New Rates for High School Graduation

Volume VIII, Issue 2

March/April 2015

FEATURE

New Rates for High School Graduation

The nation’s high school graduation rate hit 81 percent in 2012-13, the highest level in the nation’s history. What is more, the gap between white students and black and Hispanic students receiving high school diplomas narrowed over that time. For more information, go to To learn more, go to

EFFECTIVE PRACTICES

Springfield Parent Academy

The Springfield Parent Academy’s mission is to get parents involved in their children’s education and academic success. The project represents the most basic kind of adult education – giving parents knowledge and skills to help their children thrive in the classroom. Parents were surveyed as to what they needed and wanted to learn and from the survey results, a course curriculum was designed. The Springfield Parent Academy provides opportunities for parents, grandparents and other caregivers to teach and learn from other each other.These capacity-building opportunities are also open to staff from education and health-care organizations, as well as, business professionals and civic leaders. To learn more, visit

Supporting Boys of Color

The Office of African American Male Achievement work to prevent the endemic failure of African American male students in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). OUSD is the first district in the United States to create a department that specifically addresses the needs of African American male students. The Office of African American Male Achievement is leveraging community partnerships, researching and implementing best instructional practices, and paving the way for reforms that will affect school systems for generations. To learn more about the program, visit For more information contact Christopher P. Chatmon, Executive Director, at 510-287-8313 or .

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Graduate! A Community Guide to College Access and Completion

The Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Education has created a college access and completion guide for community leaders, entitled “Graduate! A Community Guide to College Access and Completion.” For more information and to view the guide, go to: For any questions or follow-up, contact the Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships directly at 202-453-6340.

Announcing Free Software for Developing School Emergency Operations Plans (EOPs)

To help school administrators and emergency management personnel create or revise their Emergency Operations Plans (EOPs), the Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance (TA) Center recently released a free, web-accessible software application: EOP ASSIST. This user-friendly application walks school and district emergency management personnel through the six-step planning process for creating a customized school EOP recommended in the Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans. For more information about EOP ASSIST’s plan development features, district-level management functions, or technical specifications, read the EOP ASSIST Product Description or visit

The White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Summit

The White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) will hold a White House Summit on AAPIs May 12, 2015 in Washington, DC. The Summit, which provides a unique forum to actively engage with hundreds of AAPI leaders from across the nation, is part of a series of events to be held May 11-15 during AAPI Heritage Month in Washington, DC..

For details about the summit in the coming weeks, visittheWhite House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Summit webpage or go towhitehouse.gov/aapi. For further questions email subscribe to the AAPI newsletter and receive updates, click here.

2015 National Family and Community Engagement Conference

The Institute for Educational Leadership will hold the2015 National Family and Community Engagement Conferenceon June 22-24at The Palmer Housein Chicago, Illinois. For more information and to register, go to contactJanet Brown, Assistant Project Director, Family/Community Engagement, Early Childhood Education at .

RESOURCES

NBC News Education Nation Launches New Parent Poll

NBC News Education Nation recently launched a new poll for and about parents. The poll provides insight into today’s parents and offers a compelling narrative about America’s families. Example of poll results:

-79% of parents say their family has dinner at home most nights during the week.

-Over half of parents say they spend more time with their children than their own parents did with them.

-75% of parents describe their child’s education as “good” or “excellent.”

To learn more about the new study and view results, visit ParentToolkit.com/poll. (Available also in Spanish, click here)

In addition to launching the poll, NBC News Education Nation also unveiled their first series of original Parent Toolkit videos. All of the pieces in the series are available in both English and Spanish. Two more videos are expected to be released soon.

TIP OF THE MONTH

Read to your child daily

• If a child reads, or is read to, for 20 minutes every day, they are exposed to about 1.8 million words of text every year. That is 137 new words per minute! Read to your child and/or encourage your child to read every day. Let them see you reading daily.
• If families read together for 20 minutes a day, 7 days a week, they get more than 121 hours of bonding time every year!
• For every year you read with your child, average lifetime earnings increase by $50,000. You make a $250,000 gift to your child from birth to age five by reading aloud, just 20 minutes a day!

Family Engagement Outreach Team

The Office of Communications and Outreach contacts work with state and local education agencies to empower parents with the information to help them be full partners in the education and academic progress of their children.

Olga Pirela

Region I

(CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT)

POCH Building

5 Post Office Square

9th Floor, Room 24

Boston, MA 02110

617-289-0100

Jacquelyn Pitta

Region II

(NJ, NY, PR, VI)

Financial Square

32 Old Slip, 25th Floor

New York, NY 10005

646-428-3906

Elizabeth Williamson

Region III

(DC, DE, MD, PA, VA, WV)

100 Penn Square East

Suite 513

Philadelphia, PA 19107

215-656-6015

Jonava Johnson

Region IV

(AL, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC, SC, TN)

61 Forsyth St. S.W.,

Suite 18T15

Atlanta, GA 30303

Shirley Jones

Region V

(IL, IN, MI, MN, OH, WI)

500 W. Madison St.,

Suite 1427

Chicago, IL 60661

312-730-1706

Elaine Venard

Region VII

(IA< KS< MO< NE)

8930 Ward Parkway, Suite 2043

Kansas City, MO 64114-3302

816-268-0404

Jeanne Ackerson

Region VII

(IA< KS< MO< NE)

8930 Ward Parkway, Suite 2043

Kansas City, MO 64114-3302

816-268-0401

Diana Huffman

Region VIII

(CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, WY)

1244 Speer Blvd. Suite 615

Denver, CO 80204-3582

303-844-3544

Helen Littlejohn

Region VIII

(CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, WY)

1244 Speer Blvd. Suite 615

Denver, CO 80204-3582

303-844-3546

Tayyaba Shafique,

Region IX

(AZ, CA, HI, NV, AS, GU, CNMI)

50 Beale Street

Room 9700

San Francisco, CA 94105

415-486-5376

Linda Pauley

Region X

(WA, OR, ID, AK)

915 Second Ave., Room 3362

Seattle, WA 98174

206-607-1655

Carrie Jasper

Headquarters

400 Maryland Avenue S.W.

Room 5E310

Washington D.C. 20202

202-401-1524

404-974-9450

Engaging Families

With a new name, Family, School and Community Engagement, and new look, the newsletterwill now be issued monthlystarting in May. 

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Contributors: Vicki Myers, Laurie Calvert, Madeline Sullivan, Christopher P. Chatmon, Jamie Farnsworth, Patricia A. Spradley and Anna Leach.

Family, School, and Community Engagement is edited by Carrie Jasper and designed by Barbara Julius of the U.S. Department of Education.

To subscribe, unsubscribe or comment on this newsletter, please contact .

Touching Base can be found online at

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Note: This document contains information about and from public and private entities and organizations for the reader’s information. Inclusion does not constitute an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education of any entity or organization or the products or services offered or views expressed. This publication also contains hyperlinks and URLs created and maintained by outside organizations. They are provided for the reader’s convenience; however, the Department is not responsible for the accuracy of this information.