Best Practices for Parent Involvement
Source: National PTA
Engaging Families at Fishkill Elementary
The Challenge
Fishkill Elementary is a school of nearly 500 students in New York’s Hudson Valley, approximately 90 miles north of New York City. It serves a diverse community in which many of the parents commute to full-time jobs or take care of younger children at home, making involvement in the school difficult.
The Action
To make volunteer opportunities more accessible and more appealing, and thus increasing parent involvement in the school, the Fishkill School Leadership Team decided to initiate PTA Three for Me. The principal introduced the program at Parents as Partners Night at the start of the school year. Teachers wore “Ask Me About Three for Me” badges, used in-class introductions to invite parents to complete Three for Me promise cards, and explained how parents could volunteer on committees, at events, in the classroom, or even from home. Throughout the year, the PTA newsletter featured volunteer opportunities, while the program’s coordinator regularly distributed program reminders, progress reports, and volunteer stories.
The Impact
Three for Me was a catalyst for parent involvement. Seventy percent of the school’s families now complete at least three hours of volunteer work during the year, with a significant number continuing to volunteer beyond their original commitment. The school has developed a more welcoming climate and a culture of volunteering, thanks to this growing network of parent volunteers. Parents who previously just crossed paths when picking up their children now have relationships with each other through their volunteering efforts, and everyone is invested in the common goal of supporting every child’s school success.
Resources
Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family-School Partnerships, by Anne T. Henderson, Karen L. Mapp, Vivian R. Johnson, and Don Davies (New York: The New Press, 2007), examines, among other things, how to know whether your school is really open to partnerships (chapter 3) and how to develop trusting relationships (chapter 4). Chapter 4 ends with a checklist for determining how family-friendly your school is.
Building Relationships for Student Success: School-Family-Community Partnerships and Student Achievement in the Northwest, by Diane Dorfman and Amy Fisher (Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2002), is a booklet of key research and of promising practices in schools with high poverty rates and large minority populations, including schools on Indian reservations.
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) provides resources for developing relationships, including Ideas and Tools for Working with Parents and Families.
Including Every Parent (2003), an instructional guide developed by parents and teachers at the Patrick O’Hearn Elementary School in Boston and the Project for School Innovation, explores specific practices critical to engaging and empowering parents at school.
National Fatherhood Initiative offers programs, workshops, publications, and other materials to encourage men to be involved, responsible, and committed fathers. NFI is a founding member of PTA's MORE alliance, which is dedicated to encouraging male involvement and prsentingoportunities to get men involved.
Tellin’ Stories, the parent organizing program of Teaching for Change, uses the power of story to connect people from diverse backgrounds.
http://www.pta.org/2770.htm
http://www.pta.org/Standard_1_Resources.doc
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