferences. Last year we were at over 99%! From the PTO standpoint we are working with parents and teachers to find out what they need to help the students and what it will take to get the parents involved. We are currently working on a series of homework help seminars where parents will be able to attend sessions to learn about the curriculum and how to help with homework and just generally improving educational opportunities from home. Sometimes as parents we have to be a little pushy and let the school district know what we need and expect and there is nothing wrong with that. Administrators and teachers need to be good listeners and not be afraid to give up some of the classroom control and communicate with parents about what they need in the classroom and invite the parents to be an active part of the process. My principal frequently uses the adage-"It takes a village to raise a child." She couldn't be more correct, but we all have to be on the same page with the same goals.
Family & Community Involvement and ways to increase those levels in every aspect of education have been important issues to me for some time - and if you could see all I have on my plate with regards to that topic you would see that. I have worked hard this last year and a half to make my PTA a conductor for the school and district in communicating with families, as well as encouraging all levels of involvement. I am not sure what kinds of efforts the school would actually make if I were not sticking it in their faces all the time. (I was very shut out in the beginning, but have begun to feel more welcomed or perhaps tolerated)
I read with interest almost all of your discussions, though I don't always comment on all of them. I would like to start a thread from time to time about the different levels and means of involvement in the educational process, just to get a feel for how others view this topic and what issues within it are most important to them.
As a substitute teacher, I spend a lot of time in classrooms, teachers' lounges, and other areas where I am involved in or happen to overhear conversations about No Child Left Behind. There tends to be a lot of griping about how much of a burden this legislation has put on teachers and that they have to bear it alone.
I was almost thrown out of the building once for noting that NCLB also mandated more parental involvement in the educational process and asked when the schools and teachers would finally make parents full partners and ease some of that burden they feel.
So my question to each of you is this:
To what lengths does your school (not just your PTA/PTO) go to encourage full school-family partnerships in the educational process and how would you rate those efforts (failing, successful, mediocre, etc.)?
