Learning Best Strategy Practices for Urban School Reform

Method Of Research and Data Sources
Parent Survey
Observation notes
Parent Interviews
Participant observation in Parent Collaborative Focus Groups
Participant Observation in Parent-U-Turn workshop at school site
Interview with Community Liaison
Research Questions
1) What current are current condition exist around school in urban school reform?
2) What are parents responses to these current conditions?

Content for Slides
Strategies for enhancing communication with family and community

Communication
Ongoing, two-way communication between school staff and parents on school programs, and student progress and needs is effective and timely.

• Culturally and linguistically appropriate
• Parent-friendly
• Using a variety of communication vehicles
• About student progress and needs, school events, policies, procedures, personnel, etc.

Communication: Best Practices
• Culturally/Linguistically
o Schools provide quality (school staff or approved outside translators) and adequate oral and written translations according to their school population and their needs per the Education Code.

• Parent-friendly
o A diverse parent committee works with school administration to develop and implement parent-friendly communications systems which consider issues including the best date/time/place for meetings, adequate timing for parent notifications, and the distribution of a school calendar.

• Direct communication between school staff and parents consistently use a variety of communication vehicles including U.S. mail, face-to-face meetings, parent hotline, phone calls, emails, text messaging, bulletins, flyers, auto-dialers, school marquee, the Internet.

• About…..
o At least once a month, parents are informed about their student’s academic progress and appropriate interventions for improvement.

o Parents are informed about and understand the roles and responsibilities of all school staff, and are equipped with their contact information so that parents/students can effectively navigate the school system.

o Parents are informed and understand about the grievance/complaint process and the chain of command at the school and the school district.

o Parents are informed in a timely manner about school and parent meetings, events, policies, and proposed policy changes.

Strategies for encouraging positive parent engagement

Relationship building
School staff maintains a welcoming environment for all parents, and develop and maintain personal, productive relationships with all parents.
• Respectful, open and transparent
• Nondiscriminatory
• Collaborative with all stakeholders with equal voices
Relationship building: Best Practices
• Respectful, open and transparent
o Parents are respected and valued by school staff as evidenced by parent/teacher interactions, parent participation, parent surveys, school environment and culture.

o All school personnel, local service providers and parents have received training on how to interact and effectively work with each other. This includes training on cultural and linguistic competency.

o Relationships between school staff and families are based on openness and transparency as foundations for principles of engagement.

• Non-discriminatory
o Schools make deliberate efforts to engage parents who are the most disenfranchised (based on ethnicity, language, immigration status, socio-economic level, accent, gender, employment or education status)

• Collaborative with all stakeholders
o Schools continuously collaborate with a wide range of community services and organizations to ensure families receive special services to meet their students’ needs.

o Schools maintain parent centers or family resource centers that can provide parents with a wide range of community resources to ensure that they are able to meet their families’ needs.

Strategies for increasing the number of parents in Decision Roles:

Decision-making
Authentic parent and community involvement is evident in school decision-making structures (councils, committees).
• Restructure and create structures where authentic parent engagement is vital.
• Community ownership of the school
• Equip parents
• Openness and transparency in decision-making
• Expand parent involvement opportunities

Decision-Making: Best Practices:
• Structures: School decision-making structures have vital, authentic parent engagement that is deliberate, required, encouraged, and expected.
o These structures truly represent all parents and their meetings are open to all parents. Interpretation and written translations are provided as needed.

o The voting power of school staff/administration is balanced by that of parents.

o These structures have defined term limits for those with official voting power. These term limits are enforced.

• Community Collaboration: School encourages community ownership of the school and collaborates with all community stakeholders.

• Parent Trainings:

o School/district staff that is trained and knowledgeable provide professional learning opportunities, workshops, and easily accessible written materials to equip parents for service on school decision-making structures.

o All parents should have opportunity to know about and have information/training on school/district decision-making processes including the budget processes, parent rights and responsibilities, school reform options, and parent leadership trainings.

• Openness and transparency: Parents involved in school decision-making structures engage and mentor many other parents by reporting to all parents and other stakeholders, and seeking input through surveys, meetings, and varied other methods.

• Authentic parent engagement opportunities are available for decision-making about hiring school personnel.

Accountability: Parents utilize input from parent report cards and surveys to evaluate and determine if authentic parent engagement is occurring.

Strategies for increasing safety for school

Safety
School staff maintains a safe and clean learning environment for all students, parents, and staff.
School Safety: Best Practices
• Adequate Supervision
o Schools provide safe passage to school as well as adequate adult, trained supervision of the school campus especially in specific locations like bathrooms, hallways, and secluded areas. Security measures are balanced with the need for parent access to the school campus.

• Resources and referrals
o Parents must be informed and understand the school’s safety plan which includes information on natural disasters, school lock-downs, and individual incidents of harassment/violence/crime.

• Training
o All school staff are adequately trained on security issues for the school and specifically secluded areas that are prone to criminal/sexual/deviant and high risk activities.

• Partnerships with the community
o Schools actively involve parents and community to develop and implement safe passage plans.

o School safety are revisited annually and improvements made according to school circumstances/incidences. Parents and the community are involved in monitoring school safety and collectively proposing solutions to problems.

• Informed school community
o School staff timely updates school community especially parents about safety incidents and events.

o School has communication systems like hotlines, school marquees, auto-dialers to timely inform parents about emergency/crisis situations.

Strategies to Improve students Success

Supporting Student Success
School staff maximizes parent learning and learning opportunities to support student success.
• Full disclosure of school programs and services
• Assessments of school programs and services
• Trainings
• Parent notification
• Culturally and linguistically competence
Supporting Student Success
School staff maximizes parent learning and learning opportunities to support student success.
• School Programs and Services: Best Practices

o Staff from school programs (district, school or nonprofit run) share detailed information about their programs/services and expected student outcomes to all staff, parents and students. All stakeholders know about and understand the programs/services offered to their school community.

o School staff develops an assessment team that includes parents and students that inventories all school programs and services at least annually.

o The assessment team periodically assesses each program based on multiple measures including participation levels, participant surveys, students’ progress and whether their needs are addressed.

o The assessment team makes the assessment results public in parent-friendly language.

o Based on the assessment results, the team develops improvement plans with specific benchmarks.

• Trainings for stakeholders: Designated, knowledgeable school staff (counselors, teachers) offer parent trainings on:

o how to maintain a home learning environment that supports student academic success including topics like the academic standards and the student curriculum;
o how to understand and interpret student report cards, standardized tests and other assessments, the School Accountability Report Card (SARC), and evaluations
o All school stakeholders (school staff, parents, students) must be trained in culturally and linguistically competency.

• Notification to parents: School staff must give parents timely notification about student progress and develop immediate, individualized student plans with appropriate preventions/ interventions to address any problems/barriers to academic success