|
Worcester Public Schools Family Involvement Plan PK-12
1. INTRODUCTION
The Joyce Epstein model or its equivalent has been widely adopted as a useful categorization of the various types of family involvement. The Worcester Public Schools (WPS) has chosen the Epstein model as a way of organizing and communicating the district’s efforts to involve families. A seventh type regarding professional development for educators is also included:
Type I - Parenting
Type II - Two-Way Communication Between School and Family
Type III - Volunteering in School
Type IV - Learning at Home
Type V - School Decision-Making
Type VI - Collaboration with the Community for Resource Utilization
The recently issued Massachusetts Department of Education model adds:
Type VII-Educator and Staff Development in Parent, Family and Community Involvement
The purpose of “increasing and sustaining family involvement” is improved student development and academic achievement. Family involvement is not an end in itself. While all seven types of involvement are crucial to Worcester Public Schools goals, Type I, Parenting and Type IV, Learning at Home must be emphasized. Research shows these to be the most important. But improvements in these require attention to all the other types. Further, the reality of hectic family lives and work schedules is such that many family members cannot be involved during the day at their children’s school. Schools must be prepared to accept the level of family involvement that each family is capable of providing and build from there.
The word “family” rather than “parent” is used throughout the report because most researchers and consultants in the field urge emphasis on all members of the family that may support a student’s development and education.
This plan is based on 20 years of research demonstrating that, when families are involved in their children’s learning, children perform better in school. This research has shown that the effects of family involvement are potent throughout children’s school years. While families are clearly more involved in their children’s school experience when the children are young, research supports the importance of family involvement during the middle school and high school years.
The Worcester Public Schools Family Involvement Plan is based on:
- Review of a wide array of publications and websites. These documents attest to the fact that schools can be effective in instituting family involvement policies and practices not only at the elementary school level, but also at the secondary levels.
- Personal experience and observation and on what those on the “front lines” - educators and family members - have conveyed about their experiences in involving families, including interviews with the principals of all Worcester Public Schools and suggestions received from participants in a half-day district-wide family involvement workshop held January 9, 2001.
It is important to note that this plan is intended to complement, not replace, the programs now in place.
Expanding family involvement in children’s education is not an easy process. Schools must be aware of impediments to family involvement. A chart in the Family Involvement Toolkit lists nine Roadblocks to Parent Involvement that make FI difficult for many of the families who are the clients of our schools. These roadblocks are virtually identical to those identified through contacts with families and educators in Worcester. They are:
- Lack of time. Feeling they have nothing to contribute. Not understanding the system.
- Lack of child care. Language and cultural differences. Feeling intimidated.
- Lack of transportation. Scheduling conflicts/difficulties. Not feeling welcome.
Overcoming these obstacles requires time and resources well beyond what is currently available. Only with full backing and participation from all of the constituents involved will goals for family involvement be realized.
2. GOALS
(statements of conditions that would exist if 100% successful)
Type I - Parenting, defined as:
- Providing basic physical needs - health, safety, nutrition, clothing, and housing.
- Providing developmental needs - discipline, guidance, character development, resiliency.
- Instilling and reinforcing their student’s belief that education is important.
Goal for Type I
1) All Worcester families understand, accept responsibility for, and strive to provide basic physical and developmental needs.
(Effective parenting can be very difficult for some families living in poverty. We view it as beyond the scope of our schools to speak to economic justice issues such as living wages, jobs without benefits, housing cost inflation, etc. Perhaps Worcester Public Schools can help people to help themselves by developing resiliency for families as well as students and by avoiding perpetuating or generating dependency.)
Type II, Family/School Communication, defined as:
- Effective written, communications; personal contacts including outreach; welcoming climate
Parents treated as equal partners in the educational process
Goal for Type II
2) As a result of school and community outreach and communications, family members believe that they are respected partners in the educational process, understand and accept responsibility for their part in the process, and feel competent and confident about working with the school. Cultural, language and other roadblocks are overcome.
3) There is one-on-one, non-confrontational family communication with at least one school staff member with the appropriate balance between good and bad news. Families know who that contact person is and how to get in touch with them.
4) All schools and all staff provide a welcoming environment and view students and family members as respected clients for their services.
Type III – Volunteering in Schools, defined as:
Recruit and organize parent help and support.
Goal for Type III
5) Schools utilize families in a variety of school activities both in and outside the cla ssroom, based on good information as to each family’s interests and “fund of knowledge” and effective outreach.
Type IV - Learning at Home, defined as
Guiding families to monitor, assist, interact on study habits and other learning activities. The family role is not to “teach” subjects but to encourage, listen, react, praise, guide, discuss work.
Goal for Type IV
6) Each family has a set of skills to help their student’s learning. Families emphasize the importance of education and monitor, assist and interact on study habits and other learning activities. Families recognize that the family role is not to teach subjects but to encourage, listen, react, praise, guide.
Type V – School Decision Making, defined as
Including parents in school decisions, developing parent leaders and representatives. Ensure participatory roles in PTOs, school councils, other committees
Goals for Type V
7) Many family members, reflecting the diversity of the student body, are involved in meaningful ways in the governance of the school
8) School site councils are an important component of planning and facilitating family involvement. Family representatives reflect the diversity of the student body.
Type VI – Community Resource Utilization, defined as
Identifying and integrating resources and services from the community to strengthen school
programs, family practices and student learning and development.
Goal for Type VI
9) Schools have knowledge about resources available to families in the community
and draw on or refer families to community resources to meet family needs.
Type VII – Professional Development, defined as
Educator and staff development in family and community involvement
Goal for Type VII
10) School leadership, instructional and non-instructional staff fully recognize the need for family involvement as a key to educational achievement. All school personnel have the knowledge and interpersonal skills to meaningfully involve families in the educational process, including interacting with traditionally hard-to-reach families in culturally appropriate ways that recognize the level of readiness of the family members.
3. GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Before going into specific strategies and recommended practices that will make the goals a reality, it is important to suggest some guiding principles for implementing the goals.
1) School Committee Family Involvement Resolution.
The entire school and the community in general must get behind and support the family involvement agenda. Thus, we suggest that the School Committee adopt a “Family Involvement Resolution” similar to that of the Chicago Public School Board of Trustees, adopted on 9/24/97. Such a resolution would reinforce existing School Committee orders and the family involvement goal in the WPS GOALS 2000-2001 strategic plan, which states under Strategic Goal IV,
“To increase the number of families who are actively involved in their children’s education.”
2) Coordination at the District Level. We suggest that the WPS Central Administration maintain a district wide coordinator for family involvement with a family involvement committee to provide for information exchange among schools, seek and share information about successful practices nationwide and maintain an information center and web page.
3) Coordination at the School Level. We suggest that each school designate a family involvement coordinator, reporting to the principal, who will help to organize the school’s family involvement efforts
4) School Action Teams for Family Involvement.
An outside body such as our Family Involvement Committee should not dictate the way in which individual schools meet the goals outlined above. Every school is unique and therefore must determine the particular needs of its families and school personnel. Therefore, we suggest that each school establish a Family Involvement Action Team to develop and implement, with assistance from appropriate community organizations, to develop and implement an Action Plan. The Action Plan should define an array of strategies and actions to build on present practices and move the school towards the ten goals. The Action Teams should monitor implementation and review and revise the Action Plan at least annually. Teams should include several family members. The Action Plan should be integrated with the School Improvement Plan. A model for Family Involvement Action Teams is described in the Joyce Epstein article suggested as a resource in Principle 5, Information Resources.
5) Information Resources
Schools need information resources to establish effect Action Teams and to, more generally, meet goals. From a large array of publications, the Family Involvement Committee has selected four that we recommend be provided to each school’s Family Involvement Action Team:
Family Involvement Toolkit, 5/00, Center for Youth Development and Learning; 165 pages
Family and Community Involvement Guide,11/00, Massachusetts DOE; 19 pages
Building Partnerships, 2000, National PTA; 237 pages
School/Family/Community Partnerships, 5/95, Joyce Epstein in Phi Delta Kappan, 12 pages
6) Cultural and Ethnic Sensitivity
Action plans for each school must be tailored for each of that school’s major ethnic groups, based on available demographic data and understanding of ethnic/cultural norms, and must deal adequately with limited English language capabilities. Ongoing professional development should be provided to assist this process, with family members included in some of the workshops.
7) Information Technology Utilization
New technologies will be necessary to meet family involvement goals in the current climate. These include schools’ use of voice mail and e-mail and updated web information on community resources, parenting and other issues. The web offers a vast amount of information from organizations that facilitate family involvement and about the programs of other school districts. However, more traditional methods for communication must be retained since many families will not possess the technology necessary for these methods to be utilized.
8) Community Resource Utilization
Schools will not be able to provide for all families needs alone. There will need to be full use of community, neighborhood and faith group resources. Priority needs include outreach to hard-to-reach families and education and inspiration on parenting.
9) Employer Support.
The WPS will need to work with employers (business, nonprofit, government) to urge that family members have some flexibility in their schedules to take meaningful roles in their children’s education. Worcester workplaces can help to inform family members as to the importance of family involvement in children’s education. Employers should be encouraged to provide facilities for information sessions for employees who are parents on family involvement. And employers should support the Worcester Public Schools “career passport” initiative to make it clear that school records are an important consideration in hiring decisions.
10) Indicators of Results
Schools need to establish benchmarks and monitor and evaluate the success of their efforts in each category. This includes the development of indicators - qualitative and quantitative - for each goal. We urge that a collaborative process be used to develop a set of indicators to be used by each school. School Action Teams may wish to develop additional indicators. The Family Involvement Committee will develop suggestions for indicators.
4. SUGGESTED STRATEGIES/PRACTICES FOR ACHIEVING GOALS
(strategies, actions needed at schools, actions needed by district)
Part 4 consists of a section for each type of family involvement with:
- a short definition of what that type involves,
- a restatement of the goals for that type
- columns for implementation strategies, actions for schools, and actions for the district
-
Part 4 should be viewed as a menu of opportunities to consider, not a rigid prescription of what is to be done. As stated under #4 of“guiding principles”, School Action Teams for Family Involvement, “Every school is unique and therefore must determine the particular needs of its families and school personnel.
View the Committee's Concept Plan
Susan Cozzolino
Co-chair, Worcester Public Schools Citywide Parent Planning Advisory Council;
co-chair, Doherty High Site Council;
Chair, Title I, Chapter I District Advisory Council
Mardi Coleman
Principal in Coleman/Ross consultants and research in youth development and education; research coordinator at UMass Medical Center
William Densmore, Family Involvement Committee co-chair
Co-founder and board member, Alliance for Education, former member Massachusetts Board of Education and retired senior vice president, Norton Company
Esperanza Donovan Pendzik
School Adjustment Counselor and Community Liaison, Doherty High School and NEA-trained facilitator for family members and educators in family involvement concepts and practices
Wendy Grolnick, PhD, Family Involvement Committee Hiatt Center representative
Clark University psychology professor and researcher in family involvement in education. Her research has included interviews with 250 Worcester parents and 50 Worcester Public Schools teachers.
George Munoz, Family Involvement Committee co-chair
Worcester Public Schools executive assistant to the superintendent and director, Parent Information Center
Margarita Perez, EdD
Worcester State College assistant professor of education and director, Latino Education Institute
Alethea Frazier Raynor, EdD
Hiatt Center adjunct professor and researcher in family involvement, former teacher and professional development consultant
Gladys Rodriguez-Parker
ss
Co-chair, Worcester Working Coalition for Latino Students; district director, office of Congressman McGovern, former executive director, Centro Las America’s
Anne Seltz
Director, Worcester Community Connections, and parent driven coalition dedicated to family support
Burt Vazquez
Worcester Public Schools quadrant manager, formerly Woodsocket PS deputy superintendent and Chelsea PS headmaster for secondary schools
Janice Weekes
Director, Worcester’s church-based Higher Education Resource Enter, one of four state-wide funded by Nellie Mae
|
Family Involvement
