A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

For communities, making education better means strengthening families and schools. Families are responsible for raising children, and parents are their children's first and most important teachers. Schools are responsible for providing children with a quality education. But these days, schools and families often can't do their job by themselves. They need each other--and they need the help of everyone in the community. Volunteer groups, clubs, service organizations and agencies, museums, religious groups, community leaders, retirees, businesses, and every caring citizen--YOU!--can lend a hand and make a big difference. That's what America Goes Back to School is all about.

We've learned that when families and community members like you get more involved in children's learning, students get better grades and test scores, are better behaved, graduate from high school at higher rates, and are more likely to go on to higher education. In all these ways, family and community involvement in education help children grow up to be productive, responsible members of the community.

There is no one way to build the team, to build a community partnership for learning. Getting together with other concerned people to work together--cooperation--is a big first step. Teamwork among families, schools, community and service groups, religious organizations, businesses, and other citizens is needed. As the saying goes, "Many hands make light work." By working together, we can achieve our goals more effectively than any of us could do alone.

The key to a successful back-to-school effort is planning the year-long activities. Here are some suggested steps:

1. Call your school and schedule a start-up meeting with your school principal and other interested volunteers. If you are interested in helping in a college, call the president's or dean's office to offer assistance.

2. Appoint a school-volunteer coordinator at your first meeting or ask your school's principal and teachers if you can work through the local school volunteer coordinator. Take an inventory of what activities are already under way that address the six issues.

3. Determine which of the six issues will be useful to work on for the school year. You may pick one or more. In fact, you may want to choose none of the six issues found in this book but may decide to pick another critical issue that concerns your schools, parents, and community.

4. Develop a planning calendar showing who will be participating in what activity and when. The school-volunteer coordinator will be responsible for keeping the calendar and sending out reminders to participating volunteers.

5. Ask the school principal if you can use your school's regular "back-to-school" activities to let parents and the community know about your efforts. Use these events to enlist additional volunteers.

6. Develop and implement your plan.

7. Meet regularly with the principal, teachers, and other volunteers to review your progress.

8. Evaluate your results. Then write to the Family Involvement Partnership for Learning in May 1996 to tell us what you've accomplished and what you've learned. This will help us all do better next year.

Your effort may follow this model or develop its own way of doing things. What matters is that your principal, teachers, families, and community are forming partnerships to improve learning. Through teamwork, we can mobilize our ingenuity, skills, and deep concern for our children's--and our community's--future.
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[The Invitation]

[Back-to-School From A to Z]