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

Family Involvement: What You Can Do

There are many ways that schools, families, and local communities can work together. America Goes Back to School is a Department of Education publication that outlines seven action areas for family and community participation. Reaching All Families: Creating Family-Friendly Schools offers a more in-depth look at ways schools can reach out to communities. The seven areas are briefly described below, along with concrete examples of the kinds of things that communities are doing across the nation. For a free copy of America Goes Back to School: Get Involved! or Reaching All Families: Creating Family-Friendly Schools, call 1-800-USA-LEARN.

Secretary Riley's Seven Good Practices for Families: Inventory how the family uses its time in order to find more time so the family can learn together; Committing to high standards and setting high expectations to encourage children to reach their full potential; Limiting television viewing on a school night to no more than two hours; Reading together; Encouraging children to take academically challenging courses and scheduling daily time to ensure that homework is completed; Making sure children attend school every day; Talking directly to middle school students and teenagers about drugs, alcohol, and the values each family deems important.

A more personalized school opening -- The first few days of each school year are a special time. The value of these days could be maximized by organizing a schedule before school begins around brief teacher-parent-student meetings so that everyone gets to know each other before the first bell rings. When the teacher and student begin the first day of school, each will be acquainted with one another. The new year also provides an opportunity to start fresh with an agreement or discussion among parents, teachers, and students on learning goals. These discussions give a chance for students to see their parents and teachers working together--on their behalf--from the beginning of the school year.

School-Family Compacts -- Learning and discipline contracts outlining a parent's responsibilities are nothing new. What is new are school-family compacts, a written agreement indicating members of the school community who will share responsibility to improve student achievement. Compacts provide a new opportunity to help bring together parents, teachers, principals, and community leaders to build a local partnership to help children learn.

Every school receiving Title I funds will develop a building level compact. It will be created by individual school communities in response to their own needs. Compacts outline the goals, expectations, and shared responsibilities of schools and parents. They can stimulate discussions between teachers and parents about how to improve student performance. Every school might consider embarking on the good practice of school-family compacts. And, because community members are important partners in student success, compacts can outline the responsibilities of schools, families, students, and community members.

Principal for the Day -- There are many school systems throughout the country that bring community and business leaders into their schools by sponsoring Principal for the Day activities every year. Perhaps the largest such event is held in New York City where close to 1,000 volunteers shadow a principal for a day to experience firsthand the role of a principal managing a public school. In fact, New York City has developed an entire handbook that can walk any school system through planning, implementation, and follow-up to their event.

The benefits of bringing the community and business leaders into the school are enormous. Leaders experience firsthand the day-to-day management of the school and the caliber of students in the system, thus fostering support for schools and education. Local leaders are often much more willing to invest additional time, money or materials in the schools when they begin to develop a sense of ownership in a school. Finally, school leaders benefit from the perspective, advice, and guidance of successful business leaders.

Adopt-A-School -- The Adopt-a-School notion is not new. Community groups and businesses have been adopting schools for over a decade. But there has been a recent change in the outlook by schools and the community in understanding that educating our young people is everybody’s business. Adopt-a-School functions are moving beyond donating equipment, providing refreshments for school events, or building playgrounds -- although each of these is important in its own way -- to undertaking activities that will help children learn. For a full range of activities for families, community groups, and employers, call 1-800-USA-LEARN for the America Goes Back to School Partners' Activity Kit, 1996-97.

Netday -- Involve your school in Netday, a nationwide effort to connect all classrooms to the Internet. Modeled on the successful California Netday, volunteers in communities around the country will help hard-wire classrooms. President Clinton described California Netday as a "modern version of an old-fashioned barn raising" because of the event's many volunteers. "All of us are here today because we know, purely and simply, that every single child must have access to good software and good teachers and, yes, to the Internet," he said.

You can become a part of this effort by contacting the following address: 2601 Mariposa Street, San Francisco, CA, 94110-1400. The e-mail address is netday@kqed.org, and the web site is http://www.netday96.com. The phone number is (415) 553-2311.

Open House -- Open houses are a traditional way for schools to share information about their programs with all parents, families, and members of the community, especially during the back-to-school months. They also present a great way to welcome families and community members to the school.

Open houses work best if they are scheduled more than once a year and at times when there is low calendar conflict. For example, open houses at an elementary school should not be held on the same night as a middle school or high school in case parents have children in several grade levels. Open houses also need to be scheduled to accommodate teachers who are parents. When districts hold their open houses all on the same evening, parents with more than one child and teachers with children have a difficult time meeting with their children's teacher.

Schools need to attend to the three "Ps" to make open houses successful -- publicity, planning, and preparation. A carefully thought out publicity campaign is essential to set an expectation that all families of students will attend. Open houses must also meet the real needs of parents, by providing opportunities such as meeting the principal and sharing one-to-one communication with their child’s teachers.

Plans will need to be made to accommodate the transportation, child care, and translation needs of some parents. Finally, consider tailoring your open house around the activities found in America Goes Back to School. Call 1-800-USA-LEARN to get information about this year's America Goes Back to School Activities.

Family Information and Resource Centers -- Family Information and Resource Centers in schools can support parents as both learners and teachers. They often provide education materials, arrange training and informal meetings, and even refer parents to other community services. These centers provide a place where parents, volunteers, and school staff can come together to share ways to assist children’s at-home learning. Some centers actually run "Parent Universities" where family members can attend workshops held by community members on a range of topics. Centers try to offer a place where parents can share information in a non-threatening environment. Some schools run their volunteer programs out of the center. Others provide office space and supplies for the local PTA.

Voicemail and Interactive Telephone Technologies -- Schools are setting up interactive electronic mailbox service accessed via the telephone that allow teachers to leave daily messages for parents about the school and the night’s homework assignment. Parents or students can also leave messages for teachers about assignments. In addition to teacher mailboxes, voicemail systems allow parents to access messages from the principal, the PTA, the cafeteria, and school professionals such as counselors and curriculum specialists.

With this system in place, parents can find out about their child’s homework, upcoming PTA functions, awards dinners, school dances, lunch menus, testing schedules, or sports events in just one phone call. Messages can also be recorded in several languages so that non-English speaking parents can keep up with their children’s course work and school activities.

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[Snapshot: Communities on the Move]