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

Family and Community Involvement: Parents should be involved in their children's education in school, at home, and in the community.

Recognizing that employees' schedules can make it difficult to keep in contact with their children during the school day, Hewlett-Packard has teamed up with the Santa Rosa City (California) School District to establish the first work-site public school on the West Coast. One of over 30 such "satellite learning centers" in the United States, the Hidden Valley Satellite School is an elementary school located on the grounds of Hewlett-Packard's plant. More than 75 percent of the students' parents are company employees. Parents are able to visit and eat lunch with their children as well as volunteer during the school day. Employee turnover at Hewlett-Packard is at least 50 percent lower for workers with children enrolled in the school than those whose children are not. Teachers also report much higher levels of family involvement than they have seen at other schools -- especially among fathers -- student attendance is high, and student reading scores are about 43 percent higher than those of other local public school kids.

Benefits

• Business: Increases employee productivity and retention by decreasing parental concerns about children due to proximity of school

• School: Improves student achievement through increased parent involvement

• Teacher: Expands familiarity with students' parents and improves student learning through more family involvement

Businesses can help parents stay
more involved as children get older

Based at the Institute for Educational Leadership, Hand in Hand: Parents, Schools and Communities United for Kids has established collaboratives in eight cities across the country to implement practical activities and programs which promote parent involvement. Sponsored by the Mattel Foundation, each of the eight cities participates in "Take Our Parents to School Week" to showcase the accomplishments of each unique city and detail how parents, children, educators, businesses, and community members interact in new ways to promote parent involvement. The Mattel Company also has an employee leave program which offers each employee 16 hours per year of paid leave for educational involvement.

Benefits

• Business: Jumpstarts local partnership-building efforts to connect families and schools to improve local education systems that graduate young people prepared for college and careers.

• School: Participates in active local consortia bringing together a multitude of resources around school improvement for a systemic partnership.

• Teacher: Receives benefits of more involved corporate employees, parents, and community members.

"[We pledge] to adopt policies to support parental involvement in their children's education and in improving their local schools."

-- Resolution of CEOs at 1996 National Education Summit, Palisades, New York

[Technology]

[Critical Points to Remember]

This page was last updated January 3, 2002 (jca)