A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n
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WAYS FOR SCHOOLS TO INVOLVE FAMILIES AND THE COMMUNITY IN CHILDREN'S LEARNING
"Parents are partners in their children's success at school and in life. Children with concerned parents learn more quickly, enjoy school more and achieve more than children who lack that support and care."
Joan Dykstra
President, National PTA
Schools in community after community are aggressively working to meet the challenges in and around them. They are reaching out to families, businesses, colleges and the community and using effective innovations to meet these challenges. Listed below are examples of how schools can and are addressing the seven action areas Americans have defined as important.
Make Schools Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free:
A Precondition for Learning
Encourage Parent and Family Involvement
Help America Become a Reading, Literate Society
Reach for New Levels of Excellence:
Achieve High Standards and Real Accountability
Make Technology Available so All Children
Will Succeed in the 21st Century
Prepare Young People for Careers:
A Strong Transition From School to Work
Make College More Accessible:
Keep the Promise of the American Dream
MAKE SCHOOLS SAFE, DISCIPLINED AND DRUG-FREE: A PRECONDITION FOR LEARNING
- Work with families, community members, and law enforcement to take aggressive actions, when necessary, to ensure an orderly and safe environment. Some schools are adopting the use of uniforms to encourage school spirit and stem assaults over expensive clothing or gang apparel. Others are training their staff to prevent violence through family and community engagement and conflict resolution. Still others are bringing diverse student populations together through participation in the arts and teaching character education and citizenship.
- Set standards of behavior and clear expectations for children and students. Talk about how school rules support the rights of all students to attend schools that are free of violence and substance abuse. Respond clearly and consistently to people who are intoxicated, abusive, aggressive, or hostile. Develop an honor code for behavior in school. Make sure all families have a copy of the school's discipline code and urge them to read it.
- Help plan and participate in school and community alcohol-and drug-free activities, including weekend dances and social events, holiday celebrations, proms, and graduation parties. Work with community organizations and youth groups to sponsor after-school and summer learning activities, sports and cultural events.
School Uniform Policy, Long Beach, California In 1994, the Long Beach, California, School District implemented a mandatory school uniform policy for nearly 60,000 elementary and middle school students. District officials found that in the year following implementation of the policy, overall crime decreased 36 percent, fights decreased 51 percent, sex offenses decreased 74 percent, weapons offenses decreased 50 percent, assault and battery offenses decreased 34 percent, and vandalism decreased 18 percent.
"Kid Peace"
Justin Taylor, Parkersburgh, PA
ENCOURAGE PARENT AND FAMILY INVOLVEMENT
- Be family-friendly! Review school policies, newsletters, and correspondence for education jargon that parents might not readily understand. Open your doors to parents, community members and businesses as part of America Goes Back To School: Get Involved!
- Reach out to families and talk regularly before any problems happen. Use newsletters, voice mail, cable TV, home visits, and new technologies to keep parents and teachers informed of school activities of mutual interest.
- Encourage family involvement in teaching and learning the basics and raising standards. Let families know what they can do at home to help. Use interesting, real-life, community settings to stimulate learning.
Travis Middle School, McAllen, Texas Travis Middle School, a Texas and National Blue Ribbon school and a Working Mothers Magazine 1996 Golden Apple Award winner, is a predominantly low-income and Mexican-American community, with more than half of the students considered limited English proficient. Thanks to a group of dedicated teachers and parents and a lot of help from the community, such as a grant from Southwestern Bell, Travis has made great strides in improving parental involvement in the school. The Texas Education Agency for Campus Deregulation and Restructuring has helped train teachers and parents on ways they can work better with each other. Along with three elementary schools that feed into Travis, the school has formed an Alliance School Network with Valley Interfaith and St. Joseph's Catholic Church. This alliance helps schools and parents communicate better, has coordinated curriculum and helps make the transition from elementary to middle school easier for students.
"Harmony"
Mary-Hall H. Dale, Columbus, MS
HELP AMERICA BECOME A READING, LITERATE SOCIETY
- Rigorously teach reading and writing skills and the core academic subjects. Compare your reading curriculum and materials to those of the most successful schools and best state standards. Give families ideas of things they can do at home to help children become better readers.
- Encourage educators to work together to teach reading and writing across all the subjects, teach new vocabulary words and use technology to engage students in challenging reading and writing activities. Offer extended learning-time opportunities for students after school and in the summer to learn reading and other basic skills.
- Recruit and organize reading tutors from community groups. Offer a reading challenge to students to read at least 30 minutes each day or a specific number of books in one month. Sponsor a sign-up day for public library cards at the school. Join the READ*WRITE*NOW!
campaign--call 1-800-USA-LEARN.
Camp LeJeune Marine Base Elementary Turns Off the TV, Turns On to Reading The teachers and principal of Berkeley Manor Elementary School at the Camp LeJeune Marine Corps Base mail families a letter each year to encourage them to unplug the TV and turn on to family literacy:
Dear Parents, Please help us celebrate Berkeley Unplugged for National Family Reading Week. Instead of watching reruns on television or playing Nintendo, let's pull the plug and sit down and read together! In honor of National Family Reading Week there will be a display featuring our students' favorite books outside the library. In addition, Dr. Brooks and Ms. Ellen will have a list of recommended titles and authors available for interested parents. Please remember that parents may borrow books from the Berkeley Manor library throughout the school year.
We also invite you to come to school to share the joy of reading with your child. Bring an old favorite or surprise us with something new and settle down to end the school week by reading together. If you can participate, please sign the slip below and return it to your child's classroom teacher.
"Helping Hands"
Darren Hauck, Wauwatosa, WI
REACH FOR NEW LEVELS OF EXCELLENCE: ACHIEVE HIGH STANDARDS AND REAL ACCOUNTABILITY
- Work with parents, teachers, businesses and local colleges to identify the types of skills and knowledge needed by your students. Compare your standards against the best schools, your state's standards and voluntary national standards. Involve the whole community in the attempt to raise standards of promotion, graduation, and improved content in core subjects. Report on progress to the parents and community.
- Bring in employers and college personnel to give students a first hand understanding of the high-level skills and work habits needed and take small groups of students to work sites and colleges.
Developing Local Standards In Windsor, Colorado As part of its local reform plan, Windsor, Colorado, is using a Goals 2000 grant to develop standards and assessments with maximum community involvement so that teachers, administrators, parents and community members will understand and be able to implement new academic standards. In order to ensure that parents and community members were as involved in the development of academic standards as educators, the community created a standards development committee made up of parents and community representatives who worked independently to develop a set of priorities for academic standards. Teachers were then able to draw upon the work of parents and community members throughout their entire standards and implementation process. All of the district's staff and 100 community members (of this town of 6,000) participated in developing final academic standards in language arts, math, science and social studies.
"I Would Give the World Fresh Air, Puppies and Love"
Mikey Stevens, Germantown, TN
MAKE TECHNOLOGY AVAILABLE SO ALL CHILDREN WILL SUCCEED IN THE 21st CENTURY
- Allow time for technology-literate teachers to help colleagues. Invite families to visit classrooms while students are using the computers. Offer Saturday family and senior citizen computer classes taught by students and teachers.
- Set up a school-based communications network to share information about useful software for teachers, and send home ideas for family-student learning through school-to-home modem access. Set up a computer lending library so families can borrow computers and software. Ask parents who are computer literate to work with families and students who want to learn more about technology.
- Get your school, district, or state involved in NetDay96, a nationwide effort to connect all classrooms to the Internet. Modeled on the successful California NetDay, during every weekend in October volunteers from the community will help hard-wire classrooms around the country. You can become a part of this effort by contacting the following address: 2601 Mariposa St., San Francisco, CA 94110-1400, (415) 553-2311, netday@kqed.org, http://www.netday96.com/
- Build bridges with State Public Utility Commissioners to make sure schools and libraries have free access to telecommunications.
Lynndale Elementary Links School, Families, and the Community, Seattle, Washington Lynndale Elementary School takes advantage of technology to link the school to families and the community. Each staff member has an individual voice mail number. Parents may call a teacher's voice mail to learn about homework assignments and classroom events, or to leave a message for the teacher. A Parent/Staff Technology Planning Team generates ideas for networking, fund raising, software and equipment purchases, and possible home-school connections. Family Computer Lab invites parents and students to explore computers together during late afternoon or evening hours. This lab is designed to provide opportunities to families of Title I funded students or students who do not have computers at home. Volunteers assist students in developing presentations and in producing student-designed books and videos using computers, CD-ROM, and video cameras.
"Harmony"
Daniel Brouillette, Sioux City, IA
PREPARE YOUNG PEOPLE FOR CAREERS: A STRONG TRANSITION FROM SCHOOL TO WORK
- Integrate hands-on learning with rigorous academics. Join forces with employers and cultural and community organizations and discover how you can work together. Encourage teachers to do an internship with a business during the summer. Relate what you are teaching to today's and tomorrow's world of work.
- Develop and maintain ways to keep students informed about a wide range of career and educational opportunities. Link with employers and community colleges to provide student work-study opportunities and apprenticeships tied to rigorous academic and occupational skills. Assist students, including students with disabilities, in developing personalized plans to reach their goals.
Technology Unlocks the World of Learning in West Virginia Michael Smith is a first grader at T.A. Lowery Elementary School in Charles Town, West Virginia. Due to oxygen deprivation at birth, Michael is unable to sit, stand, or walk. However, with the help of assistive technology, Michael is the first child with multiple disabilities to be fully included in a regular first grade classroom in his school system. He participates with his peers in class by using an "Intellikeys" keyboard to access a personal computer, and uses an adapted chair to sit with his classmates at the reading table. According to Michael's mother, "Assistive technology has unlocked my son's intellect. It has allowed him to express himself--not only to me, but to the rest of the world. I can only imagine the possibilities for his future."
MAKE COLLEGE MORE ACCESSIBLE: KEEP THE PROMISE OF THE AMERICAN DREAM
- Offer college-prep, technical classes, and challenging course work to all students. Be sure all students and their families know about these courses in time to plan their academic programs, and build local partnerships with colleges, community colleges, universities, and businesses.
- Provide new opportunities for students and families, starting in middle school, to learn about the connection between taking rigorous academic, advanced placement and Tech Prep courses with college acceptance and career options.
Better Education Is Everybody's Business
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