EDLD 5326 / PEDG 5388 School Community Relations Kristin Bryan ET 8030

Week 2 Assignment

Overview

You have described and analyzed two of your school’s community involvement programs, their goals, their levels of participation and various aspects that prevent and promote their success. In this week’s assignment, you will design a new, or strengthen an existing, community partnership that integrates school, family, and/or community resources to more effectively support student achievement.

As you brainstorm the development of your partnership, consider the following questions:

·  What will the partnership accomplish?

·  Who are the partnership’s stakeholders?

·  What broad and specific goals do you hope the partnership will achieve?

·  What community resources will contribute to this partnership?

·  How will the partnership procure the required resources/approvals?

·  Who should lead the program, and who should be involved?

·  How will information be communicated to all stakeholders?

·  What other people or organizations are already working on this issue/need?

·  How much time will it take to establish the partnership?

·  What steps must be taken to establish and launch the partnership?

·  What research supports investing time, money, and personnel in these tasks?

·  How will the proposed partnership be evaluated?

Rubric

Use the following Rubric to guide your work on the Week 2 Assignment.

Tasks
ê / Accomplished
15
The evidence suggests that this work is a “Habit of Mind.” The educator is ready to mentor others in this area. / Proficient
12
The evidence suggests that performance on this work matches that of a strong educator. / Needs Improvement
9
The evidence does not yet make the case for the educator being proficient at this task.
Gathering Data / Student clearly identifies data that supports the need for the proposed family-school-community partnership. / Student cites school data, some of which supports the need for the proposed family-school-community partnership. / Student provides a minimal description of student need, the proposed partnership, and /or research supporting the proposed partnership activities.
Initial Partnership Proposal / Student introduces and provides a detailed scope of the proposed family-school-community partnership, and provides a compelling, evidence-based rationale for the recommended partnership activities. / Student identifies the project and provides a general scope of the proposed partnership, and provides some evidence-based resources in support of the proposed partnership activities. / Student does not identify an appropriate project, provide a scope of the proposed partnership, and/or provide any evidence-based rationale in support of activities.
Assignment Mechanics / Responses are relevant to course content; no errors in grammar, spelling, or punctuation. / Responses are relevant to course content; few errors in grammar, spelling, or punctuation. / Responses do not reflect knowledge of course content, lack clarity and depth, and/or include multiple errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation, including APA errors.

Week 2 Assignment, Part 1: Gathering Data

To complete Part 1 of this assignment, answer the questions provided.

Current Reality: Identify a current student issue or need that interferes with academic achievement at your school. Cite data that supports the need. This could be data that relates to academic achievement, student attendance, discipline, or other sources. Look at trends of data and disaggregated data, where available.

At my school each student has been issued a laptop for the year to use at school and at home for the entire school year. We have just started our 5th year using the computers and our teachers are becoming very proficient with the computers and at teaching the students in ways in which they have never been taught before. This is a wonderful thing however, it compounds the problem of middle school dwindling parent involvement. Parent involvement typically begins to decline in middle school anyway because parents start to feel inadequate in helping their children with school work as the work begins to get more specific and more difficult. Many of our parents have little to no computer skills. When their child comes home with a highly sophisticated tool such a laptop computer the parent withdraw completely. Cole, (2002), writes, “Some parents that are trying to become active participants in their child’s education are becoming frustrated, even angry, with schools that persist in being “the experts” who know what is best for their children.” He suggests that we are going above their heads and making the parents feel unskilled to help their children at home. Parents who have little to no technical knowledge will become frustrated to not know how to help their child with homework that is on the computer. What our students need is for their parents to be trained to be able to help their child at home.
Cole, K., (2002). Encouraging Parent Involvement by student Facilitation in the
Elementary Classroom. Glen Forest Elementary, Fairfax County, VA.

Vision: How will the family-school-community partnership that you are proposing resolve the issue by meeting the demonstrated need, and how will it support student achievement?

My proposal is to start a partnership between the teachers and the parents to teach parents computer skills, specifically about our laptops and the programs we use on a daily basis. This program will increase parent efficacy and equip the parents to help their child with their school work. If parent have the knowledge and skills to operate the computers they will feel better about helping with assignments that are on the computers. This may also create a common bond of having a new skill that will bring the parent and child together on a new level. When a parent has a high level of efficacy they are much more likely to help their child to achieve higher goals in school.
The first class should be a mandatory meeting of all parents before school starts and the child is issued the laptop. At this meeting the parents could be given information about the importance of parent involvement and why it is so important for the parents to learn how to navigate through computers and the software that we use. After the parents have bought into the idea that this is a necessary benefit for them and their children, classes would be schedules once a week for the first month of school then once a month throughout the school. For many parents this would not only help them with assisting their children but it would also give them better job skills.

Week 2 Assignment, Part 2: Initial Partnership Proposal

The first step in establishing either a new family-school-community partnership, or strengthening an existing one, is to clearly articulate your idea. While your idea will probably evolve as stakeholders contribute their perspectives, you will use this assignment to solidify your initial concept.

To complete this assignment, fill out the chart.

Describe the need for the new or improved school-community partnership. Summarize the strategies/ activities you are recommending.
The need is for parent to have computer skills to be able to better help their child at home with school work. An initial mandatory meeting would occur before school starts to use as a buy-in for many parents to realize how important parent involvement is to their child’s education and to receive basic computer training, procedures and acceptable use of the computers. Classes will follow to train the parent on how to use specific software that is used at school on a daily basis and standard applications such as word, excel and outlook.
Reference the research that supports the strategies/ activities you are recommending.
Cole, K., (2002). Encouraging Parent Involvement by student Facilitation in the
Elementary Classroom. Glen Forest Elementary, Fairfax County, VA.
Healy, P. & Schilmoeller, G. (1985). Parent Attitudes Toward Computer Use by Young Children.
Research in Rural Education, Vol. 2, Nol. 4. 135 – 140.
Compose three or more measurable goals for the school-community partnership.
Educate parent on technology used at school.
Increase parent involvement by helping students with school work/homework.
Increase parent efficacy to feel comfortable to help their child and be involved in the school.
How will the school-community partnership increase student achievement?
Educating the parent about our computers and use of technology will allow the parent to feel as though they can help at home and be involved at school. Raising the level of parent involvement will increase student achievement.
Identify the school-community partnership’s stakeholders.
The parent would be the primary stakeholders because they will not only benefit by learning how to help their student but also because they are learning skill that they could use in their own jobs.
What are the steps to approval and implementation of the partnership? What are possible sources of funding?
This proposal must first be submitted to the CBIP committee for revisions and approval. Then a leadership team must be formed to lead and carry out the training classes for the parents. Scheduling must be done through the school secretary so that building uses are not conflicting. Standards and curriculum must be written for the classes. Parent can sign up for classes. Then equipment must be gathered and set up for each class.
Funding could possibly come from community technology partners such as Hewett Packard, and Microsoft.
What resources are required for the partnership?
Resources for this partnership would be money to compensate 3 to 5 teachers as trainers for each class. $150 – 250 per class.
How will you market your school-community partnership idea?
The partnership will be communicated to the parents via the school website and letters home to the parents of all the children enrolled in the coming school year. A back to school meeting will be held to tell the parents about the basics of the computers and how to set up their parent connection account. During that meeting further information will be given about the up-coming technology classes.
How will you evaluate your partnership’s outcomes?
The program will be evaluated by the number of participants in the program and follow up surveys given at the end of each class as well as a survey at the end of the year.